For planet earth and beyond
15 September 2015 – ESA and Thales Alenia Space have signed a contract for the full development and qualification of a new line of satellite platforms called Spacebus Neo. The agreement marks the next phase of the ARTES 14 Neosat programme.
10 September 2015 – Satellite operators and service providers are enthusiastic about a novel solution for mitigating interference from VSAT terminals that was developed with the support of ESA under ARTES 5.2.
8 September 2015 – Global Invacom and satellite operator Avanti, with the support of ESA under ARTES 5.2, and Microsoft, are presenting an innovative end-to-end solution at IBC 2015 that delivers satellite broadcast TV and broadband to a home environment over standard IP-enabled networks, such as Ethernet and WiFi.
26 August 2015 – ESA is making funding available to help promising European SMEs build satcom components for modular smartphones. This ARTES 5.1 ITT closes on 14 October.
11 August 2015 – ESA to give the most promising European space applications, services and technologies the chance to access a substantial new source of venture capital finance.
5 August 2015 – Having recently completed 100 communication sessions, the optical inter-satellite link between Sentinel-1A and Alphasat is delivering excellent stability and robustness under various conditions, and represents a global first.
30 July 2015 – The ESA satcoms course at Oxford, which took place on from 8 to 10 July, attracted many different kinds of professionals working in the satcom sector. Speakers included both ESA and industry market leaders, who contributed their expertise and led practical sessions.
25 July 2015 – Two new products developed by Space Engineering Group (Italy) with support from ARTES will be incorporated in Eutelsat Quantum, a new ESA-supported Public Private Partnership that will develop a new satellite platform entirely configurable in software.
10 July 2015 – Two Novel SAT-AIS receivers built by Kongsberg Seatex with support from ESA were delivered to the Norwegian Space Centre for launch on the Norsat-1 satellite in early 2016.
The signature for Quantum is signed at the flag-raising ceremony of ESA's European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT) in the UK on 9 July 2015. The contracts were signed by Magali Vaissiere, ESA Director of Telecom, Nick Daly, MD of Eutelsat UK and Colin Paynter, MD of Airbus Defence and Space UK. Speeches by Magali Vaissiere, Eutelsat CEO Michel de Rosen and Colin Paynter.