For planet earth and beyond
ESA’s Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) Forum, a not-for-profit organisation that kicked off in July 2024, has brought together over 288 global experts, stakeholders, and industry leaders to advance the development and integration of NTNs in the evolving 5G Advanced and 6G networks.
ESA is supporting the future of automotive connectivity through its “V2X (vehicle to everything – where a vehicle shares its information with other vehicles and smart systems using wireless connectivity) – services demonstration over satellite” project.
To meet growing connectivity needs, the European Space Agency’s Space for 5G/6G and Sustainable Connectivity programme line, in collaboration with the UK Space Agency (UKSA), has awarded a development contract to telecommunications company Nokia to develop and deploy a satellite-adapted Nokia RXRM Real-time eXtended Reality Multimedia solution at ESA's UK-based 5G/6G Hub.
Telecommunications equipment company, TESAT, and fibre-optic technology leader, MPB Communications, successfully demonstrated a 100 Gigabit per second (Gbps) data at 40 Watts (W) optical output power over a distance of more than 45,000 kilometres, from geostationary (GEO) to low earth orbit (LEO) in a laboratory environment.
On 24 July at the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK, ESA signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) with the Seamless Air Alliance (SAA).
With support of ESA's Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) Core Competitiveness programme funding, Dawn Aerospace and Com&Sens have partnered to develop an innovative smart Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) propellant tank for Dawn’s propulsion system. Using embedded sensors, the tanks gain additional smart features on top of the traditional high pressure propellant storage.
The Advanced Innovative Data Access Network (AIDAN) project celebrated further success as ESA Member States Delegates, industry partners and ESA came together for its evolutionary project, AIDAN Next.
LacunaSat-2B, a 3U satellite forming part of Lacuna Space's constellation, has successfully completed its three-year mission and deorbited in April 2024. The satellite was commissioned and operated by Open Cosmos under the Pioneer Partnership Project programme of ESA’s Connectivity and Secure Communications Directorate.
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Pacis 3 project took another step towards the launch pad, with the Direct Radiating Array Transmit (DRA TX) antenna and associated power supply unit and antenna control electronics recently delivered to Airbus Toulouse. These components were integrated on to the Spainsat NG1 satellite, a crucial element of the Spainsat second-generation programme for Spanish satellite operator Hisdesat.
