PARIS (ESA PR) — Engineers have connected Japan and Europe via space-enabled next-generation 5G telecommunication links. It is the first time that such an intercontinental connection has been established between Europe and Japan.

Next-generation 5G technology is poised to provide fast and high-volume data connectivity to fuel the digital transformation of society. When people and objects are travelling internationally on aircraft or ships, telecommunications satellites will play a crucial role in keeping them connected. International connectivity – for example, between a localised 5G network in a company’s head office and those in its subsidiary offices around the globe – could also use satellites for communication.

CANNES, France (Thales Alenia Space PR) — Thales Alenia Space recently kicked-off two projects related to HydRON, being funded by the European Space Agency (ESA). The two contracts will allow Thales Alenia Space, and its partners, to develop its own vision demonstrating the potential of laser-based satellite communication.

The past years have seen a quick expansion of communications infrastructures fuelled by the unprecedented rise in the volume of data streams that circle the globe. This demand is also felt in the aerospace sector, where interconnection and integrative network concepts across orbits and across the globe are key to fulfil the demands of the future.

LUXEMBOURG, 18 Jan 2022 (OHB SE PR) – OHB SE (OHB), one of Europe’s leading space companies, its subsidiary LuxSpace, a provider of space systems, applications and services, and OQ Technology (OQ), a global satellite operator, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore opportunities in the Internet-of-Things (IoT) service sector.

The cooperation between LuxSpace, OHB and OQ will include satellite-based IoT upstream and downstream activities to enhance the portfolio of services available to customers in different markets, including, but not limited to, energy, agriculture, defence and the green economy.

MASSY, France (Exotrail PR) — Exotrail signed a contract with Luxembourg-based satellite manufacturer OHB Luxspace for a co-engineering phase aiming the further integration of ExoMG™ – cluster², a configuration of Exotrail’s high thrust and flexible electric propulsion product family, into the Triton-X Heavy platform.

KOUROU, French Guiana (ESA PR) — One of the largest telecommunications satellites ever built in Europe has been launched and is on its way to geostationary orbit.

The satellite includes cutting-edge technology developed under ESA’s programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems. It will connect underserved areas and accelerate digital inclusion, as well as providing broadband connectivity for commercial shipping and aviation through its operator, SES.

• The German Space Agency in the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is committed to promoting start-ups within the framework of the European space organization ESA.
• On July 5, 2021, the German space start-up was awarded the contract to build and operate an innovative test satellite for broadband internet in very low Earth orbit.
• The test satellite “LoLaSat” (Low Latency Communication Satellite) is intended, among other things, to significantly shorten the transit times of the signals and pave the way for Internet via satellite, also for virtual reality or augmented reality and certain applications in autonomous driving.

COLOGNE (DLR PR) — Young, innovative companies are playing an increasingly important role in space travel – also in Germany. 

PARIS (ESA PR) — Valuable data is flowing rapidly from Earth observing satellites back to the planet, thanks to the most sophisticated laser communication network ever built.

Day-and-night radar images and multispectral high-resolution images of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas – as well as information for emergency services – are arriving back at Earth in almost real time.

DELFT, The Netherlands, 25 January 2021 (Dawn Aerospace PR) — IoT solutions provider Hiber has successfully launched their 3U CubeSat, Hiber Four, onboard SpaceX’s dedicated rideshare mission: Transporter-1. The satellite was equipped with a new-to-market green propulsion system from Dawn Aerospace and Hyperion Technologies.

AMSTERDAM (Netherlands Space Office PR) — Dutch space technology for laser communication will be tested on the Norwegian satellite NorSat-TD, due for launch in 2022. This partnership was stated in an agreement signed this morning by the directors of both space agencies, NSO from the Netherlands and NOSA from Norway. The signing took place in parallel at the embassies of both countries in The Hague and Oslo in the presence of both ambassadors.

The satellite payload named SmallCAT has been developed by the research institute TNO and the Delft based company Hyperion Technologies. This technology makes use of laser beams rather than radio signals to transmit valuable information from space to earth. There is great interest in this new technology because it enables satellites to transmit larger amounts of information 10 times faster and more securely.

PARIS (ESA PR) — For the first time ever, a telecommunications satellite has used an iodine propellant to change its orbit around Earth.

The small but potentially disruptive innovation could help to clear the skies of space junk, by enabling tiny satellites to self-destruct cheaply and easily at the end of their missions, by steering themselves into the atmosphere where they would burn up.