PARIS (ESA PR) — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are planning a spacewalk to install a high-speed satellite link that will improve their connections with Europe.

The system will enable astronauts to connect at home broadband internet speeds – delivering a whole family’s worth of video streaming for communications and a data pipeline connecting the scientific experiments aboard the Station to researchers in Europe.

High-power supercapacitors – already found within terrestrial electric cars, trains, lifts and cranes – are on their way to space.

PARIS (ESA PR) — An ESA-led project with Airbus Defence and Space developed and tested a supercapacitor design able to provide brief bursts of very high power levels to space missions as required. Potential uses might include operation of high-power satellite radar systems, to stabilise overall onboard power during solar eclipses or other such events or launcher thrust vectoring.

PARIS (ESA PR) — A fully reconfigurable, software-defined, standardised satellite for the commercial telecommunications market is under development, with contributions from a new Partnership Project between satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space and ESA.

Space Inspire is a new product line for geostationary satellites that will allow customers unprecedented flexibility for video broadcasting and broadband connectivity services by reconfiguring their missions and services instantly in-orbit.

LONDON, 02 November 2020 (Inmarsat PR) — Inmarsat, the world leader in global mobile satellite communications, has been awarded a three year contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), which will co-fund the development of a new capability for governments to plan, procure, manage and monitor their satellite communications (satcoms) services from Inmarsat and other operators and service providers.

The new Inmarsat capability, called the International Virtual Satellite Operators Network (INVISON), is a secure, user centric platform. It is being supported by ESA as part of its Space Systems for Safety and Security (4S) Strategic Line, which is a new component of ESA’s programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunication Systems (ARTES), aimed at transforming R&D investment into successful commercial products and services.

• Two of the satellites have onboard a supercomputer capable of making hyper-accurate predictions for shipping to support maritime trade

SWINDON, UK (UK Space Agency PR) — Four shoebox-sized and government-backed satellites, including two supercomputers, have launched this afternoon (Monday 28 September).

The ‘nanosatellites’, which are built in Glasgow and are no larger than a microwave, have joined a fleet of nearly 100 objects in low Earth orbit that monitor shipping movements, helping predict global trade and making business more cost effective and efficient.

Like mobile phones, satellites are also getting smaller and smarter and nanosatellites are roughly the size of a shoe box. Despite their size, they can do almost everything a conventional satellite does.

PARIS (ESA PR) — A fully reconfigurable, software-defined, standardized satellite for the commercial telecommunications market is under development, as an ESA Partnership Project.  ESA has signed a contract with satellite manufacturer Airbus to develop and qualify OneSat, which will operate in a geostationary orbit. The contract was negotiated under teleworking and remote meeting conditions due to the coronavirus pandemic. The timely conclusion of the negotiations demonstrates the strong commitment of […]

PARIS (ESA PR) — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station plan to install a high-speed radio link to enable almost real-time connections with Earth.

The upgrade to the ESA Columbus laboratory will relay data from experiments on the Station back to Earth almost instantaneously.

TOULOUSE, France (ESA PR) — The Quantum satellite – Europe’s reprogrammable telecommunications satellite – built through an ESA Partnership Project with its operator Eutelsat successfully completed thermal vacuum testing on 28 September. 

The huge test chamber at Airbus’s Astrolabe facility in Toulouse took the “chameleon satellite” through its paces over the past five weeks.