ESA - Telecom

Telecommunications

• ESA-supported mobile telecom system receives top engineering award
  A satellite-based mobile communication system developed by Inmarsat with ESA support has been awarded Britain’s top prize for engineering innovation. The judges noted how well the BGAN system served relief teams responding to the Haiti earthquake.
  
  
• Hylas on schedule for launch
  The completion of important tests on the Hylas telecommunications satellite has brought it a step closer to launch late this year. Once the final tests are completed, Hylas will be ready to be shipped to Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana in August.
  
  
• Iris: satellite communications for busier, safer skies
  ESA’s Iris Programme is developing a satellite-based air-ground communication system for air traffic management (ATM) as part of the Single European Sky initiative to support aviation growth. More than 100 representatives of the ATM community, telecommunications and space industries recently met in Prague to exchange information now that the development phase is fully under way.
  
  
• Alphasat backed by European Investment Bank
  The Alphasat telecommunications satellite, a joint project by ESA, the French space agency CNES and Inmarsat, has received up to €225 million of finance from the EU’s Risk-sharing Finance Facility through an agreement signed on 22 April in Brussels.
  
  
• ESA Redu ground station contract extended
  ESA has renewed the contract to operate and develop its Redu ground station in Belgium. The centre is responsible for controlling and testing a range of satellites as part of the Agency’s network of stations.
  
  
• Revision of DVB-RCS Standard Initiated
  The DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) Project has initiated a major revision of the DVB - Return Channel Satellite (DVB-RCS) standard.
  
  
• ESA telecommunications video
  
  
  
  
• eTraining via satellite in support of African electoral cycles begins in Congo
  The pilot operational phase of SatElections, an innovative project for the production and delivery of eLearning modules on Effective Electoral Assistance and Electoral Administration via satellite, was launched on 18 November 2008 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
  
  
• Small GEO Programme moves forward with contract-signing
  ESA PR 45-2008. Today, ESA has signed the Small GEO Platform and Small GEO Mission contracts with the respective industrial primes, namely: OHB- System AG (Germany) and Hispasat S.A. (Spain).