ESA Connectivity and Secure Communications

🗞️@esa partners up with the GSMA foundry to fund up to 100 million on seamless connectivity🌐 From using AI to better transition between satellite and ground networks to supporting projects to connect phones directly to satellites, companies are invited to submit ideas🤖 #MWC26 esa.int/Applications/C…

🚨 We will be at #MWC2026 in Barcelona, 2-5 March! Come by the ESA stand in Hall 6, GSMA Pavilion to: 🤖 Experience our AI-guided 6G Laboratory-in-Orbit 🛰️ Explore 5G/6G satellites in AR 📶 Meet our 5G/6G team Some highlights from last year 👇

How do we get those stunning views from the ISS back to Earth?🌍🌌 Thanks to ColKa, partially, the Columbus Ka-band antenna installed five years ago outside @esa 's Columbus laboratory. 🛰️The data is first sent to the EDRS-A satellite before it goes back to Europe, via a ground station in the UK.

ESA Council has approved Laurent Jaffart as the Director of the newly created Resilience, Navigation and Connectivity Directorate. This new position reflects our commitment to bolstering resilience and enhancing navigation and connectivity in line with security and defence priorities. Read more about the new ESA-RNC Directorate: esa.int/Newsroom/Press…

Over 60 years ago, sci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke predicted that a medical specialist could treat someone from the distance, using satellites 🛰️ Today, this has become a reality. A dentist in the UK ran a remote dental examination to a simulated patient in Scotland, using 5G and satellite networks 🌐 esa.int/Applications/C…

Happy 10th birthday to EDRS-A🥳 Launched #OTD in 2016, our first laser relay node proved Europe can move data at incredible speed from space. Now, @esa 's HydRON is taking us to the next era: a fully optical satcom network connecting satellites across orbits, for secure and fast communications⚡🔏

Did you know...?🌐We have a new website! It will be easier for you to stay up to date, know how to benefit from funding opportunities for satellite communications' projects and learn about career opportunities. If you are not convinced yet...👇 connectivity.esa.int

Learn more about the Member States' commitments to strengthening Europe's satellite communications 👇 esa.int/Applications/C…

Smaller and cheaper satellites faster? @esa is proud to support SWISSto12 on their industrial scale-up to achieve exactly that! 🐦HummingSat, our jointly developed platform is more cost-efficient than traditional geostationary satellites, and is set to launch in 2027. swissto12.com/e73-million-fr…

Without clean radio frequency spectrum, your phone🤳, GPS 🧭, TV 📺, and satellite connectivity could get messy. @esa ’s CleanWaves aims to protect this invisible infrastructure of modern life. 📶🛡️ esa.int/Applications/C…

The groundwork for HydRON, our optical communications network, is underway! ⚡ Congratulations to Kepler Communications on their successful launch of ten optical satellites, beginning an optical data relay network that will provide resilient and real-time connectivity 🌐

2026 will be a defining year for ESA. From @Soph_astro’s εpsilon mission and the first Ariane 64 and next Galileo launches, to powering humanity’s return to the Moon, BepiColombo entering orbit around Mercury, major data releases from Gaia and Euclid, ESA’s HERA arriving at Didymos, and new climate missions like FLEX, this will be one of the most mission-dense and strategically important years in @ESA’s history. Together with our Member States and partners, we are strengthening Europe’s role in space for science, security, sustainability, and exploration. 🌍✨ Watch the replay of my 2026 DG press conference here: #msdynmkt_trackingcontext=53226211-555f-4563-9532-3153a5840100" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">esa.int/ESA_Multimedia…

Second half of 2025 was busy for air traffic management Iris technology✈️ ITA confirmed it will integrate the system in some of their aircrafts👇 esa.int/Applications/C… Boeing tested the system, including a transatlantic flight👇 esa.int/Applications/C… 🧠 Smarter flights, thanks to Iris

At the end of this year, we look back on the launch of Europe’s most advanced governmental communications system 🛰️ January 👉SpainSat NG I October 👉SpainSat NG II ESA-supported innovative antennas were featured in the two satellites. esa.int/Applications/C…

🎄This Christmas, satellites do more than enable communication… ...they keep people connected🌐 From the most remote places on Earth, space bridges distance so families can share moments that matter. Because connection shouldn’t depend on distance. Merry Christmas from our team❄️

🌍Europe’s secure communications could be enhanced by Eagle-1, set to become the first European space-based quantum key distribution system. The project recently completed its critical design review. For a more secure, autonomous and resilient Europe 🔒 esa.int/Applications/C…