ESA: First Gigabit connection between aircraft and geostationary satellite

The European Space Agency ESA and several partners have succeeded for the first time in establishing a broadband connection to a geostationary satellite via laser, over which 2.6 gigabits per second were exchanged for several minutes. This was announced by ESA, which explained that the research aircraft was flying over the French city of Nîmes and the satellite Alphasat TDP-1 was 36,000 km away. The fact that such a reliable data connection could be established despite the aircraft's rapid movement and interference from clouds and the atmosphere was a major challenge. The work now paves the way for a future in which it will be possible to surf the internet reliably at high speed, not just on aircraft.

Internet connections via satellite are no longer a rarity; the US space company SpaceX, in particular, has made the technology available to the general public with Starlink. However, the satellites for this orbit only a few hundred kilometers above the Earth, which is why a very large number of them are needed for the network. At the same time, communication between the end devices and the internet satellites works via radio waves. Laser connections scatter much less and can transmit much more data, explains ESA now. At the same time, geostationary satellites are so far from Earth that one can be seen from a large part of the surface. The main disadvantage remains the significantly greater distance, which causes a longer signal transit time.

The research flight is now a milestone in the development of secure laser communication, says Kees Buijsrogge from the Dutch research organization TNO, which was involved in the development. Especially for secure data connections, laser technology offers great advantages because the signals can be sent much more directly, the participants further explain. Therefore, they point out that the technology is likely to become important for the military, but they also explicitly see commercial applications. In addition to aircraft, ships, or vehicles in remote regions could also be supplied with high-speed internet connections, they say.

(mho)