The European Union (EU), European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus Defence and Space (ADS) have reached a multi-year agreement for the funding and management of the European Data Relay System (EDRS).
EU, ESA and Airbus Defence and Space reach agreement on EDRS
The European Union (EU), European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus Defence and Space (ADS) have reached a multi-year agreement for the funding and management of the European Data Relay System (EDRS).
“It was a very complicated series of agreements that evolved every two or three days, but all the problems are now solved and the agreement is signed,” said Reinhard Schulte-Braucks, head of infrastructure for the EU’s Copernicus program.
Copernicus is the EU’s seven-year, 4.3 billion euros environment-monitoring program that includes a series of satellites called Sentinels, designed to fly as pairs.
Two of the satellites will carry laser terminals that will relay terabytes of radar and optical data to at least two satellites in geostationary orbit.
The laser terminals were built by Tesat Spacecom of Backnang, Germany.
ADS is seeking additional customers for the data as well as a third geostationary orbiting telecommunications satellite over the Pacific Ocean to expand the Copernicus reach.
Telecommunications satellites owned by Eutelsat of Paris and Avanti of London will provide geostationary nodes for the system.
The long-term viability of the program may depend on how much demand exists for data available from the Sentinel satellites, according to Schulte-Braucks.
The EDRS project will be overseen by a joint ESA, EU Commission and ADS steering committee.
“We wanted to be involved in the management of the system,” said Schulte-Braucks.
