The EDA's 28th PT SATCOM meeting hosted by ESA at ESTEC

On June 30 and July 1, the European Space Agency hosted the European Defense Agency’s PT SATCOM 28th meeting at ESTEC, ESA's space technology center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

The PT SATCOM, chaired by EDA and attended by representatives of EDA Member States and other European institutions, is the framework for the  satcom experts to discuss collaborative projects within the EDA community.

One of the most important topics discussed during the meeting at ESTEC was the initiative on the future of governmental satellite communications, GovSatCom.

The main goal of the GovSatCom initiative is to provide European stakeholders with appropriate governmental satcom capabilities through an efficient, innovative and sustainable cooperative model.

One model under consideration is a public private partnership approach, applied with success in the past, which may contribute to the competitiveness of Europe by finding synergies not only between military and civil institutional actors, but also with national space agencies, Member States, and the European space industry.

On this area, the preparation of the next generation of Governmental Satellite Communications, through close cooperation between EDA, the Member States, the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA) is currently underway. and the first steps have been successfully achieved.

As part of the GovSatCom initiative, EDA has just launched a feasibility study, including the definition of user requirements, that will be complemented in close coordination by an ESA-funded ARTES 1 activity (to be issued in July 2015), studying potential architectures, system solution and technology developments needed to fulfill the future governmental communication needs.

"It is a pleasure to hold the 28th PT SATCOM meeting in ESTEC, the heart of space technology research and development of ESA", notes Gerard Lapierre, Chairman of the EDA’s PT SATCOM. "This is an excellent example of the close and fruitful working relations with the European Space Agency in key areas such as satellite communications".

"ESA and EDA have been working very efficiently, together with the European Commission, on the preparation of what may serve as a basis for the definition of the next generation of governmental communications" commented Frank Zeppenfeldt, Future Satcom Systems Engineer at ESA.

Juan Carlos Muñoz-Delgado, in charge of the secure communications area of the Telecom Technologies, Products and Systems Department added:  "This event  highlights the successful cooperation between EDA and ESA in specific areas such as governmental communications, and will allow us to further develop the security dimension of satcom in coordination with EDA and other EU stakeholders."

 

Published 03 July 2015
Last updated at 29 August 2015 - 13:13