Artists impression of a secure communications satellite

Telecommunications are becoming increasingly crucial to our society, economy and security, including in support of Europe’s strategic autonomy.

In response, ESA is working to develop secure and resilient satellite communications that respond to the evolving needs of EU member states while strengthening the competitiveness of the European space industry. It is doing this work with the European Defence Agency (EDA), an EU body that promotes and facilitates integration between member states within the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy.

The agreement between the two agencies supports ESA’s ongoing work to foster resilient digital systems in space.

It will help to identify systems architectures that can respond to a wide set of user requirements in the field of secure communications. EDA will be invited to take part in ESA’s exploratory systems study to provide expertise, information, data and a channel to its user communities, who may have a stake in ESA’s study. 

Once the study results are available later this year, ESA and EDA will explore further coordinated steps towards the evolution and preparation of next-generation secure satellite communication systems, with the support of the ESA Security Office. These will ensure the seamless implementation of the ESA security framework as an enabler to secure the development of space systems.