ESA’s Izaña-1 laser ranging station

Perched on the slopes of Tenerife’s Mount Teide, ESA’s latest tracking station is focused on the challenge of space debris. Instead of radio waves, the IZN Laser Ranging Station relies on laser light. Its laser pulses probe hundreds of kilometres into space, making contact with items of debris as well as intact satellites, fixing their position down to a matter of centimetres. Built for ESA by German company DiGoS, this new station is operated as part of ESA’s Space Safety programme, protecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit. The station also serves as a technology testbed for new techniques in optical communication, space traffic control and laser momentum transfer, in which lasers apply enough force to nudge debris objects into new orbits, out of the way of potential collisions and out of the busiest orbital highways.