UPDATE: Briefing on the European Data Relay System SpaceDataHighway replay and presentations
A special briefing on the European Data Relay System will be held on 15 January, after ESA Director General Jan Woerner’s annual meeting of the press in ESA HQ, Paris.
EDRS is a new space and ground infrastructure that provides near-realtime Big Data relay services (up to 50 Tbytes per day) using cutting-edge laser technology. It will dramatically improve access to time-critical data, aiding disaster response by emergency services and maritime surveillance, for example.
EDRS is a public–private partnership between ESA and Airbus Defence and Space. The laser terminal was developed by TESAT-Spacecom and funded by the DLR German Aerospace Center.
The first node will be launched as a hosted payload on the commercial Eutelsat-9B satellite. The launch is scheduled for 27 January, from Baikonur, using a Proton rocket.
The second EDRS node will follow in 2017 as a dedicated satellite.
Airbus Defence and Space will offer EDRS-SpaceDataHighway as a commercial service. Its first customers will be the European Commission’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 and -2 satellites.
The briefing will be shared by the Director General, the Director of Telecommunications & Integrated Applications, Magali Vaissiere, and the Director of Earth Observation, Volker Liebig. Speakers will include Evert Dudok, Airbus Head of Communication, Intelligence & Security, and Gerd Gruppe, Director of Space Administration at the DLR German Aerospace Center. It will be followed by a 20 minute Q&A.
Attending the event
The event will take place at ESA headquarters: 8 rue Mario Nikis, 75015 Paris, France.
Media representatives wishing to attend are requested to register at http://bit.ly/1TYaLxp.
The news conference will be livestreamed at www.esa.int. Media and the public may ask questions during the briefing on Twitter using the hashtag #askEDRS or by tweeting to @ESA.
Access the video
