Lunar Link balloons

A balloon-assisted antenna deployment test at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France during the summer of 2026. The impressive balloons are around four metres in diameter and are used to lift the antenna to simulate the weightless conditions in which the antennas would deploy in lunar orbit.

ESA’s Lunar Link telecommunications element has completed its final major integration and testing campaign at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France. 

Originally developed to be integrated on NASA's HALO habitation module for the Gateway to provide communications between the orbiting station and Moon explorers, Lunar Link reached completion as plans for the programme changed. Following NASA’s decision earlier this year to pause work on the Gateway, ESA is studying how Lunar Link’s capabilities could be used for future lunar missions.

Much has happened since Lunar Link’s antenna testing in March. Since then, the central baybox, which houses all electronic units, completed its environmental test campaign and engineers connected it to the two high gain antennas and tested the full system together for the first time. This included another balloon-assisted antenna deployment test, this time with the complete Lunar Link.