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Airborne Laser Optical Link Demonstrator

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Bonn - Dec 09, 2003
EADS Astrium has been awarded a contract by the French MoD Procurement Agency � Telecommunication and Observation Programs Dept for the demonstration of an optical link between an airborne carrier representative of the future medium- and high-altitude UAVs (MALE and HALE) and the Artemis geo-stationary satellite from ESA by 2006. EADS Astrium is prime on this programme valued at around 50 M euro on which Alcatel Space and ONERA participate as sub-contractors.

The demonstrator is called LOLA (Liaison Optique Laser A�roport�e). It will be used to characterize the propagation of light beams in the atmosphere and to validate the system performance capabilities of the link.

The link will be used for secure transmission of information received from UAVs by operation centres a few thousand kilometres away, within about one second and at very high data rates (50 Mbits/s with Artemis, and eventually several hundred megabits/s).

This high capacity datastream will considerably reduce the time needed to transmit information from the theatre of operation, will improve control of information and will bring significant operational advantages.

Following the success of the first ever laser transmissions, using the SILEX link, between the civilian, earth observation satellite SPOT4 from CNES and the Artemis telecommunication satellite, this contract clearly shows the relevance of optical links for dual or defence applications. It also validates EADS Astrium expertise in the sphere of optical links for telecommunications applications.

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Structural Testing Of World's Largest Commercial Comsat Completed
Palo Alto - Apr 17, 2003
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), has completed static loads testing of iPSTAR-1, the world's largest commercial communications satellite with a launch weight of 14,900 pounds (6775 kilograms). iPSTAR-1 is being built by SS/L at its Palo Alto, California facility for Shin Satellite, Plc of Thailand.



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