SES-Led Consortium, European Space Agency Form Govt Satcom Partnership

An SES-led industry consortium has partnered with the European Space Agency to establish a platform for government organizations to access and secure satellite communications.

The public-private partnership aims to demonstrate potential applications of the Pacis-1 satcom platform to border control, civil protection, humanitarian missions and maritime surveillance missions, SES said Tuesday.

The Pacis-1 project also seeks to encourage European space companies to support ESA’s Govsatcom Precursor initiative.

Redu Space Services, GovSat, Newtec, QinetiQ and Tekever are among SES’ team members on the project.

“The pooling and sharing demonstrations are hosted in a European center of excellence for space cyber security services, and may provide the center with the opportunity for an operational role in governmental secure satcom at EU level,” said Carlo Elia, head of ESA’s telecommunications technologies, products and systems department.

SES intends to leverage space and ground infrastructure assets of project stakeholders in efforts to implement a Pacis-1 satcom architecture and service concept.