Astrium continues to drive the implementation of the European Data Relay System (EDRS). As prime contractor, Astrium Services has now contracted the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) to implement and operate major parts of the ground network.

The agreement signed in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, today covers the design, implementation, delivery and operation of four ground stations: two receiving stations for the EDRS-A satellite in Weilheim, Germany and Harwell, United Kingdom, as well as a transmitting and receiving station for EDRS-C in Weilheim, Germany, and a back-up station in Redu, Belgium.

As part of the agreement DLR will also implement and operate the payload control centre for EDRS-A and the satellite control centre for EDRS-C in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.

The contract covers the entire nominal lifetime of the EDRS-A and EDRS-C missions until 2030 and has a value of around 65 Million euros. EDRS is a system of two geostationary satellites facilitating the data relay between Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites or UAVs and an associated ground segment.

EDRS will enable satellites to immediately transfer data in broadband quality to the ground and will also provide the capability to re-programme satellites in almost real-time.

This will ensure the timely acquisition and delivery of data following natural disasters and will support security applications, environmental protection and weather forecasting. Currently, LEO satellites can only be reprogrammed and images can only be received when the satellites pass over a specific geographic location with a dedicated ground station.

This new space data highway is implemented through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Astrium Services as programme prime, operator and service provider.

The Sentinel satellites of the European GMES program are the anchor customers for the new service with further data relay capacity available to third party customers worldwide.