Posted 10/08/07 19:39 By PETER B. de SELDING

PARIS - France's Astrium Satellites, operating in parallel with its subsidiary, Tesat-Spacecom of Germany, plans to use two satellite-laser technologies the companies developed separately to stitch together a civil-military program that ultimately would include a satellite data-relay payload in geostationary orbit.

Bernard Laurent, head of Astrium's telecommunications systems department, said the company is using the success of its Astrium and Tesat technologies to pitch four applications to civil and military authorities:

1. Links between a low-orbiting satellite, a UAV and a geostationary satellite;

2. Inter-satellite transmissions between geostationary satellites, or between low-orbiting spacecraft;

3. Transmissions between low-orbiting observation satellites and their ground control stations to replace what could be a congestion in X-band telemetry transmissions;

4. Communications from deep-space missions.

Astrium's technology already has been tested using a French civilian Spot Earth observation satellite in low-Earth orbit that delivered its data, via a laser link, to the geostationary-orbiting Artemis data-relay satellite owned by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Japanese space agency, JAXA, used a similar laser technology built in Japan, for transmissions between Japan's Oicets low-orbiting satellite and Artemis.

More recently, Astrium completed a French Defense Ministry demonstration program called Lola, which fitted a laser-optical terminal on board a Mystere aircraft to transmit data to and from the Artemis satellite. The Mystere aircraft testing was done at a variety of altitudes and in different weather conditions to demonstrate the technology's potential.

Germany's Tesat, under German government financing, has placed its own laser technology aboard the German TerraSAR-X radar Earth observation satellite and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's NFIRE spacecraft. Initial testing of laser communications has begun and a full-scale demonstration of the satellite-to-satellite link at data-transmission speeds of some 5.5 gigabits per second are planned in the coming weeks.

Tesat and its partner, Oerlikon Space AG of Switzerland, hope to use a bilateral U.S.-German accord to open the U.S. defense market for the laser technology. ESA is expected to decide soon whether laser terminals should be included on its Sentinel series of Earth observation satellites, being developed with the European Commission as part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program.

Astrium has been in the uncomfortable position of being the corporate parent of two competing laser technologies, one developed in Germany, the other in France. Addressing the 2nd International Military Space Conference here Sept. 18, Laurent said the company has proposed both the Astrium and Tesat laser terminals to ESA.