Unpacking EDRS-C at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou

EDRS-C has arrived in Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. At the end of June 2019, the satellite is now being unpacked and carefully righted in the S1B building of the Technical Centre, where the satellite will be checked and verified after the transport from Europe. EDRS-C is the second node of the European Data Relay System (EDRS). It is the first dedicated EDRS satellite as well as the first flight for ESA’s SmallGEO platform. EDRS is designed to transmit data between low Earth orbiting satellites and the EDRS payloads in geostationary orbit using innovative laser communication technology. Composed of a hosted payload (EDRS-A) on a commercial telecom satellite and a dedicated satellite (EDRS-C) in geostationary orbit, the system will dramatically increase the speed of data transmission for satellites in lower orbits and airborne platforms to relay their information to users on the ground. Nicknamed the 'SpaceDataHighway' by industry, EDRS complements current downlink infrastructures and allows for near-realtime services on a global scale. The system has Mission Operations Centres in Ottobrunn (DE) and Redu (BE), Spacecraft/Payload Control Centres in Oberpfaffenhofen (DE) and ground stations in Redu (BE), Harwell (GB) and two in Weilheim (DE).