ESA and Astrolight Begin Work on Greenland Optical Ground Station

The European Space Agency (ESA) has begun construction of a new Optical Ground Station (OGS) in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, developed with Astrolight under ESA’s ScyLight optical and quantum communications programme. The facility will be Europe’s northernmost laser communications station and is scheduled for completion in late 2026.

Designed to address the growing data bottleneck facing traditional RF-based ground stations, the OGS will enable laser downlinks from LEO satellites at speeds orders of magnitude faster than radio systems, capable of transferring terabytes in under a minute, at over 10× the throughput and 70% lower cost per gigabyte. This capability is increasingly critical as the number of satellites in LEO is expected to rise 190% over the next decade.

Located in Greenland’s dry, low-cloud Arctic environment, the station will enhance:

• High-speed Earth observation data relay (optical, hyperspectral, radar, infrared)

• Secure, interception-resistant communications

• Resilience for European networks, complementing RF ground systems and vulnerable subsea cables

• Near real-time data delivery for search and rescue, environmental monitoring, disaster response, and Arctic operations

The project is jointly supported by Denmark and Lithuania, forming part of ESA’s broader effort to strengthen European technological autonomy and develop next-generation optical satcom infrastructure including the HydRON terabit-per-second optical network initiative.

SOURCE: https://connectivity.esa.int/news/esafunded-optical-ground-station-fast-and-secure-laser-satellite-communications-begins-construction-greenland