"It was an honour to sign this contract with Thales Alenia Space today, which moves us closer to establishing Europe's first optical communication network in space," said Laurent Jaffart, ESA’s Director of Connectivity and Secure Communications. "HydRON is set to maintain Europe and Canada as global leaders in the optical domain and, with the system being interoperable, it will ensure that we continue to grow ESA’s cooperation with our international partners.”

“I am really pleased Thales Alenia Space will be contributing to Europe’s technological independence in connectivity services through space,” said Giampiero Di Paolo, Deputy CEO and Senior Vice President, Observation, Exploration and Navigation at Thales Alenia Space. “Thales Alenia Space believes HydRON Demonstration System is the key enabler for the reliability and operability of a high-throughput optical network in space, paving the way for the future of commercial optical communications in Europe and globally.”