February 8, 2019 – Airbus and SKY Perfect JSAT have signed a cooperation agreement for the design preparation of the EDRS-D node. This third communication node of the SpaceDataHighway system is to be positioned over the Asia-Pacific region before 2025. EDRS-D will lead to a significant increase in the system’s communication capacity and considerably expand its coverage. This agreement concerns the co-financing of design and development studies for the satellite payload, as well as of the system as a whole, in addition to the marketing of the SpaceDataHighway service by SKY Perfect JSAT in Japan. With this agreement, the total amount of the investment in the extension of the SpaceDataHighway stands at nearly € 15 million. The future EDRS-D payload will consist of three next-generation laser communication terminals (LCT) to allow simultaneous communication with several satellites, as well as aircraft and UAVs. These laser terminals will have broader bandwidth, bi-directional and interoperable communication capability with Japanese laser terminals. Thus, enabling a greater range for geo-geo crosslinks with another geostationary SpaceDataHighway satellites at a distance of up to 75,000 km. This will to offer near real-time relaying of data from the other side of the world. The SpaceDataHighway is the world’s first ‘optical fibre’ network in the sky based on cutting-edge laser technology. It will be a unique system of geostationary satellites permanently fixed over a network of ground stations, with the first – EDRS-A – already in space. Each day, it can relay up to 40 terabytes of data acquired by observation satellites, UAVs and manned aircraft, at a rate of 1.8 Gbit/s.