Lasercom Relay Node to Be Launched for Skyloom by Arianespace
The first Skyloom geostationary lasercom relay node will be launched by Arianespace. This innovative satellite will be part of a rideshare mission aboard Arianespace’s next-generation heavy-lift vehicle, the Ariane 64.
This vehicle, set to debut in mid-2022, is capable of reaching more reference orbits due to its restartable Vinci upper-stage. The company says another selling point of the rideshare missions prepared and performed by Arianespace on their launchers, especially on Vega and, soon, on Ariane 6 and Vega C, is the lower price point for its customers, along with the rockets' versatility and agility to meet the company’s customers’ needs.
Skyloom’s geostationary lasercom relay node network will serve a growing number of civil and governmental satellite operators with a unique set of capabilities such as real-time and high-capacity direct-to-cloud data-transfer, and secure telecommand channels so that customers can pilot their satellites like drones unlocking unprecedented applications.
According to the company, Satellite backhaul will significantly improve worldwide connectivity allowing cellular providers and ISPs to connect gateways and users all over the planet by creating orbital mesh networks to relay traffic globally.
The Lasercom relay node provides unlicensed, unregulated, faster, and more secure connectivity and has been recognized as one of the most critical technologies to unlocking the true economic potential of space-based infrastructure.
Skyloom was founded with the mission to develop, deploy and operate one of the fundamental pieces of tomorrow’s digital infrastructure to provide data transport services on a planetary scale. Skyloom designs, builds and lays the space-based equivalent of towers, fiber, routers and switches, enabling fiberless orbital networks. Vertical integration and rapid rollout of technology and infrastructure are at the core of Skyloom’s strategy to maintain cost, schedule, quality and performance and deliver on their vision of becoming a true planetary Society.
(Sources: Arianespace and Skyloom. Image courtesy Skyloom.)