The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a contract with an aerospace consortium led by Thales Alenia Space in the context of the Security And cryptoGrAphic (SAGA) mission, covering the definition and preliminary design of a fully-European quantum key distribution (QKD) system for governmental use, ESA and Thales Alenia Space announced in separate press releases, on Wednesday 1 October.
The contract for the design of the mission is worth €50 million, and is expected to allow the mission and its components to take shape, with the development and testing of prototypes, as well as a demonstration of the critical technologies. This stage will span two years, after which ESA will move on to the manufacturing phase.
“The SAGA mission aims to develop a satellite quantum key distribution system that would have a pan-European reach, ensuring that all EU-Member States have access to a secure and proprietary means of sharing sensitive data”, said ESA, adding that SAGA is part of the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI), launched by the European Commission aiming to develop the space and ground secure quantum communication infrastructure for the EU. (CG)