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Craft Prospect to lead the OPS-SAT Versatile Optical Laboratory for Telecoms (OS2-VOLT) Mission for the European Space Agency

In a keynote speech at the European Space Agency (ESA) ScyLight Conference held in Greece May 12th-15th, Steve Greenland, Managing Director of Craft Prospect Limited (CPL), announced the ESA OS2 VOLT mission. This circa €12 Mn project will be led by CPL and will incorporate a range of their previously developed technologies on board, including Quantum Key Distribution Space hardware and  Autonomous operations software. The mission will test a range of hardware and software technologies in flight, allowing the Telecom Directorate of ESA under the ScyLight programme to evaluate and test radical new techniques and technologies real time in a Low Earth Orbit environment.

“Our announcement of the joint Craft Prospect / ESA VOLT mission is testament to the six years of investment in our smart secure satellite technology.” continued Steve. “We have seen the role of Space evolve rapidly in recent years, responding to demands for actionable data for climate crisis and assured cybersecure communications. This mission is a major vote of confidence in our business, and positions us to play a critical role for delivering new solutions to the global challenges we face. We look forward to finalising negotiations and moving into kick-off for the second half of 2023.”

OS2-VOLT is a joint ESA/Craft Prospect Ltd (CPL) Mission for demonstrating products and services within a Versatile Optical Laboratory for Telecommunications.  The CPL concept for the payload is a Quantum Classical Optical Communications Transceiver, coupled with an AI Computer and Hyperspectral Imager.  CPL will lead a UK consortium for payload development and exploitation, together with KP Labs in Poland on the High-Performance Data Processing Unit. Several capability demonstrations are planned both as a quantum key delivery and optical communications platform, and for assured, taskable hyperspectral imagery capture for climate resilience applications. Payload experimentation will be accessible through a secure reconfigurable high-performance computing system.