Space is not only about scientific exploration and economic opportunities. It’s also a political field, some might even say a battlefield, completely tied to developments on Earth.
For example, on 24 February 2022, just before Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a cyberattack struck satellite providers in Europe and Ukraine, impacting telecommunication systems across the continent.
The satellite service targeted was KA-SAT, operated by the United States (US) company Viasat.
The attack caused disruptions to energy infrastructures and internet outages across Europe, leaving several public authorities, businesses, and users in Ukraine without internet.
In May 2022, the European Union attributed the attack to Moscow, condemned it and called on Russia to stop the war in Ukraine.
But then, what role do satellites play in a space that is less and less neutral?
What’s a satellite?
A satellite is anything that orbits a planet or a star. They can be natural, like the Moon or man-made machines like Biomass, which Euronews Tech Talks analysed in episodes 46 and 47.
Satellites can have different functions: Earth observation satellites monitor climate change and provide weather-forecasting data; navigation satellites enable services such as Google Maps; and telecommunications satellites provide access to the internet.
However, this distinction becomes more difficult to grasp if we consider that there’s another category: military satellites.
“In the first decades of space activities, there was a clear distinction; there were civilian programmes and military programmes,” Luciano Anselmo, researcher at the Italian National Research Council in Pisa, told Euronews Next.
“Now, with the development of new technologies, small satellites, satellite constellations and so on, this distinction has no more sense, many systems can be used both for military and civilian applications,” Anselmo added.
For instance, Starlink, the communication satellite constellation owned by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, was primarily invented for commercial purposes. However, it has a dual function and is used by militaries.
Similarly, satellite services like GPS have been created for military purposes and are now used for civilian purposes. The US invented it in 1973 and used it for the first time in a war setting in the First Gulf War of 1991.
The experience of Geosat
Among the satellite companies with multiple functions is Geosat, a Portuguese business designing and operating Earth observation satellites.
Geosat satellites can be used in many different ways. Among others, they monitor agriculture, support urban planning, provide near-real-time images for emergency management, and also deliver high-resolution imagery and data for space defence.
“Defence and security is the major market for Earth observation,” Francisco Vilhena de Cunha, Geosat’s CEO, told Euronews.
“With satellites we can monitor borders, force accumulation in the borders or in the main roads, for instance,” he added.
This type of activity is known as “situational awareness” and can be threatened by anti-satellite attacks, like jamming, which uses radio signals to interfere with satellite communication.
Vilenho de Cunha explained that major sources of jamming originate on Earth and, for this reason, Geosat satellites adopt protective measures. Their satellites are designed with multiple communication systems and include radiation shielding to protect against potential attacks.
Govsatcom, a leap forward for the EU space defence?
But if space is not only about scientific cooperation, it is important to trust one’s allies.
In this spirit, the European Union is working on a satellite communication programme to provide its member states with access to secure communication called GOVSATCOM.
This system began operations in mid-January and was highly discussed during the European Space Conference last month.
“The advantage of GOVSATCOM is that it really provides the secure communication capability to everyone, so it generalises a capability to those who want to share,” Rodrigo da Costa, executive director at the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), told Euronews Next.
France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, and Spain already have secure satellite communication systems. With GOVSATCOM, these countries are now pooling the capacity of their existing satellites into a shared EU system.
This allows other EU member states to meet their communication needs without relying on non-EU countries or commercial satellites.
GOVSATCOM has three main application domains: crisis management, border and maritime surveillance, and management of key infrastructures, including diplomatic communication networks.
And it is structured in different phases, but by 2029, it’s expected to integrate with the almost 300 satellites in the IRIS², a EU satellite constellation, similar to Starlink but smaller and with military purposes.
“GOVSATCOM and IRIS² will certainly have a key role in supporting European actors, European member states in their different missions where they require the secure communication capability,” the EUSPA executive director told Euronews Next.