SES and Airbus secure Noordwijk site for Eagle-1 quantum ground station
SES · Airbus
SES and Airbus signed a lease in Noordwijk, Netherlands for Eagle-1's optical ground station, per European Spaceflight.
what happened
SES and Airbus Netherlands signed a ground lease agreement with the Dutch municipality of Noordwijk on June 15, 2026, securing a site at the NL Space Campus near ESA's ESTEC facility for the optical ground station (OGS) supporting the Eagle-1 quantum-key-distribution satellite, per European Spaceflight and SES's own release. The station will house a control room and a telescope dome to track Eagle-1 and hold the laser link the system requires. Eagle-1's launch, originally targeted for Q4 2024, is now expected in late 2027 or early 2028.
why it matters
Eagle-1 is Europe's precursor demonstration for the planned Quantum Communication Infrastructure and the IRIS2 secure-connectivity constellation; ground-segment progress despite the satellite's multi-year delay signals ESA and its industrial partners are still committing capital ahead of IRIS2's own build-out.
for who
European quantum-comms and IRIS2 supply chain
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- SES, Airbus
- Category
- partnership
- Impact
- noise
- SNR
- 4 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-06-15
- Published
- 2026-07-15 17:33 UTC