ESA's Celeste demonstrates 5G positioning signals from low Earth orbit
ESA's Celeste IOD-2 satellite transmitted and received standardised 5G positioning signals from LEO for the first time, ESA says.
what happened
ESA says its Celeste IOD-2 satellite, in orbit since March 2026, successfully transmitted and received two 3GPP-standard 5G positioning signals, Downlink Positioning Reference Signals and Narrowband Positioning Reference Signals, in S-band from low Earth orbit on August 27, with the signals received and recorded on the ground for analysis. ESA calls it a first-of-its-kind demonstration of 5G non-terrestrial-network positioning from LEO. "This achievement demonstrates the remarkable capabilities of the Celeste demonstrator satellites and the commitment of the team," said Roberto Prieto-Cerdeira, ESA's Celeste programme manager.
why it matters
Celeste is ESA's testbed for combining satellite navigation and mobile-standard signals; a working 5G-NTN positioning link from LEO is a building block toward multi-orbit positioning, navigation and timing services alongside Galileo, relevant to autonomous vehicles, IoT and direct-to-device positioning use cases that don't require proprietary satellite hardware on the receiving end.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- ESA
- Category
- product
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 5 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-09-15
- Published
- 2026-09-15 12:22 UTC