European Space Agency - How Technological Disruption Secures Europe’s NTN Future

The European Space Agency (ESA) is guiding its industrial partners in the development of new 5G/6G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) technology. Through its Space for 5G/6G and Sustainable Connectivity Strategic Programme Line, and a record-breaking subscription at the Council at Ministerial Level (CM25), ESA is providing the means and expertise for its current and future industrial partners to get involved in the NTN revolution. ESA is driving a number of NTN experiments and is launching NTN-enabling satellites into orbit, allowing its Member States industry to experiment and test in a real environment that can only be provided by in-orbit assets. ESA is partnering with GSMA Foundry to underpin four innovation challenges, aimed at integrating satellite and terrestrial networks and scaling the European NTN Ecosystem:

• Direct-to-Device connectivity
• 6G Innovation
• 5G/6G Hubs
• AI-enabled TN/NTN networks

It is expected that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a major role in future 5G/6G NTN.