Skyloom, a US-based optical comms company, has formed a joint venture with Officina Stellare, an Italian opto-mechanical manufacturer, the companies announced yesterday.
The new venture, called Skyloom Europe, will establish a facility in northern Italy to manufacture optical communications terminals to support multi-orbit satellite networks.
That’s amore: The Italian production space will mirror Skyloom’s facility in Colorado, which supplies communications technology to the US military as part of the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. This spring, Skyloom won an $18M STRATFI contract to test and qualify optical communications terminals, and the idea is to build on that success in the European market with Officina Stellare offering both commercial and technical guidance.
The partnership gives Skyloom access to European commercial and military customers at a time when the demand for secure satellite communications technology is booming, with the potential market value of ~€12B ($13.2B) by 2031, according to Euroconsult.
To slice off a piece of that pie, Skyloom Europe intends to transition from a product-driven business model to a secure connectivity-as-a-service model.
Space lasers: While traditional satellite communications architecture uses radio frequency (RF) to send data back to Earth, Skyloom’s technology relies on a laser-based system, which can transmit 10 to 100 times more data than RF.
In addition to greater bandwidth, laser-based tech is also less susceptible to interference and interception than radio waves. Skyloom Europe’s planned facility will focus on manufacturing communications terminals that use Quantum Key Distribution technology to ensure the signals remain secure.
Howdy partner: Skyloom Europe is the latest strategic partnership in a string of collaborative deals the company has made since its founding. Skyloom uses these partnerships to push forward the development of new technology and share the costs of demonstrating tech on orbit.
- In January 2023, Skyloom partnered with Japan-based Space Compass to develop a space-based optical relay network.
- In December, Skyloom collaborated with Axiom Space to demonstrate optical intersatellite links on Axiom’s planned commercial space station.
- In March, the company worked with NEC to commercialize a 100-gbps optical terminal, with plans to launch into orbit by 2026.
