ColKa uses the European Data Relay System, which was developed as an ESA Partnership Project with satellite manufacturer Airbus, as part of ESA’s efforts to federate industry around large-scale commercial telecommunication programmes, stimulating innovative service developments to achieve economic benefits.

ESA and Airbus signed a two-year contract on 29 November 2021 to deliver data from the Station to Europe.

Colka was designed and built by British and Italian companies, using products from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany and Norway, some of which have been qualified under ESA’s Telecommunications and Integrated Applications programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES).

The knowledge gained from designing, building and running ColKa will be instrumental for ESA’s telecommunications package under the ESPRIT telecommunications and refuelling module that is being designed for the lunar Gateway – an outpost over 1000 times farther from Earth than the International Space Station that will provide vital support for a sustainable, long-term human return to the lunar surface.