The beam-hopping satellite – nicknamed JoeySat after a baby kangaroo – will demonstrate connectivity for people travelling by air, sea or on land, and preparing for low latency 5G connectivity from space.

Its fully digital beam-hopping and beam-steering payload can switch the satellite capacity between different places on Earth up to 1000 times per second. The signal strength can also be adjusted to meet demand.

This will enable JoeySat to respond to real-time surges in commercial high-quality and low latency connectivity demands – or during emergencies such as natural disasters, with rapid deployment of 5G Mini Hubs connected to OneWeb communication network.

Developed under the Sunrise Partnership Project between ESA and telecommunications operator OneWeb, JoeySat will demonstrate key technologies for OneWeb’s next generation constellation, as part of the ESA Sunrise project with support from the UK Space Agency.

Its advanced digital regenerative payload was built by SatixFy in the UK and the payload environmental tests were completed in the UK.

JoeySat has left OneWeb Florida Facilities on 4 April for a road journey across America toward Vandenberg in California.