Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR has successfully completed an important milestone within the GESTRA-EUSST project. The GESTRA team was able to demonstrate that the receiver system fulfills all intended functions. This achievement establishes an essential technical foundation for the further expansion of the system and its future use in European space surveillance.

GESTRA-EUSST is a key German contribution to the European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking (EU SST) programme. The objective is the reliable detection and tracking of objects in near-Earth space in order to prevent satellite collisions, assess risks posed by space debris, and enhance the security of critical space infrastructure.

As part of the milestone, the performance of the receiver system was demonstrated under realistic operating conditions. Test signals were transmitted via a dedicated antenna installed on the institute’s premises and subsequently received by the GESTRA-EUSST receiver. The processing and analysis of the recorded data confirmed the correct operation of the entire receive chain in accordance with system specifications.

A particular focus was placed on verifying all 256 receiver channels. The tests demonstrated that signals can be reliably received, digitized, processed, and recorded. In addition, the successful calibration of the receiver channels was verified. The measured results proved to be reproducible and fully compliant with the project requirements.

“The successful verification of this milestone confirms the performance of the developed technology and marks an important step toward the future operational deployment of the system,” explain project managers Dirk Niederwipper from the German Space Agency at DLR and Markus Gilles from Fraunhofer FHR.

The successful verification also documents the progress of the project for both funding bodies and contracting authorities. The invested resources are contributing to the development of a state-of-the-art sensor infrastructure that will play an important role in future European space situational awareness. With the receiver system’s functionality now successfully demonstrated, a key technical foundation has been established for the subsequent development phases and future operation of the facility.

The successful completion of the milestone demonstrated the fundamental functionality of the GESTRA-EUSST receiver system. At present, the facility is still operated and monitored manually. Consequently, the next project phase will focus on specifying and developing software for automated system control and monitoring. In parallel, the first joint reception experiments between GESTRA-EUSST and the GESTRA system in Koblenz are planned. These experiments will initially be carried out under manual operation and are expected to provide valuable insights for future routine operations.

With the successful completion of this milestone, Fraunhofer FHR and the German Space Agency at DLR continue the development of the system according to plan, thereby strengthening German and European capabilities in the field of Space Surveillance and Tracking.