The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced on Monday that the country’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) had awarded a £9.5-million contract to British company In-Space Missions to build the ‘Titania’ future defence communications technology research satellite. This will use narrow laser beams (which cannot be jammed like radio frequencies) to transmit data. The project is known as the ‘Titania Operational Concept Demonstrator’ and will have two elements – the Titania low Earth orbit communications satellite and its associated ‘Puck’ Optical Ground Station. (Titania and Puck are the names of characters in William Shakespeare’s play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’; the UK has a tradition, dating from the start of the space age, of naming research satellites after Shakespearean characters.) Titania is planned to be launched in 2023.
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