The European Space Agency (ESA) awarded a contract to Spacebel (Prime contractor) and CYSEC (subcontractor) to test the secure deployment of the latest generation of European mission control software on a satellite simulator. 

Cyber threats on satellite systems are more and more of a concern and are becoming a reality for satellite operators, as the recent attack on the commercial satellite Ka-Sat showed.

Because cyber-attacks targeting space systems are rooted from the ground, either during the development phase of the satellite or during its operation, it is critical to improve the protection of the ground segment and in particular the mission control center.

The mission control center hosts all the critical operations such as sending and receiving the telemetry and telecommands which are used to control the satellite once in orbit. Cyber-attacks on the mission control center can be dramatic for the mission and lead to many catastrophic scenarios.

Unfortunately, until recently cybersecurity is a topic that has been largely under-investigated by civil satellite operators, which were focusing on maximizing the duration of the mission rather than its resilience against cyber threats.