---
title: "Space Data Highway Experiment Unveils First Images"
description: "Two European satellites exchanged data across a 45,000km distance using laser communications terminals designed to form the basis of a future space data highway"
date: "2014-12-01"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Amber Raynolds"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/amber24"
url: "https://futurism.com/space-data-highway-experiment-unveils-first-images"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# Space Data Highway Experiment Unveils First Images

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/640_space-data-highway-cropped.jpg>)

- Images of Earth were sent from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1A satellite, orbiting about 700km above the Earth, via Inmarsat’s geostationary satellite Alphasat in the distance of about 36,000km away from the Earth's surface
- The experiment demonstrated the viability of the planned €450m space data highway that will link low Earth orbiting satellites with ground-based control centres via powerful laser links delivered through geostationary satellites, which hang above a fixed spot on Earth
- The use of geostationary satellites will remove the need to wait, allowing the controllers to view the images nearly instantaneously