Moonlight is the European Space Agency's (ESA) program to establish a constellation of satellites orbiting the Moon, designed to provide advanced communication and navigation services.

With over 400 lunar missions planned by space agencies and private companies in the next twenty years, Moonlight represents a crucial step toward sustainable lunar exploration and the development of a true lunar economy.

The program aims to support both institutional and commercial missions, enabling precise autonomous landings, surface mobility, and high-speed, low-latency data transfer between Earth and the Moon. This infrastructure will be essential not only for humanity's return to the Moon but also for establishing a stable and long-term presence.

On October 15, 2024, Telespazio signed a contract with ESA to manage the development of a satellite constellation dedicated to providing navigation and communication services for future lunar missions.

The project involves a consortium of specialized companies, with Telespazio as the prime contractor and overall system integrator. The consortium includes partners such as Hispasat, Viasat, Thales Alenia Space Italia, SSTL, Qascom, MDA, KSat, Telespazio UK, Telespazio Iberica, SDA Bocconi, PLIMI, CRAS, and SI for the design, realization, and operational qualification of the system.

The Moonlight program envisions the creation of an innovative infrastructure designed to provide essential communication and navigation services for future lunar missions. Furthermore, interoperability with LunaNet - a shared standard among major international space agencies - will ensure cooperation between various service providers, increasing the overall system’s reliability. The infrastructure will consist of the following:

• Lunar Space Segment: This will comprise a constellation of five satellites, with four dedicated to navigation and one to communication. These satellites will provide high-speed, low-latency communication services, along with precise navigation signals that will enable autonomous landings and surface mobility. The satellites will be positioned to ensure extensive coverage of the lunar South Pole, an area of particular interest for future missions due to resources like ice in the "eternal darkness" craters and "peaks of eternal light," which are ideal for solar energy harvesting.

• Lunar Earth Ground Segment: This will include three control stations on Earth, with Telespazio’s Fucino Space Center playing a key role in monitoring and managing the entire infrastructure. Fucino, which was instrumental in transmitting images of the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969, will be crucial in ensuring the continuity of services and the connection between the Moon and Earth, coordinating all operations of the constellation and supporting the communications and navigation network.

• Lunar User Segment: This will consist of the terminals required for validating the service once the constellation is in orbit.

As the system is based on international standards defined by NASA, ESA, and JAXA, it will support lunar navigation and communication terminals compliant with these standards.

The implementation of the Moonlight program will take place in phases, with the first satellite, the Lunar Pathfinder - a communication relay satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) - expected to enter service in 2026. Subsequently, Moonlight services will be gradually deployed, with initial operations expected by the end of 2028 and full operational capability by 2030.

Moonlight will not only meet the needs of human and robotic space exploration but will also create commercial opportunities for European industry within the emerging lunar economy. The satellite network will enable missions to communicate easily and efficiently, even from lunar regions not visible from Earth, reducing the need for direct-to-Earth communications and improving overall operational efficiency. This system will be essential for enabling new applications, technological innovations, and sustainable lunar exploration, significantly impacting the reduction of mission costs.

Additionally, the navigation signals provided by Moonlight’s satellites will allow for extremely precise positioning, reducing the complexity of onboard navigation systems for landers, rovers, and orbiters. This will result in cost savings and facilitate navigation for future exploration missions, both human and robotic.