As Michael Allen investigates, researchers are developing satellite links that bring clear, real-time radio and data connectivity to flights over the ocean, helping air traffic controllers keep routes safer and more efficient.
On June 4, 2025, an air traffic controller in Spain’s Canary Islands had a clear, uninterrupted conversation with a commercial pilot flying over the Atlantic Ocean.
For most people, that may sound like an everyday thing. If your flight is far from land, this is no problem at all.
At sea, clear and immediate air traffic communication remains the exception, not the norm. Instead, the long intervals between messages cause pilots to choose less efficient routes and make traffic management difficult in the vast expanses of the sky.
We bring you one European sky
To address these communication and surveillance blind spots, a cross-border team of satellite engineers, air traffic experts, airlines and research institutes from Spain, Portugal and Germany have joined a four-year initiative co-funded with the European Union called ECHOES.
The team set out to modernize air traffic management in Europe. The effort ran through December 2025 and tested space-based very high frequency (VHF) radio and satellite aircraft tracking systems (ADS-B) to improve air traffic management in oceans and remote airspace.
“Currently, the aviation industry relies on VHF radio as its main means of communication, but there are many parts of the world where this is lacking,” explains Gabriel García, ECHOES Coordinator and Program Manager at Startical, a Spanish public-private company developing global satellite services for air navigation.
Communication delays may be significant at sea.
When an aircraft leaves the range of a coastal ground station (usually about 350 kilometers offshore), it disappears from radar and standard VHF radio communications are lost. From that point on, communication becomes slow, erratic, and less accurate.
Instead, communications switch to older high-frequency radios, where transmissions are often subject to interference, background noise, and delays. Pilots can still report their position and receive instructions, but not immediately.
Capt. Pablo Poza, a veteran pilot who flies the transatlantic route, said communication between pilots and controllers at sea can take up to five minutes, and in case of an emergency, there can be as much as three minutes each way.
“If you’re flying over the ocean and you have a problem and you want to tell the controller, it can take up to six minutes for the controller to respond,” Poza said.
Waiting increases stress and reduces the time available to respond if something goes wrong, he explained.
Controllers cannot continuously monitor aircraft on radar or communicate with pilots immediately, so they compensate by increasing separation distance. Over land, aircraft may fly 8 to 10 nautical miles away.
In the ocean, that distance can extend to 50 or even 80 nautical miles. This system is safe, but has limited capacity and efficiency.
Call from orbit
The ECHOES team set out to change that. The researchers built on previous proof-of-concept work to develop two small satellites to launch into low-Earth orbit in 2025.
The first satellite weighs about 35 kilograms and the second, about 100 kilograms, carries a VHF antenna that can relay the same voice and data signals that aircraft already use to communicate with ground stations.
“Space technology is evolving, and satellite launchers are becoming smaller and cheaper, making this VHF offering more viable,” Garcia said.
Small satellites are located in low Earth orbit (160 to 2,000 km altitude). Its close proximity to Earth and the aircraft flight path reduces time delays and keeps VHF communications clear.
In a breakthrough, researchers have successfully demonstrated real-time VHF data transmission from space for the first time. Simply put, we have proven that aircraft can not only communicate via satellites as they would normally land, but also send and receive operational data messages through space.
After this initial conversation, the ECHOES team successfully conducted further trials with aircraft from multiple airlines flying over the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and America. These demonstrated that space-based VHF can operate in parallel with ground systems and satellite-based aircraft tracking to provide continuous coverage in maritime airspace.
For the pilots, the experience was encouraging. After participating in the test, Poza said, “I just talked to them like I normally do with VHF stations on the ground.” “It didn’t make any difference. What I realized was that it was normal.”
That normalcy is what really matters.
More safety in the skies means more efficient flights
Now that the ECHOES team has shown that space-based VHF communications works, the next step is to expand it around the world. More satellites will be needed to achieve truly global service.
“We calculated that we would need about 300 satellites to provide continuous global coverage,” Garcia said.
A reliable satellite link allows pilots to adjust their routes in real time depending on weather, turbulence, and congestion.
“If you can continuously communicate with air traffic control and the control can ask other pilots for reports, you’ll get better feedback about what’s going on around you,” Poza said.
Aircraft could fly more direct routes, reducing fuel use and emissions. Improved communications will allow more aircraft to safely use busy maritime corridors, increasing airspace capacity.
“Global VHF communications via satellite will change the way pilots and air traffic controllers stay connected,” Poza said.
“Extending VHF communications range from space will ensure continuous, standardized communications. This will improve safety by reducing delays and providing pilots with reliable two-way communications.”
Expanding this system will allow aircraft in the mid-Atlantic to connect as reliably as those flying in Europe’s busiest skies, turning today’s communications gap into a seamless global network.
By bringing standard VHF into orbit, European aviation innovators are showing how space technology can quietly transform everyday flight, making long-distance travel safer, more efficient, and better for the planet.
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