Optical ground station at DLR’s Oberpfaffenhofen site
Optical ground station at DLR’s Oberpfaffenhofen site
Since 2022, the DLR Institute of Communications and Navigation has operated the optical ground station in Oberpfaffenhofen. It is used to synchronise clocks in space with those on Earth and determine the distance to the space terminal. The core of the optical ground station is an 80-centimetre telescope in a ‘Coudé’ configuration, in which mirrors direct incoming light into a laboratory below.