Hispasat

Hispasat is Redeia's satellite services operator founded in 1989 and headquartered in Madrid, Spain, operating satellites providing telecommunications services across Europe, Americas, and North Africa. In January 2025, Hispasat partnered with Thales Alenia Space to start development, manufacturing, verification, and validation phase of the QKD-GEO prototype, Spain's quantum key distribution system from geostationary orbit. The QKD-GEO mission has a budget of 103.5 million euros and 24-month timeline to develop components for quantum key distribution from geostationary orbit, including quantum payload for geostationary satellite and associated ground segment. Hispasat is responsible for designing the geostationary mission and defining the business plan, with support from Banco de Santander, BBVA, Telefónica, and Cellnex analyzing real use cases with banking sector and terrestrial operators. A field test campaign is planned between Spanish islands of La Palma and Tenerife covering 140-km atmospheric link. Hispasat serves telecommunications operators, government agencies, financial institutions, and critical infrastructure requiring quantum-secure satellite communications.