Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd. of Glasgow, UK, has won a contract to supply 780-nm laser diodes to the European Space Agency's (ESA) European Space & Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.The lasers will be used in the development of optically pumped atomic clocks based on the 6.8-GHz transition frequency of rubidium. Such timepieces are crucial to the realization of Galileo, a civilian-run European global navigation satellite system under development by the European Commission and the ESA that will offer an alternative to the US Global Positioning System.