Copernicus Program Adds New-Space Companies

Nine New-Space satellite data suppliers have joined the Copernicus program as ‘Contributing Missions’. On Monday at the Le Bourget Paris Air Show, ESA and the European Commission further embraced the era of New Space by welcoming these nine companies into the fold and celebrating the contribution they will make in monitoring our changing world.

"The team is very excited to start work with these nine emerging European data providers." Peggy Fischer, ESA

Peggy Fischer, ESA

As we all face the consequences of climate change and strive to ‘do things better’, accurate information about our planet has never been more important.

Copernicus, now 25 years old, is the biggest environmental program in the world, providing terabytes of free and open satellite data and information services to hundreds of thousands of users every day. In doing so, the program adds to long-term datasets to monitor major challenges such as diminishing polar ice, sea-level rise, drought, and more.

Copernicus, through its satellite missions, is hugely important for evidence-based decision-making, not only to address climate change, but also to optimize business practices in their efforts to be more sustainable and to make those business practices more profitable in the process.

While the suite of Sentinel satellite missions that ESA develops and builds, and in many cases operates, are central to the Copernicus program, there are other commercial satellite missions – the Copernicus Contributing Missions – that play a crucial role in delivering complementary Earth observation data to answer to the data needs of the Copernicus Services and the needs of public authorities.

Copernicus Comprised of More than 20 Companies

There are currently more than 20 privately-owned satellite missions that contribute to Copernicus. And, with the contracts that ESA signed recently on behalf of the European Commission, nine different European New Space companies are added to the list. Those companies include:

• Aerospacelab in Belgium, Prométhée in France and EnduroSat in Bulgaria to supply multispectral images from their different satellite constellations

• Kuva Space Oy in Finland to supply hyperspectral images

• constellr in Germany, OroraTech also in Germany and Aistech in Spain to provide thermal infrared data from their satellite missions

• Satlantis in Spain and Absolut Sensing in France to provide data on atmospheric composition.

Although Copernicus is hugely successful, the aim of bringing emerging European New Space companies into Copernicus is to help keep the program ahead of the game in the rapidly changing sector of observing Earth from space. ESA’s responsibility includes coordinating the Copernicus Contributing Mission activities as part of the programme.

"The team is very excited to start work with these nine emerging European data providers," said ESA’s Peggy Fischer, who is responsible for managing the Copernicus Contributing Missions program. "It will be first time that Earth observation data from emerging European New Space companies will be made available to Copernicus users in different data domains.”

(Source: ESA news release. Images provided)