The European space market may be dominated by large A&D primes, but the startup community is proving it still has an edge when it comes to innovative tech.
Airbus Defence and Space announced an agreement today with Skynopy to leverage the startup’s software-defined ground station tech, which aims to decrease latency on Airbus’ Pléiades Neo EO constellation.
“This collaboration highlights Airbus’ ability to work with innovative European startups to continuously enhance its services, and remain at the forefront of Earth observation capabilities,” Airbus Head of Space Digital Eric Even said in a statement.
Bottleneck busting: Under the agreement, Skynopy will integrate its ground station services into Airbus’ operations, with the goal of reducing how long it takes from an image to be uploaded to Airbus’ OneAtlas platform.
Skynopy’s approach centralizes a disparate ground station network. Instead of needing to plan the downlinks well in advance of a mission, Skynopy allows satellites to connect to an increasing network of ground stations that can scale—without long lead times.
Real talk: At a time when the number of EO sats in orbit is growing rapidly—due to new sovereign spacecraft, and the proliferation of commercial constellations—speedy connections to the ground have become the real differentiator.
Near-real-time data from space is increasingly important for customers looking to make the most of their space-based data. Applications like defense, crisis management, and environmental monitoring all benefit from having instant data to act upon.
Skynopy has a global network of 17 ground sites, but the plan is to grow the network to 100+ in the coming years. The ultimate goal is to offer real-time, high-throughput connectivity to satellite operators anywhere around the globe, Skynopy officials said.
