Tag Archives: Nanosatellites

SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Niels Buus, CEO of GomSpace Group, a European manufacturer of high-end nanosatellites, during the World Satellite Business Week, held in Paris, from the 12th to the 16th of September 2022. During this episode, Niels talked about some fundamental challenges in the satellite sector today and about strategies to deal with those. Tune in to hear more!

SayariLabs, the first Kenyan space start-up to provide satellite services and space-based solutions, and software-defined nanosatellite and space services provider, EnduroSat, signed a commercial agreement to launch TAIFA-1, the first Kenyan 3U nanosatellite.  East Africa has experienced heavy droughts and wildfires, causing water crisis, and damage to agriculture and local food supplies.

Small satellites at large: The nanosat provider Terran Orbital is planning to build “the world’s largest” spacecraft facility in Florida, the company´s CEO Marc Bell and Florida`s Governor Ron DeSantis announced. Terran Orbital will invest $300 million into a 660,000 square foot facility which will create 2,100 new jobs.

SpaceX has acquired the low-cost nano-satellite startup Swarm Technologies, filings to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) showed. Swarm Technologies operates “the world´s lowest cost two-way satellite communications network”, as the company says, with sandwich-sized satellites and “out-of-the-box” satellite kits and modems.

Mauritius has its first own satellite. The first-ever Mauritian nanosatellite MIR-SAT1 has docked at the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX cargo Dragon rocket, the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation of the Republic of Mauritius announced.

The Luxembourgish startup OQ Technology won a contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop an advanced 5G network configuration over LEO, MEO and GEO satellites, the company said. The project was proposed by ESA under the umbrella of its ARTES program and was looking for an “Agile Network Configuration for 5G Internet-of-Things services over satellite”.

The Spanish satellite telecommunications operator Sateliot takes the lead to develop a low Earth orbit (LEO) nanosatellite constellation offering 5G coverage and a secure quantum key information exchange system. Sateliot is leading a consortium of a dozen companies and the Spanish Ministry of Defense, as a potential user, to deploy the nanosat constellation, the company said.

The maritime geolocation startup Unseenlabs raised €20 million to build its maritime geolocation fleet, the French company said. The series B funding round is "cementing its status as a European leader in the interception of radiofrequency signals from space”, the company said.

OroraTech, a Munich-based provider of satellite wildfire monitoring, and Spire, provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, want to partner to launch OroraTech’s first payload on a Spire 6U nanosatellite, Spire announced. The satellite planned for launch in December 2021 will carry OroraTech’s thermal-infrared camera and data processing unit designed to detect fires and transmit the data using Spire’s satellite and ground network, Spire said

Spanish Sateliot to connect nanosats and IoT with 5G