eoSCAN is a tool for users and service providers to consult the latest up-to-date sector news and documents from the Earth Observation industry. The news are updated daily and will allow the users to discover and surf the different sections. You can make use of the archive and search function to browse the news of the past months.
Earth-i, a UK-based EO startup is joining hands with Planet to build environmental monitoring solutions for the UK’s Rural Payments Agency.
EO data marketplace SkyWatch partnered with Satellogic to have the data available on their platform, while another EO data marketplace UP42 partnered with SAR data provider Umbra;
EO satellite provider SATLANTIS is partnering with Dotphoton, a company specialising in building image compression software;
EO data platform UP42 is teaming up with Israeli EO satellite operator ImageSat International (ISI) to provide access to 30 cm resolution optical imagery from the ISI's EROS NG satellite constellation;
Esri is integrating its ArcGIS mapping platform with Microsoft Azure Space to enable access to real-time data access and analysis capabilities;
Estonian startup KappaZeta, which builds agriculture and forestry solutions based on SAR data has raised €480K
European Space Imaging (EUSI), a satellite imagery provider is partnering with SAR satellite operator Umbra to offer SAR data to EUSI’s customers;
GHGsat Raising US$44M underscores GHGSat's leading position in greenhouse gas emissions intelligence and demonstrates strong investor confidence in the company.
Hyperspectral satellite operator Pixxel is partnering with EO marketplace SkyFi to integrate its hyperspectral data into SkyFi's platform;
Maxar has reorganised into two separate businesses: Maxar Space Infrastructure and Maxar Intelligence, along with some job cuts
Satellogic has signed an agreement with Skyloom with plans to integrate Skyloom’s optical communications terminal onto Satellogic’s satellites which will reduce data downlink latency. Satellogic + SkyWatch announce a new EO partnership.
Pixxel is partnering with geospatial solutions firm Sanborn to provide hyperspectral data from its satellites for developing applications across agriculture, forestry, mining and other verticals
Satellogic provided financial results for the first half of 2023, in which it reported $3.2M as revenues, a 33% year-over-year growth along with plans to redomicile the company in the US, from the British Virgin Islands.
Smallsat manufacturer Open Cosmos raised $50M in a Series B round to expand its EO satellite business, from investors including technology consulting firm Accenture
SynMax, a geospatial intelligence company focused on the energy and maritime sectors, has acquired Gas Vista which offers an energy trade flow analytics & visualisation platform
SkyWatch is teaming up with SatelliteVu to enable access to the latter’s thermal infrared satellite data on its platform;
VIDA, a German EO analytics startup raised €3M to provide physical climate risk information for infrastructure-related investments
Wyvern, a hyperspectral imaging startup, has partnered with space infrastructure firm Loft Orbital, securing capacity on a Loft Orbital satellite with a hyperspectral payload.
AWS is partnering with the Indian space agency ISRO and its commercial space arm IN-SPACE to support EO-related, cloud-based solutions;
Data from the Sentinel-1 satellite are being used to analyse how the ground has shifted as a result of the earthquake in Morocco.
Egypt will launch MisrSat-2, a land monitoring satellite, built in partnership with China, later this year
Indian EO firm SatSure is planning to invest $35M for the launch of four EO satellites by 2025
EUMETSAT released preliminary data from the MTG-I1 weather satellite, showing combined data from the imager and the lightning imager;
UAE-based geospatial solution provider Bayanat is partnering with hyperspectral satellite firm HySpecIQ to enable hyperspectral imaging and analysis capabilities in the country;
Portuguese EO firm GEOSAT has announced that it will be launching 11 high and very high-resolution satellites in 2025
Spain announced that it will be partnering with ESA to launch the Atlantic Constellation, an EO satellite constellation of 16 satellites, 8 of which will be developed in Spain and the other 8 in Portugal
The Strategic Roadmap developed under the FIREFORUM project reflects the research and innovation strategy, with the EC and Member State funding agencies in mind as the prime audience. Download the pdf version of the road map for the following sectors
EO solution provider GAF and the ESA have started a project to enable long-term preservation and public accessibility to data from Indian EO satellites, IRS-1C and IRS-1D, providing data from the pre-Sentinel era
ESA article on how the combined capabilities of Sentinel-5P and Sentinel-2 satellites, automatically discover methane super-emitter plumes.
Flood risk analytics firm Fathom unveiled FABDEM+, a high-resolution, global, digital elevation model
UN’s Marine Sand Watch, the first-ever global data platform on sand and other sediment extraction in the marine environment, found that about 6 billion tons of sand is extracted annually, impacting marine life;
Using GHGSat satellite data, the University of Leeds identified an unusually large methane source emitting a rate of over 200 kg/hr.
This piece on TerraWatch, which discusses the applications of L-band SAR in the mining sector, through case studies from Israeli startup ASTERRA
This piece from The Guardian showing how satellite imagery was used to identify and track vessels transporting sanctioned oil around the world
American Airlines, through a collaboration with Breakthrough Energy and Google, demonstrated a method to reduce aircraft contrails ¹using data from weather satellites (but scaling this might not be an easy task)
Delos Insurance, which offers wildfire insurance products based on EO has raised $7.3M in a seed extension round;
EO data distributor SkyFi has unveiled geospatial analytics features on its platform, called SkyFi Insights, as well as the availability of open EO data;
Ground segment provider KSAT is implementing an integrated satellite tasking, data reception and processing platform for near real-time delivery of ship detection services;
Location platform MapBox has closed $280M in a Series E funding round, led by SoftBank to expand its map offerings for the automotive industry
Weather intelligence firm Tomorrow.io is expanding its recent Series E funding round by $22M (to the $87M raised in June), including from strategic investors such as the UAE’s Strategic Development Fund
Ball Aerospace was awarded a contract worth $487M to deliver a hyperspectral infrared sounder for NOAA’s GeoXO satellite constellation;
Greenhouse monitoring EO firm GHGSat closed a Series C1 funding round of US$44M, which includes strategic investors such as the Japan Energy Fund and the Government of Québec;
SpaceChain, a Singapore-based startup that has integrated blockchain nodes into satellites, unveiled an AI-based platform called I-Sat, an interactive tool to answer questions with Earth observation data;
SAR satellite company Iceye was selected by the Government of Australia to supply flood and bushfire hazard data used for disaster response;
Spire was selected by Estuaire, an aviation data analytics startup to provide satellite and terrestrial ADS-B data;
Wildfire monitoring EO startup OroraTech, won a contract from the Forestry Corporation of New South Wales, essentially an extension of their current partnership to improve wildfire management in Australia;
Weather forecasting startup Salient Predictions was awarded a grant from NOAA to advance their AI-driven water availability forecasting system, capable of predictions up to 52 weeks ahead.
GHGsat Access it today, and see our monitoring activity for Q2 2023
The State of the Climate Report a peer-reviewed, international annual review of the world’s climate from more than 570 scientists in over 60 countries, was released which showed that greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea level and ocean heat reached record highs in 2022.
Planet reported revenues of $53.8M for Q2 2023, with major contracts from institutions such as the UK Rural Payments Agency and the US Space Force';
Carbon rating firm BeZero Carbon is partnering with French EO analytics company Kayrros to map the Amazon basin using satellite imagery and geospatial data to rate carbon projects
Carbon monitoring startup Sylvera, which uses remote sensing data among other sources, has raised $57M in Series B funding
Capella Space announced details about its next-generation SAR satellite including high-resolution imagery and low latency delivery
Development Seed announced the launch of eoAPI, a cloud-native, open geospatial data infrastructure to make archived EO data more easily discoverable and interoperable
Privateer Space, a space sustainability startup founded by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, unveiled an EO marketplace that will be powered by an edge compute, storage, machine learning, and data transmission module
SatSure is partnering with Rabo Partnerships, an initiative of the Dutch agribusiness bank, Rabobank, to enable cash flow-based lending for smallholder farmers globally using SatSure’s EO products;
India’s IN-SPACe is considering a public-private partnership for building and operating a national EO constellation. India launched 7 Singaporean satellites, including a SAR satellite to be used by Singapore government agencies and commercial customers
Indian EO analytics firm, SatSure, which is building a constellation of satellites, made a strategic investment in Astrogate Labs, a startup building laser communications system that enhances downlink speed to 1 Gbps
ISRO published details of the NISAR Utilization Programme, an initiative to allow Indian researchers to access data from the NISAR satellite with a dual-frequency S-and L-band SAR instrument, launching in early 2024
NASA announced the release of the first open-source geospatial AI foundation model for EO data, built using the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 dataset, in partnership with IBM
Radiant Earth, PLACE, Spatial Collective, and the Kenyan Space Agency are collaborating on a pilot project to collect and curate labelled high-resolution agricultural data for open access and public benefit in Kenya
The UK Space Agency announced £15M in funding which will be used to invest in a range of environmental monitoring EO instruments
The Government of Western Australia invested AUD 800,000 in LatConnect 60, which is building a constellation of EO satellites
The Group on Earth Observations announced the development of Global Heat Resilience Service that aims to provide every urban area in the world with intelligence on the health risks from exposure to extreme heat using EO
The Strategic Roadmap developed under the FIREFORUM project reflects the research and innovation strategy, with the EC and Member State funding agencies in mind as the prime audience. Download the pdf version of the road map for the following sectors
SAR satellites from Capella Space are falling back to Earth much sooner than the three years they were anticipated to operate, due to a combination of issues with the propulsion system and increased solar activity
Planet Joins BARSC. Planet has announced a layoff of 117 employees, about 10% of its ~1,000 employees
European space traffic management company Neuraspace has joined NVIDIA Inception, a program that nurtures startups revolutionizing industries with artificial intelligence
Real-estate broker Redfin will include wind risk data provided by the non-profit firm First Street Foundation, based on current and projected wind exposure from hurricanes, for nearly every U.S. property listed on its website
Google, together with Woodwell Climate Research Center, has won a $5M grant to create satellite-based analysis methods for permafrost monitoring in the Arctic, leveraging data from public and commercial sources
Luxembourg-based radio frequency monitoring startup Kleos Space has filed for bankruptcy, due to launch delays, satellite development issues, and challenges with accessing capital
Hyperspectral satellite startup Pixxel won a grant from the Ministry of Defence to manufacture miniaturized multi-payload (optical, SAR, infrared, hyperspectral) satellites for the Indian Air Force
Space-related security and defence projects funded through the EDF
Spire won a €16M contract from ESA to demonstrate a civil aviation tracking constellation that would not rely on any global navigation satellite system
The US Space Force will receive $40 million for a pilot program to evaluate the use of commercial imaging satellites in support of military operations
The US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy will provide more than $1B in funding to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector, which includes tools to monitor methane emissions
Draft GEO Post-2025 strategy that was sent for a consultation with the GEO Member States, Participating Organizations and Associates in June 2023 (Draft GEO Post-2025 strategy)
The Strategic Roadmap developed under the FIREFORUM project reflects the research and innovation strategy, with the EC and Member State funding agencies in mind as the prime audience. Download the pdf version of the road map for the following sectors
Ball Corporation, which owns Ball Aerospace, which has built several Earth science instruments for NASA/NOAA missions, is exploring a sale of the business unit for more than $5B
BlackSky was awarded a multi-year contract worth more than $30M to provide on-demand, real-time high-frequency imagery services to an international defence sector customer
Capella Space was awarded a multi-year agreement by NASA, with contracts that could be valued at $7M per call
Fleet Space, which is building a constellation of IoT satellites to connect its proprietary tomographic sensors used for mining exploration applications has raised $33M in a Series C round
Global Fishing Watch, a non-profit focused on monitoring global fishing was awarded a $60M contract by the Audacious Project for openly mapping and publishing human activity on the oceans
GRASP Global, which plans to deploy a constellation of satellites for air quality monitoring launched its platform to provide air quality forecasting;
Hydrosat is acquiring IrriWatch, a Dutch early-stage agriculture analytics startup
IGN launched a new public-private partnership initiative to integrate solutions from EO startups into ecological mapping projects
Kleos is joining hands with defense corporation General Atomics to derive insights from RF data
Muon Space, a bespoke EO satellite provider, launched its first demonstration satellite and unveiled plans for its Climate Constellation
Nuview, which aims to launch a constellation of lidar-equipped satellites has raised $15 million including from Leonardo DiCaprio. NUVIEW, which plans to launch a constellation of lidar-equipped satellites won a contract from the U.S. Department of Defense, worth $2.75M
Orbital Sidekick and EOS Data Analytics, a Ukraine-based EO company that plans to launch a constellation of optical imaging satellites have received the first images from their recently launched initial satellite(s)
Planet is partnering with the UAE Space Agency providing access to its data to build a regional loss and damage solution for climate change resilience; Planet also announced partnerships with AI data analytics providers - synthetic data startup, Synthetaic and South Korean startup SI Analytics
Prométhée awarded a contract to French satellite player Hemeria, to supply the first satellite of its planned EO constellation, followed by an additional 20 satellites, all equipped with multispectral sensors
Reask has raised $4.9M in seed funding to continue scaling its global risk mapping and forecasting products
SatelliteVu, which aims to launch an EO satellite constellation to acquire thermal infrared data has raised $15.8M in a Series A-2 round
Sidus Space, which offers space-as-a-service for EO announced that its satellite equipped with multispectral, hyperspectral and edge compute capabilities in 2024
Spire announced that the two satellites which were launched on the SpaceX Transporter-8 mission were equipped with optical inter-satellite link payloads, aimed at reducing data latency and increasing data security;Spire is collaborating with BlackSky to build a maritime solution to automatically detect, identify and track vessels in real-time, fusing data from their two sensors - radio frequency (RF) and high-res optical imagery
SkyFi is joining hands with very high-resolution, stratospheric imagery provider Near Space Labs. SkyFi, which offers an application for the on-demand acquisition of satellite imagery, has raised $7M in a seed round
Tomorrow.io, a weather intelligence company building a constellation of satellites with precipitation radars and microwave sounders raised $87M in a Series E round (more, if you want to understand the weather market)
Whereobots, a startup building a geospatial platform for enterprises closed a $5.5M seed round.
China is using a nationwide satellite and automated monitoring system to protect nature (article piece)
Copernicus, the EU’s flagship EO programme announced the launch of the Copernicus Health Hub, a one-stop-shop for all Copernicus data, products and information having to do with health
GHGSat is partnering with UK’s Satellite Applications Catapult to provide UK organisations with access to high-resolution methane emissions satellite data
ESA and ECMWF outlined a new approach to better anticipate the outbreak of fires using data from the agency’s SMOS mission to create the Fire Occurrence Probability Index
UK’s geospatial strategy 2030 document outlining the opportunity in geospatial and the plans for unlocking the power of EO
World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) announced the launch of ‘Global Greenhouse Gas Watch’, an initiative that brings under one roof all space-based and surface-based observing systems for emissions, standardising the models and data assimilation methods
The Strategic Roadmap developed under the FIREFORUM project reflects the research and innovation strategy, with the EC and Member State funding agencies in mind as the prime audience. Download the pdf version of the road map for the following sectors
As greenhouse gas emissions reached an all-time high, a new study provides an update on the indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence, some of which uses EO data to compare the state of indicators used in IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), published in 2021
deep-dive that provides an excellent report on the state of forest monitoring and how advancements in EO will help improve it further;
EU Maritime Security Strategy in this article published by GEOsmart Magazine.
EO startup Impact Observatory announced the launch of IO Monitor, a global mapping and monitoring product to classify land use and land cover
ESA project will demonstrate how artificial intelligence could use satellite data to help certify organic cotton farms in India to prevent fraud;
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, researchers found that of the 133 developing countries studied for progress towards providing regular GHG inventories, over half of them still struggle to report GHG emissionsGoogle Earth Engine became a key tool for monitoring deforestation around the world
Google announced the global launch of its AI-driven flood forecasting platform, Flood Hub, which uses satellite data along with other sources
Lightning Imager animations can be found in the media kit here.
Iceye unveiled a new imaging mode that can distinguish human-made and natural objects and highlight moving vehicles, by having the satellite focus on an area for 25-seconds
investigative article that shows how satellite data used by the non-profit Global Fishing Watch is used to catch illegal fishing
The Copernicus Marine Service is organising a two-hour training workshop to help journalists and science communicators better appreciate the importance of Copernicus marine data in storytelling (piece)
UNOOSA report on the role of space technologies in the world, which recently exceeded a population of 8 billion
Wildfires: article that tells you everything that you need to know about understanding wildfires
WMO article that shows how the economic costs of weather-related disasters have rapidly grown but early warnings have saved lives;
Climate risk analytics provider Jupiter Intelligence announced that Fannie Mae, a mortgage-backed securities firm will be integrating Jupiter’s products for climate risk assessment
Northrop Grumman won a launch contract from the US Space Force to launch a small weather satellite that will demonstrate commercial weather imaging technologies for military use
Serco was awarded a contract by ESA for the implementation of Europe’s Destination Earth platform, an initiative to create the digital twin of the planet.
US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded contracts to 4 companies - Umbra, PredaSAR, Northrop Grumman and Jacobs to demonstrate formation flying of SAR satellites and algorithms for processing of the imagery collected
The stocks of Planet dropped by at least 25% after the company lowered annual revenue guidance from $248 million and $268 million to $225 million to $235 million for fiscal year 2024
Unlocking the full potential of Earth Observation in Europe is the theme of EXPANDEO 2023, the annual conference of the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC), which is taking place in Brussels 13 – 14 June.
Intersolar Europe, the world’s leading exhibition for the solar industry, is happening 13 – 16 June in Munich. Come learn how the industry is using EU Space to, for example, find the best location for placing solar panels.
ESA Commercialisation Days event Transportation - 27 November 2023
How do you innovate in uncertain times? EU Space can help! To learn more, join EUSPA at EBN2023, the largest gathering of European incubators, accelerators, science parks, innovation centres, and innovation supporters of all kinds. That’s taking place 14 – 15 June in Brno, Czech Republic.
EARSC, the European Association of Remote Sensing companies, is conducting an industry survey to map the state and health of companies providing EO services in Europe. Will you contribute?
Airbus will also supply satellite imagery from its Pléiades Neo constellation to Nestlé for its reforestation efforts
Albedo, another US-based EO startup won a $1.25M grant from the US Space Force - the company is launching a constellation of satellites into very low Earth orbit to collect high-resolution imagery (10 cm) and thermal data
BlackSky, through its reseller Telespazio, will provide the Spanish region of Aragon with first-ever high-cadence, low-latency satellite imagery services
LiveEO received an €800K grant from ESA to develop monitoring services for the forestry sector and insurers based on satellite data and AI
CropX, an Israeli agtech startup that offers a farm monitoring solution based on data from in-situ sources and satellites raised $30M in Series C funding
Hydrosat, a US-based EO startup raised $20M in private investment and government grants to acquire daily thermal infrared data for plant water stress monitoring among other applications
Iceye has announced the Beta release of its Wildfire Insights product aimed at the insurance sector
Maxar expects the first two of its Legion satellites to launch this summer providing high-resolution imagery (30 cm), and plans to add two more to the planned six-satellite constellation
Nuview, a US-based startup that aims to launch LiDAR-equipped satellites came out of stealth mode, while also announcing that it closed its first round of funding last year and that it has also won a government contract
Norwegian ground segment services firm KSAT was selected by the European Maritime Safety Agency to provide SAR monitoring services
Planet Italia, an EO services company won two contracts worth €42M from ESA for the development of downstream services derived from data acquired through the future Italian satellite constellation IRIDE
SAR satellite company Iceye signed an agreement with insurance solution firm Global Parametrics to provide flood data for parametric insurance
SAR satellite firm Capella Space will supply imagery to LiveEO, a German EO startup for integrating into its disaster response solutions
Satlantis has bought a majority stake in SuperSharp, a UK-based startup developing foldable thermal infrared telescopes
Synspective, is partnering with Thailand’s satellite operator Thaicom to provide real-time data for disaster management efforts
SkyWatch won a $1.1M contract from the Canadian Space Agency to advance the application of AI for EO mission planning and data management and distribution
Spire launched a weather insights platform specifically aimed at the maritime industry, powered by data from radio occultation satellites
The shareholders of Maxar Technologies have approved the acquisition by private equity firm Advent International, for $6.4B
China launched an advanced EO satellite, called Fengyun 3G, with precipitation radar among other instruments
China has operationalised a satellite data-derived platform to monitor ecological zones, which include over 30 percent of the country’s land area
European Parliament has approved a new regulation that would ban goods linked to deforestation
Eumetsat and ESA released the first images from the Meteosat Third Generation Imager 1 (or Meteosat-12) which should improve short-term weather forecasting thanks to its improved resolution and new sensors
ISRO launched an EO satellite equipped with a SAR instrument, called TeLEOS-2 for Singapore
Italy, through ESA, has ordered 34 EO satellites with optical, SAR and hyperspectral sensors as part of its IRIDE constellation, from a number of local companies, worth €1.1B
Leonardo DRS launched a thermal imaging radiometer with Loft Orbital to measure the Earth’s surface temperature from space
UK Geospatial Commission has launched its commercial EO pilot project, together with Airbus Defence and Space, to provide access and test the use of EO data for up to 35 public sector organisations
UK will launch a new SAR satellite called CarbSAR which will demonstrate Oxford Space Systems’ deployable antenna
The Strategic Roadmap developed under the FIREFORUM project reflects the research and innovation strategy, with the EC and Member State funding agencies in mind as the prime audience. Download the pdf version of the road map for the following sectors
Accenture is collaborating with climate intelligence provider Cervest to provide climate risk information to its clients spanning across industries
ESA launchedWorldCereal, the world’s first dynamic and open-source system to provide seasonally updated cropland and crop-type maps at 10-meter spatial resolution at a global scale
Canadian Space Agency awarded a contract to EO startup OroraTech specialising in thermal infrared and Spire Global with its space-as-a-service offering to perform preparatory work for a wildfire-monitoring satellite
Climate Engine launched SpatiaFi, a platform to provide private and public sector organizations insights into climate risks on Google Cloud
CGI is working with UK’s Ordnance Survey to develop a develop water pollution predictive tool using satellite data and AI
Data from the EU’s Copernicus programme shows that the ongoing wildfires in Alberta, Canada and in Siberia, Russia are worsening air quality and increasing carbon dioxide emissions.
Deriving yearly global above ground biomass maps by combining data from JAXA’s L-band SAR ALOS mission and ESA’s C-band Sentinel-1 mission;
LiveEO announced the launch of a solution to verify compliance of a supply chain with the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (for selected commodities);
methodology behind the first map of all trees in Africa created using data from Planet’s EO satellites (paper)
Microsoft’s Planetary Computer integrated a new dataset on biodiversity called Biodiversity Intactness, derived by EO analytics firms Impact Observatory and Vizzuality
NASA launched a new project called OPERA (Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis) to provide data from multiple satellites for use by government agencies
NASA partnered with the US Forest Service to build an inventory of the country’s oldest trees, with ground data complemented by the GEDI mission
NOAA is also setting up plans for the next generation of polar weather satellites following the successful Joint Polar Satellite System, called NEON
Rocket Lab launched the first two of four satellites of NASA’s TROPICS mission, which aim to provide hourly data on storms forming in the tropics
Sticking to methane, the EU could push for a law that would require oil and gas companies in Europe to check their above-ground infrastructure every two-to-four months, and fix methane leaks they discover
The EU-funded Copernicus Philippines Programme was launched to support the country with natural disaster monitoring and climate change adaptation
The New Yorker published this interactive piece on the state of methane monitoring and the role of satellites such as MethaneSat
Using data from French EO startup Kayrros, the Guardian reported that the methane emissions from the two main fossil fuel fields of Turkmenistan contributed more to global warming in 2022 than the entire carbon emissions of the UK
Weather intelligence firm Tomorrow.ioannounced the launch of a new solution that provides global precipitation forecast with a better (48-61%) accuracy for precipitation intensity compared to publicly-available products ;
Apple announced an expansion of Restore Fund, its nature-based carbon removal initiative, the impact of which will be measured and monitored by EO - from providers such as Space Intelligence, Upstream Tech and Maxar
EO platform startup Astraea launched satellite tasking capabilities allowing tasking of satellite imagery from providers like Planet
EO platform startup SkyWatch is partnering with Urban Sky, a stratospheric balloon imaging startup to distribute their imagery through SkyWatch's data management and distribution platform, TerraStream
A satellite from Terran Orbital Corporation, a US-based small satellite manufacturer, has enabled the demonstration of a space-to-ground optical link that successfully transmitted 200 gigabits per second
Space-as-a-service firm Sidus Space signed a partnership agreement with Indian edge-computing startup SkyServe
Spire Global reported $24.2M in revenues for the same period, a 34% YoY increase with contracts across its aviation, maritime and data businesse
Airbus won a one year long pilot contract from the UK Geospatial Commission to provide public sector from 35 organisations with access to commercial, high resolution satellite EO data
AXA Climate extended its strategic partnership with Planet specifically for the use of one of its Planetary Variables - Soil Water Content
BlackSky reported $18.4M in revenues for Q1 2023, a 32% year-over-year (YoY) increase with contracts from government defense agencies
SSC awarded 2.26M€ contract by ESA for second phase of the optical ground network initiative NODES (https://sscspace.com/)
SITAEL, an Italian small satellite manufacturer signed a contract with ESA to build four EO satellites with hyperspectral sensors as part of Italy’s IRIDE EO satellite constellation
3D geospatial platform, Cesium signed a research agreement with the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to explore the use of 3D data
Amazon Web Services selected 14 startups for the 2023 AWS Space Accelerator including 4 EO startups
GRASP, which aims to build and launch an EO satellite constellation with air pollution monitoring sensors
Kawa Space, a geospatial intelligence startup
Little Place Labs, an edge computing startup
Lunasonde, which aims to launch an EO satellite constellation with radars for subsurface imaging of the Earth, the Moon and beyond
Investment firm Seraphim Space selected nine startups to be part of its accelerator program, including two EO firms
An Indian startup, GalaxEye Space, which aims to launch a constellation of multi-sensor (multispectral + SAR) satellites
EarthEye, a startup from Singapore, which is building an EO platform for ordering and processing satellite imagery
EO non-profit Radiant Earth (previously Radiant Earth Foundation) has announced the launch of two initiatives:
Source Cooperative, a data publishing utility to make it trivially easy for geospatial data providers to make data products available on the Internet;
Cloud-Native Geospatial Foundation to increase adoption of highly efficient modern data sharing best practices;
EU Global Action from Space: This initiative by the European Commission supports cooperation between EU Space companies and players from more than 110 countries globally. The EU Global Action on Space is targeted explicitly towards stakeholders from your country to benefit from the European Space Programmes (e.g., on Earth Observation, Satellite Navigation), its data, and services by supporting the set-up, strengthening, and deepening of international collaborations with the goal to reach commercial agreements.
EARSC, the European Association of Remote Sensing companies, is conducting an industry survey to map the state and health of companies providing EO services in Europe. Will you contribute?
Airbus Intelligence has partnered with TerraNIS to export Farmstar, its precision farming and crop monitoring service, outside of France
Albedo launching very-high-resolution optical imagery instruments along with thermal infrared sensors
CollectiveCrunch, a Finnish startup building sustainable forestry platform using satellite data among other sources raised €1.4M
Iceye and Satlantis proposing the Tandem4EO constellation to Spain, made up of optical and radar satellites
Impact Observatory, a US-based startup building global land cover maps from EO data raised $4.9M in seed funding, from investors including Esri
Galaxeye Space launching a satellite with SAR and optical sensors
Maxar partnering with Umbra for access to high-resolution SAR imagery and acquiring Aurora Insights for radio frequency signal monitoring
Meta released its Segment Anything Model that automatically extracts objects from images, with huge potential for processing satellite data
NASA awarded Iceye with a contract to provide high-resolution SAR (1m to 15m) data for evaluation within the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program, which includes Planet, Spire & Maxar as suppliers
Planet to enhance their data analysis platform through the acquisition of Sinergise tech. Planet reported record Q4 earnings bringing in $53M and also announced its plans to acquire Sinergise, an EO data platform from Slovenia. Planet is partnering with EO platform startup Ursa Space allowing access to its daily imagery on Ursa’s platform and with environmental software startup Upstream Tech offering subscriptions to its basemap product. Planet is also collaborating with The Nature Conservancy to build Blue Carbon Explorer, a digital tool to map mangrove and seagrass blue carbon around the world. Planet diversifying into hyperspectral with Tanager instruments
SatelliteVu, the UK-based thermal infrared satellite startup received £300K in public funding from the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund for research on using their datasets for commercial solar farm monitoring
Satellogic will be building and launching, what looks like, a hyperspectral sensor to orbit designed in collaboration with agtech firm InnerPlant
Sidus Space, a startup offering EO solutions through a space-as-a-service model is partnering with SatLab to integrate its automated identification system technology into the LizzieSat multi-sensor satellite constellation
Tomorrow.io launching precipitation radars and microwave sounders
UK startup Space Intelligence which builds carbon monitoring solutions from EO data is partnering with Everland, a company that manages the world’s largest portfolio of forest conservation projects
Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, launched AquaWatch Australia, a a 'weather service' for water quality leveraging EO data
China released public images from one of their more recent satellites, with a thermal infrared imaging instrument, and a hyperspectral imager, aimed at monitoring greenhouse gases and environmental applications
Digital Earth Africa, the EO platform for Africa has received additional funding for three more years from its original donors
Dubai’s Electricity and Water Authority will launch an EO satellite, Dewa Sat-2, with a multispectral sensor after the first mission Dewa Sat-1, which had an IoT sensor, for planning, operation, and maintenance activities
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson claimed that the proposed spending reductions for US fiscal year 2024 could lead to cancellations of planned EO missions in the Earth System Observatory program
Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), which provides open access to high resolution satellite imagery of the world’s rainforests has been extended by a year, until September 2024
UAE and China have signed an MoU to advance meteorological technologies including satellite-based monitoring and China’s FengYun program
The European Commission launched the first-ever EU Space Strategy for Security and Defence, which includes a pilot for new EO governmental service as part of the evolution of Copernicus
The Strategic Roadmap developed under the FIREFORUM project reflects the research and innovation strategy, with the EC and Member State funding agencies in mind as the prime audience. Download the pdf version of the road map for the following sectors
BlackSky commissioned its newly launched satellites in less than a day, and integrated the data into its geospatial intelligence platform
dashboard of dashboards with climate-related indicators
Data from NOAA showed that greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) continued to rise rapidly in 2022, Data from NOAA also showed that the average ocean surface temperature at the beginning of April rose to unchartered levels potentially risk of extreme weather events due to climate change
Data from ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission showed low levels of soil moisture across Europe (see an example from France below) raising concerns about water supply, agriculture and energy production.
ESA’s SMOS, CryoSat and Swarm missions, which monitor soil moisture, ice and magnetic field respectively among other parameters, have been extended at least until the end of 2025
ESA’s HydroGNSS mission, which planned to measure climate variables like soil moisture using a technique called Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reflectometry, will now be made up of two satellites (instead of one)
Former NASA scientist and executive has joined the satellite image processing service unit launched by consulting firm, EY
UNEP MARS, will detect at least 40-50 episodes a month and make them public, with data provided by French startup, Kayrros and the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)
Maxar announced an update to its global basemap, which will now be available at 30 centimeters per pixel. Maxar is also diversifying into imaging other satellites providing data for space situational awareness - here’s an image of Landsat 8 from a Maxar satellite (joining companies like HEO Robotics and AxelSpace)
NASA’s GEDI mission, which collects LiDAR data from the ISS, was put in hibernation, but will continue to be operational until at least 2030
paper summarising the considerations of EO and artificial intelligence for building agriculture solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Report from the UN found that more people are being affected by more disasters because decision-makers are failing to invest in risk mitigation
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission from NASA and CNES, which suffered a minor setback is now working as expected and downlinked its first images of water on the planet’s surface;
Tomorrow.ioannounced the launch of ‘Gale,’ the first generative AI product (think ChatGPT) dedicated to weather and climate for businesses and governments to easily identify key trends, risks and opportunities
BlackSky launched two high resolution optical imagery satellites with Rocket Lab, marking an end to its Gen-2 version (90 cm), before moving onto its Gen-3 satellites (50 cm) from 2024
China launched four commercial weather satellites with GNSS radio occultation instruments, part of the Tianmu-1 constellation
Descartes Labs was selected to be one of the technology partners by Comtech, a satellite telecommunications solutions provider
Spire entered into a long-term agreement with Switzerland-based ch-aviation, an airline insights platform to supply global flight analytics from its constellation of satellites with ADS-B sensors. Spire Global and PlanetiQ, both flying radio occultation instruments, won follow-on Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contracts by NOAA to compete for orders worth $59M
The US National Reconnaissance Office awarded contract extensions to Aurora Insight (now owned by Maxar), HawkEye360, Kleos Space and Spire to evaluate radio-frequency data from their satellites (it looks like Terran Orbital and Umbra missed out after they were selected last year)
The UK Geospatial Commission released a new digital map of underground pipes and cables in the UK
The TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution) instrument from NASA aimed at measuring air pollution in North America, will launch later this week hosted on an Intelsat communication satellite
Google awarded a $5M grant to the World Resources Institute as part of its Impact Challenge to study extreme heat and adaptation techniques, a project that will use EO among other sources
NOAA has requested $6.8B in funding for FY 2024, an increase of roughly $450M for future weather satellite programs after reduced funding in 2023
Thales Alenia Space won a contract from ESA to supply five SAR satellites and one optical satellite for the Italian EO constellation, IRIDE, worth €142M along with options for more orders
US’ National Reconnaissance Office awarded six study contracts worth $300,000 each for hyperspectral satellite imagery to BlackSky, HyperSat, Orbital Sidekick, Pixxel, Planet, and Xplore;
vorteX-io, a French startup received (in French) a grant of €2.5M from the European Innovation Council to create the first European flood and drought forecasting service with in-situ monitoring sensors
IPCC report, look no further than this piece from CarbonBrief
A SAR satellite from Iceye, purchased with the donations from Ukrainians, has helped detect and destroy thousands of pieces of Russian military equipment in five months of use
Corteva Agriscience, one of the leading agriculture firms is collaborating with Ukrainian EO company, EOS Data Analytics to research the use of satellite imagery for crop monitoring applications
Japanese EO company Axelspace announced partnerships with Space Compass, a venture building space data relay networks and Tokio Marine Holdings, an insurance firm, along with a new round of undisclosed funding
EARSC, the European Association of Remote Sensing companies, is conducting an industry survey to map the state and health of companies providing EO services in Europe. Will you contribute?
Airbus signs agreement with TerraNIS to export Farmstar in Europe. To learn more about Farmstar, click here.
Asterra, the Israeli startup that offers an infrastructure monitoring platform providing insights from SAR imagery is looking to launch its own L-band SAR satellite
Capella Space signed a multi-launch deal with Rocket Lab to launch four of their ‘Arcadia’ SAR satellites (possibly to replace these five falling birds).
Capella Space announced the launch of its Analytics Partner Program to promote use of SAR data from their satellites, starting with three partners - Woolpert, Kayrros and Floodbase;
Guyana Ministry of Natural Resources has signed a three-year contract with Maxar to provide imagery and insights for environmental monitoring;
IRISS, the EU’s forthcoming satellite communications constellation, will soon compliment Galileo and Copernicus by providing independent, secure, resilient, cost-effective and seamless communication services. Read more in this article by Space.com.
NATO is launching a new initiative to streamline the process of gathering, disseminating, and distributing satellite data for use by its members;
The Canadian Space Agency awarded ten contracts worth $6.8M to five different companies in the country for EO-related R&D projects.
The Strategic Roadmap developed under the FIREFORUM project reflects the research and innovation strategy, with the EC and Member State funding agencies in mind as the prime audience. Download the pdf version of the road map for the following sectors
Criticism: use of Earth observation data in reporting forest levels for the Global Stocktake process (paper)
EO company BlackSky has discovered details about China’s secret naval base in Cambodia using data from their satellites
ESA released this video on the state of the ozone layer, its recovery and the role of satellites in monitoring it, including ESA’s upcoming Altius mission
The International Energy Agency published bad news about the state of methane emissions in 2022 with the Methane Tracker database, which integrates satellite measurements from EO companies, GHGSat and Kayrros
Microsoft announces Azure Orbital Space Software Development Kit, software tools to make it easy for developers to create space applications in the cloud and deploy them on spacecraft operated by Azure Orbital partners - Ball Aerospace, Loft Orbital, Thales Alenia Space and Xplore
Near Space Labs will provide imagery from their stratospheric balloons to property risk insurtech firm Tensorflight.
Small satellite integrator, Open Cosmos will be launching a multimodal satellite with IoT-EO sensors later this year for the Andalusian (Spain) state
Thermal infrared startup, ConstellR signed a multi-launch contract with launch service provider ExoLaunch for launch of their satellites in 2024
Space-as-a-service company, Sidus Space has partnered with edge computing startup Exo-Space to provide edge AI capabilities into its planned satellite constellation;
World Meteorological Organization will be running an Uncrewed Aircraft Systems to evaluate the use of drones for filling in atmospheric gaps in weather forecasting and monitoring;
Airbus Defence and Space won a contract from Angola for their first Earth observation satellite, continuing the trend of sovereign EO globally
EarthDaily Analytics was awarded a $1M Canadian Space Agency to enable analytics-ready thermal detection calibration and processing;
Maxar was awarded a contract by the US Army worth ‘tens of millions of dollars’ to provide geospatial data to construct 3D virtual models of Earth
Satellite IoT company, Astrocast was selected by Swiss Polar Institute to provide connectivity for for remote snow, glacier, and permafrost monitoring stations in Central Asia
13th International Symposia on Digital Earth will be held from 11th to 14th July, 2023 in Athens, Greece (here)
CASSINI Business Accelerator will be a six month space tech programme offering top-level business & investment coaching, training and seed funding to improve startup and scaleup companies’ ability to achieve sustained commercial growth in upstream and downstream space applications.
CASSINI is the European Commission's initiative to support entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs in the space industry, including New Space, during 2021-2027.
COSMOS4HE organised an online Brokerage Event in conjunction with Cluster 4 Info Day to facilitate consortia building for Space calls 2023. Check partner profiles for Space calls here.
EARSC, the European Association of Remote Sensing companies, is conducting an industry survey to map the state and health of companies providing EO services in Europe. Will you contribute?
Asterra announced the launch of their EO Discover platform, a software application for the infrastructure sector, powered by EO. the Israeli startup that offers an infrastructure monitoring platform providing insights from SAR imagery is looking to launch its own L-band SAR satellite (more on this below);
AiDash, the EO-based infrastructure monitoring company is launching an energy grid resilience product together with Schneider Electric
Capella Space announced the launch of its Analytics Partner Program to promote use of SAR data from their satellites, starting with three partners - Woolpert, Kayrros and Floodbase;
Drone imaging firm, Zeitview (formerly DroneBase) raised $55M, positioning itself as complementary to and competing with satellite imagery.
Element84 has acquired Azavea, bringing together two organisations that quietly work together in the background to make geospatial data easier to process, analyse and visualise through open-source innovation;
Maxar is on track to being acquired by Advent International, the private equity firm for $6.4B, after receiving no competing offers;
Maxar is partnering with Umbra to receive dedicated access to SAR imagery, enabling Maxar to provide multi-source geospatial intelligence solutions for governmental and commercial customers;
NV5 Global, a geospatial consultancy has acquired Axim Geospatial, a geospatial solutions provider in the defence and intelligence sectors.
Orbital Insight, the EO platform company, reported that it has secured new global customers for its recently released Terrascope product, while also quietly announcing that it has raised a new round of undisclosed funding;
SatSure, a vertically integrated EO company from India raised an undisclosed amount in strategic investments from the country’s major banks - ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and HDFC Ltd.
SatelliteVu, the UK-based EO company, building thermal infrared satellites announced that it has secured £81 million worth of purchase options from 30 companies for their Early Access Programme.
World View is positioning itself as an EO company in their SPAC investor presentation
ESA launched the beta version of the Green Transition Information Factories platform aimed at providing tools for green transition derived from EO data;
ESA released this video on the state of the ozone layer, its recovery and the role of satellites in monitoring it, including ESA’s upcoming Altius mission;
OroraTech, the EO startup building wildfire monitoring thermal infrared satellites announced the launch of an on-orbit processing technology that can detect and send fire notification alarms to customers within 3 minutes;
The International Energy Agency published bad news about the state of methane emissions in 2022 with the Methane Tracker database, which integrates satellite measurements from EO companies, GHGSat and Kayrros;
This paper showing the limited use of Earth observation data in reporting forest levels for the Global Stocktake process;
German wildfire monitoring startup, Dryad, which raised funding last year for early wildfire detection by monitoring environmental variables using IoT.
John Deere announcement in January that they were “finalising a satellite partner” in order to build a geospatial map that farmers can use to better track productivity and the performance of crops.
Maxar launched a high-performance, digital twin SYNTH3D for metaverse, gaming, virtual reality applications. Maxar will also be teaming up withHeavy.ai, Bain, and NVIDIA to provide high-frequency, high-resolution digital twins for communication service providers enabling greater efficiencies in network deployments.
SpaceQuest Ventures invests in Kreios Space and welcomes them into accelerator program. Click here
Space Compass, a Japanese joint venture between NTT and SKY Perfect JSAT, is partnering with Skyloom to provide optical data relay services for EO missions, aiming to reduce the data downlink latency to seconds;
EarthDaily Analytics was awarded a $1M Canadian Space Agency to enable analytics-ready thermal detection calibration and processing;
French AI/EO startup Preligens is aiming for success with the US DoD after winning contracts from the French defence ministry (in French);
Maxar Technologies was awarded an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, worth up to $192 million over five years
The Guyana Ministry of Natural Resources has signed a three-year contract with Maxar to provide imagery and insights for environmental monitoring;
Techstars announced their first cohort of startups in Saudi Arabia, which includes several EO startups: Airmo, Kawa Space, SARsatX and SMSNR.
India’s three major banks ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and HDFC Ltd investing in SatSure;
Peraton, a US-based defence contractor won a ~$400M contract from NOAA to provide ground services for polar-orbiting JPSS weather satellites;
Two major energy companies, Williams and ONEOK, investing in Orbital Sidekick;
13th International Symposia on Digital Earth will be held from 11th to 14th July, 2023 in Athens, Greece.
Bringing precise positioning to the mass market with the Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS). Join the UNION Technology Workshop & Demonstration to find out how!
CASSINI Business Accelerator will be a six month space tech programme offering top-level business & investment coaching, training and seed funding to improve startup and scaleup companies’ ability to achieve sustained commercial growth in upstream and downstream space applications.
Marking a year of Russia invading Ukraine, the Economist published an interactive piece which uses satellite data to show the impacts of the war.
Want to learn how Copernicus can address the unique needs of anticipatory humanitarian action initiatives? Then be sure to join us on February 15 for a webinar on Copernicus data and services within humanitarian aid applications.
EOI Space, the Earth-observation startup formerly known as Earth Observant, attracted its first major customer for ultra-high-resolution imagery drawn from a constellation of satellites destined for very low Earth orbit
Herring spawns and algal blooms are two yearly events that remind us it’s often the smallest of organisms that can have the largest visual impact from space.
Planet reported third-quarter revenue of $49.7 million, a 57 percent jump compared with the same period one year ago, and forecasted 2023 annual revenue of $188 million to $192 million
Space situational awareness provider Rhea Space and eight other startups have joined a 13-week accelerator program run by Seraphim Space and Generation Space
European Parliament adopts position on the EU Secure Connectivity Programme
European Centre for Space Economy and Commerce (ECSECO) General Meeting. Read more
European Space Agency is requesting several hundred million euros at its upcoming ministerial council meeting for new satellite navigation technologies from low Earth orbit to the moon.
Companies and decision makers agree, Earth Observation is an essential tool in the fight against the biodiversity loss happening in Europe’s coastal regions.
From helping curb CO2 emissions to fighting illegal logging and fishing, forecasting extreme weather events, measuring ocean temperatures and monitoring pollution, the EU Space Programme is a crucial resource in the world’s fight against climate change – which is why it’s on the COP27 UN Climate Change Conference agenda.
Spanish connectivity startup Sateliot said SpaceX will launch the first operational satellite early next year for its 250-strong constellation, which aims to connect internet of things devices and eventually standard smartphones.
GeoOptics Inc. won a NASA contract worth a maximum of $7 million over five years to provide data acquired by the company’s small satellite constellation.
MyRadar is developing a wildfire detection and mitigation application with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency plans to double spending on monitoring economic activity from space.NGA will increase the ceiling for its Economic Indicator Monitoring program from $29.9 million to $60 million over five years. The five vendors competing for awards are BAE Systems, Ball Aerospace, BlackSky, Continental Mapping Consultants and Royce Geospatial Consultants
Geovation Hub for Location Powers, 15-16 November, 2022
Geospatial World Chamber of Commerce (GWCC), in partnership with Department of Science & Technology, Government of India is organizing the following Summits alongside GeoSmart India 2022
The launch of the 2nd Horizon Europe call, which looks to support the development of innovative downstream applications that leverage the data and services from the EU Space Programme, made headlines across Europe
PlanetWatchers, a geospatial analytics firm specializing in SAR, raised $11 million in series A funding. Seraphim Space Investment Trust and Creativity Ventures led the round.
The UK Space Agency has shortlisted groups led by startups Astroscale and ClearSpace for a mission to remove two spacecraft from low Earth orbit in 2026.
Arctic summer sea ice tied for 10th-lowest.Read more...
The NRO followed a similar strategy for acquiring synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery and data. the NRO awarded contracts in January to Airbus U.S., Capella, Iceye U.S., PredaSAR and Umbra.
Redwire said it is spending around $31 million to buy QinetiQ Space, a Belgium-based designer and integrator of critical space infrastructure and other instruments for end-to-end space missions.
The Federal Communications Commission adopted a new rule that will shorten the time for satellite operators to deorbit low Earth orbit satellites from 25 to five years.
The National Space Council plans to hold “learning sessions” with industry in coming weeks on how to develop a new regulatory framework for novel commercial space activities.
U.S. agricultural farming giant Deere & Company issued a satellite communications-focused request for proposals for solutions to further connect its fleet of intelligent machines
With space essential to military operations, better understanding of what objects are in orbit and the threats they may pose is “foundational” for space security, a Space Force general said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Satellite and Information Service awarded nine contracts worth a combined $13.8 million for instrument technologies, ground systems and related mission support.
Euroconsult's WSBW 2022. The 25th edition of the World Satellite Business Week is coming to Paris 12 -16 September. EUSPA will be there to discuss how the Agency supports companies integrating European space into their business solutions.
EU Space Week is set to happen 3 – 6 October in Prague. More information and registration will be coming soon!. EU Space Week 2022, the go-to event for Europe’s space community, is happening 3 – 6 October in Prague, Czech Republic. EU Space Week – Europe’s premiere space event – is back. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from leading EU Space voices and connect with colleagues from across the industry! The full agenda will be available soon. In the meantime, you can already register for the 3 – 6 October
The Netherlands Space Office, together with dotSPACE are organising information and network sessions about European funding calls in a series of webinars.
Silicon Valley Space Week (SVSW) Satellite Innovation (Oct. 11-12)focuses on analyzing next-generation satellite technology and the current business environment. MilSat Symposium (Oct. 13-14) explores the most effective and rapid solutions in development for defending and expanding critical space assets.
Small Satellites & Space Sustainability: Why You Should Care at SmallSat Conference. click here for more information.
The 25th edition of the World Satellite Business Week is coming to Paris 12 -16 September. EUSPA will be there to discuss how the Agency supports companies integrating European space into their business solutions.
EUSPA is hiring! Current vacancies include Ground System Service Provision Engineer, Galileo System Evolution Manager, Operator at the Galileo Security Monitoring Centre (GSMC) and Secured Communications Engineer. Checked out EUSPA’s latest job vacancies and procurement opportunities?
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