ReOrbit, a Helsinki-based leading provider of software-first satellites, proceeds to the next phase of the European Space Agency (ESA) InCubed (stands for ‘Investing in Industrial Innovation’) programme. As a continuation of the InCubed activity UKKO – Development and Demonstration of Technologies for Future Earth Observation (EO) Satellites, ReOrbit is planning an in-orbit demonstration (IOD) as an independent standalone flight opportunity. It will showcase the capabilities developed in the avionics architecture and the software stack in space, namely an end-to-end EO value chain between EO payloads and the end users, as well as satellite to satellite and satellite to ground communication. The launch is scheduled for the second quarter of 2025.
ReOrbit will achieve this by onboarding a commercial EO customer optical payload with full operational capacity. ReOrbit will perform the commissioning and validation of end-to-end operations including imaging, onboard data processing and data transfer to customer location. Moreover, another important part of this mission is equipping the IOD bus with the optical terminal, accompanied with the necessary autonomy, storage, and data transport capabilities to ensure secure, seamless data transfer from satellite to satellite, or from satellite to ground.
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The IOD phase allows ReOrbit to validate its vision of the future of space applications where the transformation of satellites into truly intelligent, interconnected platforms requires satellite systems to be defined by software, which facilitates a complete network integration – from space to ground. ReOrbit envisions the satellite design philosophy to revolve around the idea that data sharing and communications shall take place not only from space to ground, but also from space to space – enabling satellites to network, communicate with each other and thus improve mission efficiency. It becomes possible to achieve this thanks to a flexible software-first architecture, where all these aspects are dealt with upfront in the mission concept, as integrated functionalities.
“We are thrilled to have partnered with ESA InCubed Programme, which has been instrumental to achieve our commercial and development success so far. ReOrbit aims to become a leading player in the domain of enabling the next generation of more modular, inter-connected missions, by providing software systems and satellite platforms with capabilities that are in-orbit autonomous, connected, and reconfigurable. The InCubed activity Ukko will become a trend setter for the space industry, uniting autonomy, reliability, and a strict hardware abstraction,” said Sethu Saveda Suvanam, CEO and Founder of ReOrbit.
“I strongly believe that initiatives like ReOrbit’s Ukko, that leverage highly advanced flight software and, hence, transform the future of technology in space, open a host of opportunities in space applications, particularly in the Earth Observation domain. ESA InCubed Programme works with companies such as ReOrbit to boost innovation and the competitiveness of the European space industry, which needs significant transformation to keep up with the growing demand for space utilisation in our society. We are looking forward to seeing the results of the InCubed activity Ukko unlocking the full advantages of EO services for the benefit of humanity – on a worldwide, European, and local scale,” commented Daniele Romagnoli, Commercial EO System Engineer at ESA and InCubed Officer of the activity.
SOURCE: PRNewswire