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Open Cosmos, a leader in satellite technology, is announcing today the expansion of its operations in Portugal, and that it will incorporate three Portuguese satellites into its OpenConstellation. The company will take charge of the High-Resolution Earth Observation activities as part of the PRR Portuguese Space Agenda.
These satellites built in Portugal will be fully designed, manufactured and tested by Open Cosmos and include technologies and capabilities developed across partners in the growing Portuguese space ecosystem. Once in orbit, these satellites will be fully operated by Open Cosmos, and will be a strong addition to the company’s growing OpenConstellation. Each satellite will fly EO and IoT payloads that are fully aligned with the monitoring of the Atlantic, land cover, biodiversity and the impact of natural disasters like wildfires, flooding and climate change related events.
Open Cosmos Atlantic, the Portuguese subsidiary of Open Cosmos, is rapidly increasing its headcount and has rapidly grown a team of tens of employees.
Unlocking the potential of space data
The OpenConstellation is a mutualised satellite infrastructure, revolutionising data access and information sharing. Sharing space assets dramatically lowers costs and simplifies data accessibility, negating the need for governments or organisations to fund their own constellations. With an expanded satellite network, each member can access up to three times more data, leading to shorter revisit times and more extensive coverage. Priority tasking ensures members receive data and exclusive rights over their regions of interest, and our comprehensive full mission management covers every aspect from concept design to manufacture, launch, operation, and invaluable data insights.
Projects like the Atlantic Constellation are highly aligned with this architecture, which is also set to be fully complementary in terms of revisit and resolutions with the Copernicus satellites.
Building the future of Portuguese space
This partnership will allow Portugal to leverage the satellite technology already developed by Open Cosmos and currently being used in a number of missions, including the ALISIO-1 satellite for the Canary Islands, the MANTIS satellite for the monitoring of energy and mining, Phisat-2 for the use of on-board AI or HAMMER to combine InterSatellite Link and on-board processing for near-real time insights extracted from hyperspectral images. This will accelerate the build of the three satellites, ensuring they can be launched by 2026.
Open Cosmos has offices in Porto, located within the UPETEC Business and Innovation Hub and is now setting its new state of the art facilities in Coimbra that will be fully operational early next year, as part of its commitment to the Portuguese space ecosystem.
The Portuguese facilities will enable Open Cosmos to build and develop in-country expertise. Nurturing local talent and leveraging existing skills in satellite manufacturing will allow Portugal to address the requirements of the African, European, and Latin American markets. This will not only stimulate the growth of the sector but also generate employment opportunities and contribute to the overall economic development of the country.
Rafel Jorda Siquier, Open Cosmos CEO and Founder, says of this contract win:
“Open Cosmos' contract to design and manufacture Earth Observation satellites for Portugal's New Space Agenda marks a significant milestone in our mission to democratise space access. These satellites will be operated as part of the OpenConstellation, empowering organisations globally to address some of the world's greatest challenges, including the impacts of climate change - allowing them to drive positive change on a global scale”.
