World Region – Europe

SWISSto12, the Swiss manufacturer of satellite and payload systems, has officially opened its purpose-built assembly facility at company headquarters in Renens, Switzerland. The facility will support the industrial-scale production of its HummingSat geostationary (GEO) satellite platform. The additional new 1,000 m² cleanroom facility complements its existing 5,500m² development and production facility at its HQ. First deliveries of the HummingSat will ...

As well as welcoming holidaymakers, the Canary Islands is home to a thriving electronics and industrial community. Ash Madni profiles three entrepreneurs behind some of the islands’ technology leaders. There are a dozen electronics companies on the Canary Islands. The president of the special tax zone, Pablo Hernández González-Barreda, and his team have created a rising production hub for the ...

The small satellite manufacturer U-Space has completed a €24 million Series A funding round. It will fund expansion of the French company’s manufacturing capacity. The round was led by the French Ministry of Armed Forces’ Definvest, which is fund managed by Bpifrance, and Expansion VC. Other investors included Primo Capital, through its investment fund Primo Space, Karot Capital, ARIS, and ...

CNES, the French Space Agency, has awarded a €31 million contract to UNIVITY, a French satellite communications company, to develop space-based 5G for terrestrial application. The plan is for a fully integrated 5G non-terrestrial network, designed and built in France. It will be combining VLEO (very low Earth orbit) satellites with terrestrial infrastructure. CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) is the ...

ASD-Eurospace has released the 29th edition of its annual ‘facts and figures’ European space industry report. It aims at measuring the value of the market for space systems design, development and production in Europe. ASD-Eurospace Among the headline figures are overall sales revenues of €8.8 billion, a 3.3% increase on 2023’s €8.570 billion. It also records space employment level in ...

The European Space agency has selected Novocomms to be the antenna specialist in a proof-of-concept positioning initiative. It involves sampling broadband satcom signals in Ku/Ka bands for other users to determine their position. These are dubbed Signals of Opportunity (SOOP). The Birmingham-based company will be part of a consortium led by Telespazio UK, in a €800,000 contract. This is a ...

With a budget of close to €55m, European chip makers have set out to reduce waste, pollution and energy consumption throughout their supply chain. 58 partners, including large companies, SMEs, research institutes, universities and industry associations, will spend three yeas on a project named Genesis, aligned with the European Green Deal and European Chips Act, and coordinated by French research lab ...

The European Space Agency has released ESA Strategy 2040, outlining how it plans to approach the “challenges and opportunities” of space up to 2040. Its stated aim is to “Lead and orchestrate European space excellence to build a more prosperous, resilient, independent and inspiring life for all of Europe”. Goals The agency says its strategy is framed around five goals, ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Tyvak to build the first CubeSat for the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses) mission. This mission aims to rendezvous with the asteroid 99942 Apophis. The mission will accompany it during its relatively close – but non-threatening – flyby of Earth. This will occur on April 13, 2029. ESA is providing €4.7 ...

Yesterday the EC charged Google with favouring its own services over rivals in its searches and has ordered Apple to further open iOS to rivals’ connected devices. The EC says it is merely enforcing the terms of the 2022 Digital Markets Act. However many will see it as the EC  throwing down the gauntlet to the new US administration which ...