UK start-up to send nanosatellites into orbit 'for 10% of normal cost'

A company which promises to launch satellites for less than 10% of the cost of any other service has won a “significant” contract with the European Space Agency (ESA).

UK start-up Open Cosmos is exhibiting at Paris Air Show this week, after it partnered with the ESA earlier this month. The company says it offers a “one-stop shop for reaching orbit,” sending sets of three nanosatellites into space for organisations within one year. Open Cosmos claims its approach makes access to space much easier and affordable, describing its work as “the democratisation of the final frontier”.

The service is aimed at clients who want to collect data from orbit: they could require information on climate change, agriculture, fishing habits, or anything else. Open Cosmos aims to deliver that information by designing the payload, arranging the launch, organising insurance, co-ordinating satellite frequencies and then finally passing on the data from its cloud-based system.

Conventional nanosatellite missions normally cost £2-£5 million and take between two and four years, says Open Cosmos. The start-up has an all-in cost of £500,000 and can go from project start to launch in less than a year.   

“We are entering a new age of space, heralded by the miniaturisation and commercialisation of electronics,” says CEO Rafel Jordà Siquier. “Formerly, testing in orbit meant bespoke, bulky and costly satellite platforms. That’s no longer the case and the UK is leading the way in unlocking space for the masses.”

The main issue with companies launching nanosatellites on their own is simple, says Siquier to Professional Engineering: “It is really hard.” As well as the overall cost, companies need to complete vast amounts of paperwork including insurance, negotiate what frequencies their satellites will use and ensure their electronics will work in space.

Open Cosmos says it helps deal with this problem by using a standard template design for the nanosatellites, called qbkit, all with identical electrical and mechanical interfaces. Companies use the qbkits with Open Cosmos’ cloud-based software to develop their own technology and missions, ready for shipping.

The product is an “enabling tool,” Siquier tells PE. Private companies can use it for vast numbers of different applications. “It opens so many opportunities to solve massive global problems.”

Our reporter Joseph Flaig is at the Paris Air Show this week. To contact him, email joseph.flaig@caspianmedia.com or follow him on Twitter @Joseph_Flaig.