Thierry Breton and Josef Aschbacher announce new Copernicus partnerships at the Paris Air Show. Photo: ESA

The European Union (EU) has added nine startups to contribute data to the Copernicus project. Each startup will receive a 5 million euro contract to provide additional data to Copernicus. 

The nine companies announced Tuesday are: Belgium-based Aerospacelab; Bulgaria-based EnduroSat, Finland’s Kuva Space; Constellr and OroraTech, both based in Germany; Aistech Space and Satlantis based in Spain; and Prometheus and Absolut Sensing, based in France. 

These awards are part of a new, speedier procurement method called the “dynamic purchasing system” to support European companies, moving toward a hybrid model for Copernicus with both EU-owned Sentinel satellites and private constellations. 

Copernicus is the world’s largest Earth observation (EO) program and it is managed by ESA for the European Commission. It consists of the Sentinel satellites and contributing missions from commercial and government providers that make their data available to Copernicus. The data is used for monitoring land use, marine and international border surveillance, and improving public security. 

In late 2021, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a deal to integrate Iceye’s synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery into the Copernicus imagery program, as the first European startup to take part. 

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton commented: “This new approach to public procurement is a new way of thinking about space in Europe and supporting European space start-ups, using our flagship programs such as Copernicus — but also soon IRIS² — as permanent customers. Startups are key to Europe’s resilience and technological leadership.”