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19 New signatures for Copernicus Contributing Missions, Brussels
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19 New Space signatures for Copernicus Contributing Missions

28/01/2025 1982 views 20 likes
ESA / Applications / Observing the Earth / Copernicus

Nineteen satellite data companies have signed agreements to provide new or enhanced services to the Copernicus programme in their roles as Copernicus Contributing Missions.

Today, at the 17th Space Conference in Brussels, ESA and the European Commission consolidated their commitment to providing commercial complementary data through Copernicus Contributing Missions (CCMs), by welcoming 10 established and well known Earth observation data supply companies that recently signed contracts as part of the CCM activity.

Six of the new signatories are major European space industry players that offer data from European satellites and four are well-known data providers offering commercial data from satellites that are not part of EU territory. There was also a symbolic ceremony for nine European space scale-ups already under contracts with ESA for CCM, which will become part of the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem (CDSE), the key Copernicus data platform that offers free access to Copernicus Sentinel data on Earth’s land, oceans and atmosphere. The integration of the nine European emerging CCM companies will further complement the existing large Sentinel data portfolio with additional complementary data.

The Copernicus Contributing Missions are commercial satellite missions that play a crucial role in delivering complementary data to meet the needs of the Copernicus Services and the requirements of public authorities. The CCM programme is funded by the European Commission and implemented by ESA.

Welcoming these additions as evidence of the growing importance of complementary commercial Earth observation data for Copernicus, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, said, “The combination of institutional and commercial data solutions allows us to maintain the global leadership of Copernicus in Earth observation. The ESA's Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes is providing a significant contribution to Copernicus. With CCM activity and more, we are developing and evolving the Sentinel family at the same time.

“These events show ESA’s firm commitment in supporting the European Commission in keeping Copernicus ahead of the game, by working very closely with our key European space industry players, to ensure that Copernicus remains the most advanced Earth Observation system in the world”.

Expanding Copernicus data services

19 New signatures for Copernicus Contributing Missions, Brussels
19 New signatures for Copernicus Contributing Missions, Brussels

The ceremonial signature events at the conference were attended by ESA’s Director General Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, Timo Personen, Director General for Defence Industry and Space at the European Commission as well as Christoph Kautz, the Commission’s Director for Satellite Navigation and Earth Observation.

The agreements celebrated today fall into the following three CCM procurement categories.

New signatures for Copernicus Contributing Missions, Brussels
New signatures for Copernicus Contributing Missions, Brussels
Six European established data suppliers

Hisdesat, E-Geos, Airbus Defence and Space (Germany), Airbus Defence and Space (France), Iceye, Geosat.

These CCM contracts come with innovative features. They include a CCM data subscription scheme that is scalable for Copernicus’s needs. The data providers have improved the systems through which they disseminate data and have integrated their data systems with the new CCM Rapid Response Desk service. This is a state-of-the-art 24/7 CCM satellite tasking service under ESA governance and provided by GAF AG that enables fast response to disaster events and works with all the Copernicus services to satisfy their complementary needs for commercial satellite data.

Nine European emerging data suppliers join the CDSE

Kuva Space, Aerospacelab, Prométhée Earth Intelligence, Orora Technologies, Constellr, Satlantis, Endurosat, Absolut Sensing and Aistech Space.

The onboarding of these existing nine European scale-ups into the CDSE is a further step for these companies in gaining momentum in the space sector and will amplify their visibility inside the Copernicus context, as this integration will allow for parallel access to Sentinel and CCM data from the same entry portal.

Four data suppliers offering non-European data

EUSI, GHGSat, Planet Labs, MDA Space

While Copernicus relies on European commercial satellite data to complement Sentinel observations, there is also a valuable and important role for Earth observation data companies that supply satellite data with satellites which are not European.

This reflects ESA’s commitment to international and strategic collaboration to satisfy all the stringent and evolving data needs of Copernicus.

The Copernicus generation

Copernicus Contributing Missions overview
Copernicus Contributing Missions overview

Copernicus, now in its 27th year, is the biggest environmental programme in the world, providing terabytes of free and open satellite data with the Sentinel missions observations and information services to hundreds of thousands of users every day.

In doing so, the programme adds to long-term datasets to monitor major challenges such as diminishing polar ice, sea-level rise, drought, and more.

Noting ESA’s central role in the programme, working with industry to identify the best possible fit for Copernicus’s data needs, ESA’s Peggy Fischer, who is responsible for managing the CCM programme, said, “These ceremony events celebrate a significant milestone in the evolution of the Copernicus Contribution Missions activity as part of the Copernicus programme.

“The CCM activity offers additional commercial Earth observation data with augmented capabilities in terms of revisit time and spatial resolution, and complementary solutions in terms of spectral resolution. The CCM data is chosen for and critical to the work of the Copernicus Services.”

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