Relive the Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum
ESA’s first Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum took place at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 30–31 October 2023. The event saw investors, institutions, entrepreneurs and different-sized companies from the Earth observation sector come together to discuss the commercial potential and challenges of Earth observation. Revisit the event by watching the streaming replay.
In his opening address, ESA’s Director General, Josef Aschbacher, said, “Advancing commercial space in Europe is one of the key components of Agenda 2025, which I set as an ambitious vision when I took over the position of ESA Director General.
“The fast-growing Earth observation sector has an abundance of possibilities that private businesses can capitalise on, from satellites and ground infrastructure through to value-added services that address real-world needs with information from space.”
ESA’s Director of Earth Observation, Simonetta Cheli, said, “The global Earth observation commercial sector is undergoing a rapid period of technological advancement, a diversification in service offerings, and industrial evolution. Despite this, it remains a niche and high-risk market within the broader space economy.
“That being said, the worldwide data market, which increased by 8% over the past five years to a value of almost $2 billion last year, is expected to grow by almost to $2.7 billion by 2031.”
Geraldine Naja, ESA’s Director of Commercialisation, Industry and Procurement described ways in which ESA supports the growth in commercialisation of space based on the strong interplay between commercialisation and support to innovation, technological advancement, support to entrepreneurship and access to investment which are the foundations for developing commercialisation in Europe.
Relive the forum and watch the streaming replay, which has been cut into sections for easy viewing.
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Opening session
The event opened with welcome messages from the ESA Director General, along with ESA Directors of both the Earth Observation Programme and Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness.
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Earth observation worldwide market
This included a discussion on the market status and trends, with contributions from ESA, trade organisations and key experts.
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Earth observation commercialisation and New Space at ESA
This session demonstrated how ESA is both stimulating and taking advantage of commercial industry and New Space approaches to business.
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ESA gold cases and CommEO Award
This session included examples that represent European successes in Earth observation commercialisation and New Space. One hour into this session, four selected companies were given the opportunity to pitch their business in five minutes and answer questions to win the ESA CommEO Award.
Amphitrite, which provides a new generation of ocean data to maritime stakeholders to take the best decisions at sea, won first prize. Aiko Space, which uses onboard software that enables autonomous spacecraft operations, won second prize. Mbryonics, which has developed hardware for the complete satellite optical communications backbone network, encompassing both space and ground segment, won third prize.
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Investors perspective
This session highlighted the private and public investor perspective. The ESA investor platform was presented.
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Commercial opportunities from future connectivity
This panel provided an overview of what is coming next for the ‘Internet of Things for Earth Observation’ connectivity, the regulatory environment, realtime tasking value chain and analysed their impact of the Earth observation sector as a whole.
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Towards European leadership of the global Earth observation commercial market
Representatives from the European Commission, ESA, ESA Member State Delegates, industry and investors addressed the question: how do we stimulate consistent growth in Europe to become the worldwide Earth observation commercial leader?
