Spire Global, a space-based data, analytics, and services company with European headquarters in Glasgow, has launched a web-based application designed to streamline satellite constellation operations.
The development of this platform received a co-funding award of €1.5 million (£1.3m) from the European Space Agency (ESA), underscoring the platform’s significance in advancing space technology and operations. The Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) also provided support to the project.
Spire says the new platform will simplify the complexity of managing satellite operations with a more user-friendly interface. This is one more step in its mission to provide standardised space-as-a-service solutions for a number of applications.
“Satellites never sleep. You build and launch a satellite once, but then you have to operate it and communicate with it thousands of times over its lifetime,” said Frank Frulio, general manager at Spire.
“Typically, you need an army of experts to do that, but we’ve simplified space so that anyone can easily manage satellites and gain insights from space to give their business a competitive edge — such as helping insurance companies build products that safeguard against climate change variables and providing utilities companies with accurate, real-time data for remote forestry management.”
With the new platform, companies can operate their satellite constellations with a single operator and laptop. This allows them to facilitate tasks, scheduling, and monitoring of various aspects like payload data, fleet health and mission planning.
The platform is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure, which Spire says allows for seamless integration of satellite data into a customer’s ecosystem, and an API for easy accessibility.
“We’re proud to partner with companies like Spire that share our vision of helping organisations leverage space to accelerate innovation – in orbit and on Earth,” said an AWS spokesperson.
“Exciting technological advances in the New Space economy like efficient and agile cloud tools, services, and software are simplifying space and making it available to more organisations than ever before to transform their industries.”
Source: DIGIT