Luxembourg/ Lausanne, 1 December 2021. – The Swiss space startup SWISSto12 partners with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a micro satellite prototype, the company said.
The new satellite product line and its first protoflight model will be developed and built under a partnership project between ESA and SWISSto12, the enterprise based in Renens in Switzerland said.
The first satellite is due for launch in 2025.
“MicroGEO satellites open up exciting new market opportunities that can suddenly be serviced from geostationary orbit, thereby offering a complementary solution to larger spacecraft currently on the market,” said Emile de Rijk, CEO of SWISSto12. “SWISSto12 will benefit from ESA’s experience and technical support to bring this new product to the commercial market.”
“ESA works with small and medium-sized enterprises such as SWISSto12 to boost innovation and the competitiveness of the European and Canadian space industry in the global market for telecommunications satellites,” Elodie Viau, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications at ESA, said. “We are looking forward to working on this new ESA Partnership Project to support our fast, dynamic and agile private space firms to de-risk their investments to meet the needs of the market.”
