ESA invests in Swissto12 to accelerate European spacecom sovereignty | Computer Weekly

Aerospace and satellite systems manufacturer Swissto12 has secured €73m in financial support from European Space Agency (ESA) member states to accelerate Swissto12’s development and industrialisation of the HummingSat space programme.

Explaining its core mission, Swissto12 says it is enabling a transformational shift in the global satellite communications industry, away from legacy large, purpose-built, expensive and slow-to-deploy services towards smaller, faster, cheaper assets that leverage software-defined, reconfigurable payload architectures and agile, multi-orbit capabilities.

The HummingSat platform is regarded as a new class of geostationary small satellites that are said to be “significantly” smaller and more cost-efficient than conventional geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) craft. HummingSat is seen as offering new economics for the geostationary satellite market, unlocking faster builds, lower costs and ride-share launches. It’s also said to offer a telecoms-grade service backbone that plugs directly into the 3GPP non-terrestrial networks standard, designed for mass-market adoption.

Swissto12 also believes its form factor can support cost-effective production and ride-share launch opportunities with its proprietary, space-qualified additive manufacturing technology and advanced radio frequency (RF) systems, further enhancing payload performance, streamlining production, and reducing both manufacturing time and cost.

The craft was developed in collaboration with the ESA through its public-private partnership programme. The company’s RF products are said to benefit from unique and patented 3D printing technologies and associated radio frequency product designs that deliver lightweight, compact, high-performing and “competitive” RF functionality.

The funding is part of the HummingSat Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (Artes) partnership project, and is designed to see Swissto12 scaling up its manufacturing capacity and accelerating new product innovations. These initiatives also aim to address increasing global demand for cost-effective, agile and sovereign communications in both government and commercial sectors.

Additionally, the investment is targeted at allowing Swissto12 to further develop its phased-array antenna technologies to be used onboard low Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit and GEO satellite payloads, and ground products such as user terminals. This will strengthen its ability to serve a broad set of customer needs, for communications from and to geostationary and non-geostationary orbits. 

The additional ESA funding, through the Artes HummingSat Partnership Project, within ESA Connectivity and Secure Communications, has been backed by pledges from member states Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Sweden and Norway, and associate member Canada.

“We are proud to continue our support of Swissto12, particularly in creating cost-effective solutions for satellite systems that answer to the satcom ecosystem’s ever-increasing demands,” said Laurent Jaffart, ESA director of connectivity and secure communications. “ESA is committed to elevating Europe’s future in space through our support of industry, and by accelerating next-generation satellite technologies.”

Swissto12 CEO and founder Emile de Rijk added: “The recent subscriptions of member states and cooperating states at the ESA Ministerial Council to the HummingSat Project and the latest round of funding from European private investors sends a strong message to the global market that Swissto12 is at the heart of satellite communications innovation.

“With our growing suite of agile, cost-effective and highly performant SatCom solutions, we provide a credible answer to some of the most pressing challenges facing the space economy, including the critical issue of enabling satellite sovereignty – something, until now, out of reach for most of the world’s nations.”