European Space Agency

2–3 minutes

TAMPA, Fla. — Skynopy, a French ground station startup, said Sept. 24 it has won a European Space Agency contract to help commercialize adaptive modulation technology that it claims can double satellite data download rates.

A Skynopy spokesperson said the contract includes 75,000 euros ($89,000) in funding to integrate its software with three satellite operators, which will be selected through a competitive process next month.

The work will focus on Variable Coding and Modulation (VCM) and Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM), which enable satellites to adjust their signal strength and efficiency to changing conditions, rather than relying on a single fixed transmission mode.

While VCM and ACM are widespread in satellite and terrestrial telecom networks, Skynopy says they remain underused in Earth observation because of the cost and complexity of integrating them into ground systems, as well as the lack of an end-to-end solution to manage adaptive links.

“Today, most of the modern satellites are equipped with radios that support these dynamic modulations,” said Skynopy cofounder and chief technology officer Antonin Hirsch.

“This enables them to adjust signal throughput to the varying signal strength during a contact to maximize efficiency, leaving efficiency on the table instead of [making full use of] bandwidth.”

The contract is part of ESA’s Programme for Userbase Enhancement (PUSH), which aims to support companies advancing space-related products and services.

5–6 minutes

PARIS — Arianespace is weighing options to increase the launch rate of the Ariane 6 rocket beyond 10 per year if government and commercial demand supports it.

Speaking with reporters Sept. 16 at the World Space Business Week conference, Arianespace Chief Executive David Cavaillolès said the company is considering scenarios where new satellite constellations could create enough demand to justify expanded launch capacity.

“Now, we are reopening the case” for increasing capacity after focusing on getting Ariane 6 flying, he said. In one scenario, demand outside captive systems such as SpaceX’s Starlink and Chinese constellations remains flat, and no increase is needed.

However, he said the company now projects “large institutional programs,” such as the European IRIS² constellation, driven by recent geopolitical shifts. Combined with new commercial systems like Amazon’s Project Kuiper, that could tip the balance.

“If Kuiper — and I wish them to succeed — continues to accelerate, and at the same time you have some big institutional projects, then the market will really, really change, and in this case we should prepare ourselves to increase the cadence,” he said.

Arianespace is studying how to address bottlenecks in Ariane 6 launch rates. Those include increased production of the vehicle’s solid rocket boosters and construction of a second launch pad in French Guiana.

Cavaillolès declined to give specifics but said a second pad “would take years and years” to build and would be costly. “There are some blockers that are simpler to remove,” he said, such as infrastructure upgrades at the launch site to shorten campaign timelines.

Such investments would require decisions soon, even though demand for additional Ariane 6 launches may not materialize until late this decade.

“If we think that, around 2029 or 2030, we need a higher cadence, then it is next year or the year after next that we should make the decision,” he said.

He suggested the decision will hinge on whether another major constellation project emerges in the next few years. “If tomorrow it’s confirmed that there is another customer wanting us and being ready to commit with us on a certain number of launchers per year, then we would have a sound basis to think seriously about those investments,” he said. “For the moment, I think it is a bit too early.”

For now, the company is working toward its current ceiling of 10 launches a year to meet demand from customers such as Amazon. Arianespace has conducted two Ariane 6 launches this year and expects to perform two more before year’s end. While that falls short of earlier projections of five, Cavaillolès argued that four launches would still be “good news” given some predicted only two or three.

For 2026, he said, Arianespace expects to “more or less double” that rate. “For the moment, we are really well positioned,” he said. If the company reaches eight launches next year, he claimed, it would mark the fastest ramp-up of a heavy-lift rocket.

He acknowledged customer frustration. In a Sept. 15 conference talk, Amazon Project Kuiper executive Ricky Freeman said launch availability was his biggest challenge, citing delays not only at Arianespace but also at Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance, who are also bringing new rockets into service.

Kuiper is Arianespace’s largest Ariane 6 customer. “They want us to execute the contract and to do it as quick as possible,” Cavaillolès said. “Anything we can do to anticipate some launches would be welcomed by them.”

That could include giving Kuiper access to gaps in the manifest if other customers slip. “Kuiper is absolutely aware of what our manifest looks like,” he said. “In the short term we have limited room to maneuver.”

“Whatever we can do to accelerate Kuiper, we will do it,” he added. “Their message is that they want us to go fast, and the faster the better.”

3–4 minutes

PARIS – Europe should be investing in disruptive capabilities like spaceplanes, said Maj. Gen. Philippe Koffi, French armament agency DGA strategic lead for air, land and naval combat.

“A spaceplane is maneuverable, reusable and flexible, so it can deliver payload in orbit, recover critical assets, conduct reconnaissance and intervene against threats in orbit,” Koffi said Sept. 17 at the Space Defense & Security Summit here.

At the Paris Air Show in June, Dassault Aviation announced an agreement with DGA to develop VORTEX, a four-meter-long spaceplane demonstrator with a mass of less than one metric ton. A first flight is expected in 2028.

VORTEX, which stands for reusable orbital vehicle designed for transport and exploration, will launch on a small rocket, reach hypersonic speeds, perform atmospheric reentry and validate key technologies including thermal protection systems, Koffi said.

Through VORTEX, France is not seeking its own fleet of spaceplanes. The program is aimed at demonstrating technical viability through a public-private partnership. Dassault and other industrial partners will cover half of program costs. Versatility

Still, spaceplanes have key military applications because they “could deploy satellites, sensors and even weapons in orbit within hours or days and not months,” Koffi said. In addition, spaceplanes are versatile, offering “rapid transportation, spacecraft servicing and even recovery of critical assets.”

In addition, spaceplanes are unpredictable, Koffi said, providing “global reach within less than 90 minutes, adding uncertainty for any adversary and even deterrence.”

Koffi sees spaceplanes are “a logical extension” of France’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS). FCAS is a system of systems that includes a piloted next-generation fighter and swarming drones linked by cloud-computing architecture.

To achieve air superiority, it is essential “to detect, intercept and to act against threats evolving in near space,” at altitudes of 20 to 100 kilometers, Koffi said. “Within that broader framework, the Vortex spaceplane can be the missing link.”

5–6 minutes

WASHINGTON — A European-led mission to the asteroid Apophis is on schedule ahead of key funding decisions in the coming months in both Europe and Japan.

The European Space Agency funded preparatory work last year for the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety, or Ramses, which will go to the asteroid shortly before it makes a very close but safe flyby of Earth in April 2029.

ESA provided about 70 million euros ($82 million) to the project to keep development on schedule even before formally approving and funding the mission. That decision will come at ESA’s ministerial conference in late November in Bremen, Germany.

That early investment has paid off, project officials said at a Sept. 8 briefing during the EPSC-DPS planetary science conference in Helsinki, Finland.

“Up to now, we are fully in line with the planning,” said Paolo Martino, Ramses project manager at ESA. “We are hitting every milestone, so we are fully ready to hopefully support a positive decision two months from now.”

That work includes completing a preliminary design review late last year. A critical design review is scheduled to begin in November. Passing that, he said, would allow the mission to move into spacecraft assembly in 2026, with functional and environmental testing to follow in 2027.

That would set the mission up to launch during a window less than three weeks long in late April through early May 2028. Ramses would arrive at Apophis in February 2029, within two months of the asteroid’s flyby of Earth.

Ramses is leveraging the spacecraft design and experience from Hera, another asteroid mission that launched last year to Didymos, following up on NASA’s DART planetary defense mission. That mission was developed rapidly, with launch coming less than five years after formal approval.

“The Hera mission already set a record in terms of speed, because it was developed in only four years from contract signature to launch,” Martino said. “In this case, we are raising the bar even further.”

The project has not disclosed its estimated total cost or how much funding it needs to secure at the ministerial, where ESA’s 23 member states will set funding levels for programs for the next three years. He said figures could not be disclosed now, citing ongoing work preparing for the ministerial.

However, he suggested the mission should cost somewhat less than Hera, which had a total cost, including launch, of 363 million euros. “Ramses is a faster and cheaper version of Hera,” he said.

Another factor that could reduce the cost of the mission to ESA is collaboration with the Japanese space agency JAXA. The two agencies announced Aug. 27 that JAXA had officially requested funding from the Japanese government to participate on Ramses. That would include providing an infrared imager and solar arrays for the spacecraft as well as its launch on an H3 rocket. ESA and JAXA signed an agreement last November to study potential collaboration on Ramses.

That would build on existing cooperation between the agencies on Hera. “The idea here for Ramses is to strengthen the relationship between the two communities and agencies,” said Seiji Sugita, a professor at the University of Tokyo who is on the science management board for the mission.

Sugita, who noted he was not speaking on behalf of JAXA, played down concerns raised at the briefing that any decision to support Ramses could be affected by the resignation of Japan’s prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, Sept. 7. He said past changes in prime ministers have not affected the budget process, and noted that the request for Ramses would be a very small fraction of the overall JAXA budget.

“I think if things are similar to the last 10 to 20 years in the Japanese political climate, the switchover of the prime minister should not make too much of a change in this level of the budget,” he said.

While the H3 is baselined to launch Ramses, Martino said the project was keeping Europe’s Ariane 6 as a backup. He expected Japan to approve funding for its contributions to Ramses, including the launch, by the first half of next year.

“The timeline for the procurement of an Ariane is more flexible, so it can take place in the second part” of next year, if needed, he said.

Project officials added that a forcing function for decisions will be the strict schedule needed to enable Ramses to reach Apophis in time for the flyby, an extremely rare event.

“Nature chooses for us when it visits us,” said Patrick Michel, a planetary scientist involved with the mission, at the briefing. “Apophis won’t wait, so we cannot wait for the political mess to be solved.”