An illustration of a satellite communications network. Credit: NASA
MILAN — NASA’s Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition program (CSDA) announced June 23 contract awards with eight new commercial satellite data providers, three of which are European: Kuva Space (Finland), OroraTech (Germany) and Satlantis (Spain).
The three companies, focused respectively on hyperspectral, thermal infrared and optical multispectral, join Airbus and Iceye among European companies already participating in the CSDA. Airbus was selected in 2023 and Iceye in 2024.
With the latest awards, European companies now account for five of the 25 commercial providers in the program, underscoring the growing role of European Earth observation companies in U.S. institutional procurement.
“Europe has quietly built one of the most sophisticated Earth observation ecosystems in the world, and I think the NASA selection is a reflection of that,” Aitor Morinigo, CEO of Satlantis US, told SpaceNews. “The fact that a company from Bilbao [Spain] is now supplying data to NASA speaks to how far the industry has come and how seriously American institutions are taking European space technology.”
