Open Cosmos, the UK’s only provider of end-to-end satellite mission management, has been awarded a £5 million project from the UK government’s Space Clusters and Infrastructure Fund (SCIF). This follows the $50 million Series B funding it secured back in September this year, which is the largest round raised by a UK space tech so far this year.
Open Cosmos will use the funding to expand its manufacturing and R&D capability for microsatellite and constellation markets, while also extending its reach of data commercialisation and expertise with organisations such as Space Park Leicester.
Notably, UK Space Agency’s SCIF is the UK’s first dedicated fund for space infrastructure and supports UK organisations leading the way to make space products mission-ready and sell them into commercial markets. This fund will not only help make the UK’s satellite market more accessible, affordable and useful but will further establish the UK as a global space leader.
Plans to expand manufacturing capabilities
Open Cosmos is expanding its state-of-the-art industrial R&D and manufacturing capability at its Harwell campus site. By installing new test facilities such as a vibration table and a TVAC chamber, both of which are crucial for scaling the speed and size of satellite production, Open Cosmos will more than double its capacity and have the ability to build larger satellites.
The grant will also see Open Cosmos strengthen its satellite data and analytics expertise for DataCosmos, through stronger links with Space Park Leicester – the £100 million space hub set up by the internationally renowned space experts at the University of Leicester.
Democratises access to space
Rafel Jorda Siquier founded Open Cosmos in 2015 and Aleix Megias Homar and Jordi Barrera Ars soon joined the founding team. The company delivers end-to-end telecommunications, Earth Observation (EO), navigation, and scientific missions. It designs, builds, launches and operates advanced satellites through its OpenOrbit offering, enables organisations to access and share data via its mutualised OpenConstellation infrastructure and offers AI-powered data analysis from a growing range of satellite sources and analytic partners via its DataCosmos platform.
With Open Cosmos, organisations globally access and benefit from the richness of satellite data to address their most pressing challenges from monitoring agriculture and logistics, to navigation solutions, tracking deforestation and biodiversity, and more.
During natural disasters or war, satellite imagery can provide real-time data, for example, helping to assess the extent of damage and coordinate relief efforts, while satellites equipped with specialised sensors on its Open Constellation satellites can detect and monitor oil spills before they are even visible from the ground.
Rafel Jorda Siquier, CEO and founder at Open Cosmos, said: “The UK is a pioneer in many areas of the global space ecosystem and it is initiatives like this from the UK Space Agency and the SCIF which enables its pioneering ecosystem to continue to grow. This funding will accelerate our mission to democratise access to critical space infrastructure by allowing faster integration of bigger payloads onboard our satellites.”
