Partnership Projects

Market Fit

ESA’s Partnership Projects provide the satellite communication industry with the right environment to introduce innovative space-based solutions systems into the commercial market. 

ESA has implemented several Partnership Projects through its programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES). These include Eagle 1, HummingSat, Novacom and Triton-X, ranging from large geostationary satellites to CubeSats, as part of a portfolio of more than 50 satellite-based systems at different stages of implementation.

These demonstrate the unique results of Partnership Projects in federating European industry around large-scale programmes and developing innovative cutting-edge solutions in partnership with private and public operators.

ESA Partnership Projects generate major benefits for industry and Member States by fostering the competitiveness of the satcom industry in Europe and Canada, and by creating new value-added solutions and opportunities for industry that would otherwise not be offered.

Moreover, Partnership Projects facilitate pioneering innovation through greater risk sharing, with ESA bearing the risks related to the development of innovative solutions and the operators assuming the commercial risks in answer to market needs. Without this partnership approach, many projects would never have emerged because they would have been too risky either technically or commercially.

ESA’s involvement ensures high quality and performance; supporting primes and subcontractors while offering a tailored and efficient approach based on commercial best practice.

Partnership Projects generate strong socio-economic benefits for European countries. All ESA stakeholders report substantial benefits against most critical economic, technological and strategic factors. Partnerships projects also enable greater risk sharing and positive trade-offs between the technological development and the commercial constraints of the missions.