Partnership Projects

ARTES 4.0 Partnership Projects: Our Missions

ESA's Partnership Projects (PP), as part of the Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES 4.0) programme, federate industry around large-scale programmes, developing innovative cutting-edge solutions in partnership with private or public operators. This innovative approach allows European prime contractors and equipment suppliers to be competitive in the market.

ESA Partnership Projects generate great benefits for industry and member states, enabling greater risk sharing and positive trade-offs between the technological development and the commercial constraints of the missions.

How to work with ESA ARTES 4.0

ESA Satellite Telecommunications

Objectives of the ARTES 4.0 Partnership Projects Programme Line

ESA Partnership Projects federate industry around large-scale programmes, developing innovative cutting-edge solutions in partnership with private or public operators. This innovative approach allows European prime contractors and equipment suppliers to be competitive in the market. ESA Partnership Projects generate great benefits for industry and member states.

Develop cutting-edge satellite missions

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 cube sats, as part of a portfolio of more than 50 satellite-based systems at different stages of implementation.

These missions 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.

Fostering European and Canadian competitiveness

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.

Risk sharing between ESA and industry

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.

Sharing commercial best practices

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

Generate socio-economic benefits

Partnership Projects generate strong socio-economic benefits for European countries. All ESA stakeholders report substantial benefits against most critical economic, technologic 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.

What projects are we looking for?

For the best chance of success in securing funding via the ARTES 4.0 programme and provided all other conditions are met, submissions for the Partnership Projects programme line should be in line with the following specific requirements:

  • Projects in the satellite communications industry that can be provided with the right environment to introduce innovative space-based solutions into the commercial market. 
  • Ideas that generate benefits for industry and member states. 
  • Concepts that offer cutting-edge solutions that can be developed with private and public operators. 
  • Projects that enable European prime contractors and equipment suppliers to be competitive in the market.

How to get involved?

ESA is offering an opportunity for private parties within ESA’s Member States and Canada to propose potential Partnership Projects. 

Please refer to our 'How to work with us’ section here to find a variety of opportunities to be part of the next cutting-edge space communications project!

How to work with ESA ARTES 4.0

Flight heritage since 1993

Ever since the inception of the ARTES Programme back in 1993, ESA has initiated, developed, built, flown and commercialised many new satellite telecommunications technologies. In this overview you can see some of these groundbreaking missions of the past, the present and the future!

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NEWS AND EVENTS

SpainSat moves closer to launch following delivery of Ka-Band Pallet

ESA’s Pacis 3 Partnership Projects programme has moved SpainSat one step closer to the launchpad following the formal delivery of the Ka-band pallet to Airbus Toulouse in September 2024.

ESA and Viasat-led consortium partner to enhance satellite ca…

The Advanced Innovative Data Access Network (AIDAN) project celebrated further success as ESA Member States Delegates, industry partners and ESA came together for its evolutionary project, AIDAN Next.

ESA-supported LacunaSat-2B satellite successfully completes three-year mission and deorbits

LacunaSat-2B, a 3U satellite forming part of Lacuna Space's constellation, has successfully completed its three-year mission and deorbited in April 2024. The satellite was commissioned and operated by Open Cosmos under…

Integrations made through European Space Agency's Pacis 3 project moves Spainsat NG close…

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Pacis 3 project took another step towards the launch pad, with the Direct Radiating Array Transmit (DRA TX) antenna and associated power supply unit and antenna control electronics…

European Space Agency to support technological development for next-generation constellation

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European Space Agency and Hisdesat partnership sees Pacis 3 antenna move closer to orbit

The Pacis 3 project – which is a partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA) and satellite operator Hisdesat – has taken a significant step forward in its progress to launch a SpainSat NG satellite. As part…

HummingSat: A New Chapter in Space Innovation Unveiled

ESA and Swissto12 have signed a contract for the full development and qualification of a new product line of satellites called HummingSat.

Space set to keep people safer during emergencies

Governments and international disaster response teams have long relied on satellites to assess the impacts of disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Now ESA has partnered with ICEYE, a Finnish microsatellite manufacturer, to improve early…

Beam-hopping JoeySat ready for launch

An advanced broadband satellite that will provide high-speed internet connectivity from low Earth orbit has left OneWeb Florida facilities for Vandenberg launch pad.

Beam-hopping JoeySat has shipped

An advanced broadband satellite that can offer high-speed internet connectivity anywhere on Earth is ready to enter its final assembly ahead of launch.

The beam-hopping satellite – nicknamed JoeySat after a baby kangaroo – will be used to…

First small geostationary HummingSat sold

Satellite operator Intelsat has placed an order for the first small geostationary “HummingSat” developed as part of ESA’s efforts to support fast, dynamic and agile private space firms in Europe.

The first HummingSat – which will be called…

Reprogrammable OneSat on track for success

The OneSat family of geostationary software-defined telecommunications satellites has passed successfully its first qualification review. The first part of the OneSat qualification review has successfully demonstrated the maturity of the various…