In less than a year, U-Space has set up a 1,000 m2 factory in Toulouse to manufacture one satellite a week by 2025. This should propel the startup into the global nanosatellite race.
It’s a rather unexpected place to manufacture satellites. In less than a year, U-Space has set up a factory nestling in the heart of Toulouse’s B612. This totem building for aerospace innovation is home to the IRT Saint-Exupéry research center on aircraft electrification, the headquarters of the Aerospace Valley competitiveness cluster, and ESSP, which supplies the European EGNOS satellite service.
Six years after its creation, U-Space has invested several million euros to transform the unused 1,000 m2 area into a real factory, the first in France dedicated to the assembly of nanosatellites.
“We currently have around ten satellites in design and production. The aim is to gradually ramp up production to reach one satellite per week by the second quarter of 2025, and eventually one per day if necessary,” explains Fabien Apper, president of the startup.
Fierce competition in NewSpace
Constructing a new building from scratch would have required a lot more time and money, at a time when competition is fierce in Europe in the small satellite sector, between Lithuania’s Nanoavionics, Sweden’s Gomspace, Bulgaria’s Endurosat and the UK’s OpenCosmos.
“Some of our competitors, who have traditionally been equipment manufacturers, have announced plant expansions to enable them to start assembling satellites. We need to move fast if we are to establish ourselves in the market. Two of our nanosatellites will be launched early next year, and we needed a solution to assemble them”, says the CEO.
U-Space stands out in this NewSpace universe by targeting the integration of small, high-performance satellites for operational constellations, where the competition initially focused on low-cost satellites for technology demonstrations.
A mainly French supply chain
The young company has set up a network of some thirty suppliers responsible for delivering the various components then integrated on the satellite: Anywaves (antennas), Syrlinks (radio frequency equipment), Connektica (test automation)…. ” Our supply chain is 80% French, with the rest of the sub-equipment coming from Europe and a small percentage from outside Europe”, explains Fabien Apper. All these components arrive at the factory, where they are stored vertically in a huge 35 m3 cabinet capable of storing parts for 100 satellites at the same time.
Then it’s off to the clean room, where the equipment is soldered and the various cables connected to the satellite. For the moment, this stage is still based on manual assembly for the first flight models.
“We’re working on the precursor models, which we’ll be pampering in the same way as a traditional satellite, and we’ll be doing a lot of testing. When we start mass production next year, the logic will be a little different, with the setting up of manufacturing islands with a real assembly line”, describes the President.
For this transition to an industrial logic, the startup has attracted talent from the big names in the space industry, Airbus Defence & Space and Thales Alenia Space. Plant manager Maël Ferret himself left Airbus to join U-Space. The company expects to grow from 74 to 100 employees next year, with the arrival not only of engineers but also, eventually, of production operators.
Further fund-raising in 2025
After delivery, U-Space can also ensure satellite operations from its own control room. Currently, teams are preparing the two 12U (24kg) satellites to be launched on the Transporter 13 mission early next year. Future platforms can be plugged in, and digital twins can be used to simulate satellite behavior in orbit.
U-Space was selected by the French Defense Innovation Agency (AID) for the Toutatis demonstration mission for the French Space Command. The company will produce two satellites: a spotter for space surveillance purposes, and a satellite with maneuvering capabilities to protect sensitive French satellites from foreign interference. After raising 7 million euros in 2022, U-Space aims to complete a new financing round of at least 15 million euros early next year.