After raising seven million euros in September, U-Space is accelerating the industrialization of its range of nanosatellites. The startup has identified a 1,000 m2 site in Toulouse that will come on stream in spring 2024, before producing one satellite per day at full capacity by 2025. These XXL ambitions have prompted the startup to recruit massively again this year in the Ville Rose.
U-Space is giving itself the means to achieve its ambitions. Since its creation in 2018, the Toulouse-based nugget has set itself the goal of becoming a master builder of quality nanosatellites at rock-bottom prices.
“In this new range of nanosatellites, our competitors are mainly positioning themselves as low-cost products. Our aim is to produce high-quality satellites designed for long-term operational missions. We’re aiming for five to eight years in low-Earth orbit for operators whose commercial services require high-performance space infrastructures. We need to combine this quality with an industrial level, since the whole point of nanosatellites is to be able to be deployed in constellations,” says Fabien Apper, President of U-Space.
Nearly 14,000 smallsats are expected to be launched into space by 2030, according to a recent study by Euroconsult. SpaceX alone is planning a constellation of 42,000 satellites, while Amazon plans to send 3,236 satellites into orbit.
To meet the XXL needs of the space sector in the coming years, U-Space is accelerating the industrialization of its range of nanosatellites, thanks in particular to an initial financing round of seven million euros announced in September.
One satellite per day by 2025
U-Space has already identified a 1,000 m2 site in Toulouse to house its first factory, scheduled to come on stream in spring 2024. “Starting next year, we plan to assemble between five and ten satellites. Then, gradually, we’ll set up production lines, automated testing, logistics… This will lead to an increase in production capacity, with the aim of producing one satellite a day, i.e. over 300 satellites a year by 2025”, explains Fabien Apper.
This change of scale poses a number of challenges. “Right from the design stage, the satellite has to be designed for mass production, which contrasts with traditional space methods. Secondly, our positioning is to be an integrator, so we’re thinking about long-term partnerships with certain critical suppliers able to respond to industrial production capacities. The third challenge lies in the assembly plant’s ability to keep up with production rates,” adds the young entrepreneur.
These ambitions have led the startup to recruit massively in the Ville Rose. U-Space doubled its size in 2022, from 20 to 40 employees, and is aiming for a staff of almost 70 by the end of 2023. In addition to engineering profiles, the company is increasingly looking for experienced profiles (with fifteen to twenty years’ experience) for middle management (team leaders, project managers, service managers, etc.) as well as support functions (HR, sales, communications, marketing). At the end of last year, U-Space also found its industrial director, who is currently building up his team.
Contracts for Cnes and Onera
The startup has already won several contracts with major players. U-Space has delivered the Ness satellite to Cnes, a 3U demonstrator project designed to monitor the radio-frequency spectrum worldwide and analyze sources of interference. Its launch, originally scheduled for early 2023 on a Vega-C launcher, is awaiting a new in-orbit date.
The company also supplied Onera with the qualification model for the Crème nanosatellite, as part of a scientific mission to monitor the radiation belts. At the same time, U-Space has joined forces with four French NewSpace players, Anywaves, Comat and Syrlinks, to provide a complementary solution to navigation systems (GPS or Gallileo) to ensure synchronization functions when GNSS navigation signals are not usable. This program, dubbed Synchrocube, is supported by the French space industry stimulus plan, and is due to be launched in the first half of 2024. The startup has also been selected in a consortium with Airbus Defence and Space on a France 2030 program for a space surveillance mission.
“The proliferation of objects in space increases the risk of collision. The aim is to have a sensor in low orbit capable of detecting objects in space and measuring their trajectory, in order to produce a catalog of these objects for better anticipation of space traffic. There are already several types of sensors positioned on the ground, such as radars and telescopes. But being on the ground, these sensors don’t necessarily see objects all the time, so the idea is to supplement the available data with in-orbit measurements,” explains Fabien Apper.
U-Space’s latest contract is with Lille-based start-up Grasp. The NewSpace player wants to deploy a constellation of around ten satellites, combined with in situ measurements, to carry out global monitoring of aerosols and visualize their propagation in cities, depending in particular on weather conditions. This solid order book in France will provide U-Space with a springboard for expanding its business in Europe over the coming years. The company also hopes to sell its first constellations next year.