Open Cosmos, founded by aerospace engineer Rafel Jorda Siquier in 2015, is a leading provider of end-to-end satellite solutions. From designing and manufacturing satellites to operating them in orbit, the company is working to make space data more accessible.
The company has had an impressive year, securing over $120 million in contracts while maintaining profitability and expanding its global presence. At IAC 2024, Siquier shared insights into Open Cosmos’ latest missions, the company’s remarkable growth, and its commitment to connecting people and regions through space technology.
Key Differentiators: Speed, Reliability, and Diversity
Open Cosmos distinguishes itself with an impressive track record of speed and reliability. “Everything we’ve launched to date has worked. We have a 100% success rate,” Siquier said. The company has launched ten missions and has 22 more in progress. Open Cosmos can deliver satellites at an accelerated pace, sometimes as quickly as four months, though the typical timeframe is 12 to 18 months. Siquier attributed this speed to the company’s agile approach.
Another factor that sets the company apart is its ability to cater to a diverse array of missions. In addition to Earth observation satellite projects like the €60 million European Space Agency contract, involving building Greece’s first flagship satellite constellation to combat sea pollution and improve agricultural efficiency, Open Cosmos is developing telecommunications, navigation, and scientific satellites.
“We’ve covered the whole spectrum of capabilities,” Siquier said, highlighting the company’s ability to adapt its technology to various industries. Whether it’s providing data for monitoring natural disasters, enabling secure communications for government agencies, or supporting scientific missions, Open Cosmos has proven its ability to meet the diverse needs of its customers.
Recent Milestones and Expanding Capabilities
At IAC 2024, Open Cosmos announced two new satellite projects, signaling its momentum in the space tech sector. The first of these, PhotSat, is an innovative mission developed for IEEC (Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), where Open Cosmos will design and build a satellite that enables astronomers to monitor the brightness of stars and search for potential exoplanets. This mission reflects the company’s focus on advancing scientific research through cost-effective space solutions, with Siquier commenting, “We are really happy to contribute technology that enables missions that, in the past, would have cost hundreds of millions, but can now be done with much tighter budgets.”
The second new mission, a 6G laboratory satellite for the European Space Agency, will provide a testbed for next-generation telecommunications protocols, focusing on security innovations that Siquier believes could define the 6G standard. “In the past, the space component was never at the heart of the stack,” he noted, pointing to how satellite technology had often been treated as an afterthought in telecom. This laboratory mission seeks to address that by integrating space infrastructure from the outset, allowing terrestrial operators to experiment with encryption models, protocols, and hybrid connectivity solutions that will drive future satellite-enabled communications. Siquier highlighted that, unlike previous telecom standards focused primarily on latency and bandwidth, 6G could be transformative in the realm of secure communications, a feature that aligns with Open Cosmos’ broader mission to provide robust, reliable data access for a range of applications.
This focus on affordability and efficiency has contributed to a landmark year for Open Cosmos, including a major €60 million contract in Greece. Unlike many space companies that rely heavily on external funding and struggle with profitability, Open Cosmos has achieved four consecutive years of profitability. “We’ve chosen a path of working with customers who value our services, and on the back of that, we’ve grown sustainably,” Siquier said.
In addition to satellite hardware, Open Cosmos is making waves with its DataCosmos platform, a data harmonization solution that allows users to access diverse datasets. “We bring all this data together, ready for machine learning and analytics,” Siquier explained. Open Cosmos empowers businesses, governments, and research institutions to leverage critical information in real-time by providing a platform that integrates public, third-party, and non-space data.
Focus on Emerging Markets and Global Reach
Looking ahead, Open Cosmos is focused on expanding its reach beyond Europe. “We’ve already consolidated a lot of the European market,” Siquier said, “but now we’re looking to bring countries and companies from Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East into our shared and open constellation model.”
This expansion strategy is driven by the urgent need for data and insights across various sectors, including energy, natural resources, and climate monitoring. “Open Cosmos has to be a company that solves problems,” Siquier emphasized. “We don’t do it alone, we open our technology to people who want to leverage it to address global challenges.”
The Broader Space Data Landscape: Empowering Resilience and Equitable Access to Critical Insights
As industries worldwide increasingly rely on satellite-enabled data, the role of space technology in addressing critical needs like climate monitoring, natural resource management, and secure communications is expanding rapidly.
In discussing the potential of satellite data, Siquier emphasized the urgent need to support global resilience against natural disasters, including floods and wildfires. Satellite-based data offers real-time insights that can aid in timely decision-making and response strategies. Siquier sees Open Cosmos as contributing to this goal by offering accessible, affordable space data to regions that have traditionally lacked such resources. “We open our technology to people who want to leverage it to address global challenges,” he said, underlining the company’s mission to support pressing needs beyond Europe’s borders.
Additionally, Siquier discussed the role of space data in sectors like energy and agriculture, which depend heavily on accurate environmental information. By integrating satellite data with advanced analytics, industries can gain reliable insights into everything from crop health to water resource management. This is especially relevant in emerging markets, where robust satellite data can empower local solutions and help bridge gaps in access to high-quality information. “Talent is almost generally distributed, right? Opportunities aren’t,” Siquier noted, stressing the need for equitable access to critical data across diverse regions.
Siquier envisions a future where space data plays a foundational role in supporting industries and governments worldwide, enabling them to make informed decisions in an era of rapid environmental and technological change.
Looking Forward
As Open Cosmos continues to grow and expand its global impact, Siquier extended an open invitation to those eager to make a difference. “If you want to have a true impact on solving global challenges, and you have expertise in space technology or data analytics, please reach out. We’re recruiting and expanding,” he said. He also emphasized the company’s openness to partnerships, particularly with those looking to scale their analytics using Open Cosmos’ diverse satellite data.
Reflecting on the spirit that drives the company, Siquier shared an anecdote from his Catalan roots. In Catalonia, the tradition of building human towers, known as castells, involves a child climbing to the very top. This child, called the enxaneta, symbolizes both the courage to reach new heights and the importance of those supporting them from below. Recently, Open Cosmos invited the children of Catalonia to name one of their satellites, and they chose to name it Exaneta. The name captures the company’s belief in pushing boundaries while staying grounded in the strength of its foundational mission.
Image credit: Open Cosmos
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