Leonardo has been awarded by the European Space Agency (ESA) a fully funded contract to define the architecture of the future EU Earth Observation Governmental Service (EOGS), a key capability designed to harness space data in support of Europe’s autonomous decision-making in the fields of security and defence.

The contract is one of the two parallel architectural studies funded by the European Commission and signed with ESA under the Financial Framework Partnership Agreement (FFPA). The project will propose architectural options to support the future implementation of the EOGS. The European Resilience from Space for Earth Observation (ERS-EO) activities are parallel preparatory activities for EOGS, including the preparation of relevant capabilities and their potential federation with national and European dual-use Earth Observation assets.

Led by Leonardo, the study will capitalize the competences, technologies and solutions from Telespazio, Thales Alenia Space, e-Geos and a qualified network of European partners, and will define a sovereign, resilient and federated end-to-end Earth Observation architecture, covering the entire value chain: space systems and sensors, ground infrastructure, data processing and services. Starting from the operational needs of security and defence users, the project will assess current capabilities and will perform a gap analysis. It will then evaluate different architectural solutions for performance, resilience, responsiveness and affordability, leveraging Leonardo’s, and entire Space Alliance, technological and industrial capabilities in Earth Observation, including its proprietary earth observation constellation. A central element will be the federation of existing and future European assets, enabling different national, institutional and commercial capabilities to operate as part of an integrated system.

ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, said, "This is an important step in paving the way towards a sovereign European Earth observation capability supporting security and resilience. We are pleased that Leonardo is now poised to contribute to the blueprint to help shape Europe’s Earth observation capabilities for the next decade and beyond, bringing together national, institutional and commercial assets within a shared operational framework aimed to strengthen Europe’s resilience and strategic autonomy.”

Massimo Claudio Comparini, Managing Director of Leonardo’s Space Division, said, “Europe’s strategic autonomy increasingly depends on its ability to access, understand and use critical data from space. Through the EOGS study, Leonardo will contribute its and Space Alliance technologies, infrastructures and expertise to help shape a sovereign Earth Observation capability supporting Europe’s security, resilience and technological independence.” 

The project brings together a broad European industrial ecosystem covering seven European countries: Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, Portugal and Poland. The Leonardo-led consortium includes its joint ventures Telespazio, Thales Alenia Space as well as e-GEOS and OHB, GAF, HiTec, Alioth, CEiiA, Argotec, Satlantis, KPLabs, AIKO, and SITAEL.

From left to right: Simonetta Cheli, Director of Earth Observation Programmes, ESA, Christoph Kautz, Director for Space Policy, Satellite Navigation and Earth Observation (DEFIS), European Commission and Massimo Claudio Comparini, Managing Director of Leonardo Space Division

@Credits: ESA