Spain-Backed Fund Joins FOSSA's Sovereign Satellite Communications Push

Spanish startup FOSSA Systems "has raised about $10.5 million to expand its connectivity constellation," reports Space News, noting some funding is backed by Spain's government: The support from the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) comes a year after the fund injected 14 million euros into Spain's Sateliot , which is also developing a satellite connectivity network with security and defense applications. Spanish private investment firm Kibo Ventures led FOSSA's funding round, the six-year-old venture announced June 24, bringing its total raised to date to nearly 20 million euros.

The proceeds will help fuel FOSSA's push beyond the tiny picosatellites it once used to connect low-power monitoring devices toward larger cubesats in low Earth orbit, enabling additional sovereign communications and space-based intelligence capabilities... The company's funding round follows a wave of investments this year in European ventures planning to develop sovereign space capabilities, including Austrian propulsion startup Gate Space, which secured 6.3 million euros earlier this month from a European Commission-backed accelerator program.
"Our goal is to establish FOSSA as a European benchmark in sovereign space infrastructure," said Julián Fernández, FOSSA's CEO and cofounder.

Re: 10.5 million

[techmage]

I build satellites that cost less than a million and those are the elaborate ones. Launch costs are about $45k per kilo. The problem is scheduling as the capacity for launching satellites is still very much constrained.

Julian is a very capable leader at Fossa. He can make this work.

Re:

[will4]

It would be good if you could give an example breakdown of the cost, components and capabilities of satellites in this money range.

Re:

[CaptQuark]

You could use Mark Rober's "Sat Gus" as an example. He built and launched a satellite that takes photos from space with kids selfie images which he emails back for free. He details the design and build in one video, then the launch in a second. While not a military grade communication satellite, he did get everything to space for $5 Million.

I Tried Building My Own Space Satellite [youtube.com]
I Spent $5 M So You Can Go To Space For FREE [youtube.com]
https://www.spaceselfie.com/ [spaceselfie.com]

Re:

[techmage]

Sat Gus is an amazing project but way overbuilt for its expected lifetime. We designed a similar satellite that cost about $1 million all in. Unfortunately it would not have been commercially viable. Ours had to make money and the demand just wasn't there.

Re:

[techmage]

For an Earth observation satellite capable of 10 meters per pixel resolution it could be something as simple as this (formatting is gonna suck):

3U Frame 25000
Optical System 150000
ADCS 90000
Propulsion 25000
Solar Arrays 75000
Batteries 10000
Radio 60000
Testting 25000
Licensing 30000
Insurance 50000
Launch 180000
Total 720000

PLD Space

[paugq]

It seems like Fossa Systems' satellite design capabilities will be complementary to PLD Space's (another Spanish company) satellite launching capabilities.

https://www.pldspace.com/en/

I'm sure SpaceX will be happy to launch them

[jfdavis668]

Since it would take anyone else an eternity to launch them all.

Re:

[Charlotte]

Seems you're correct, these guys usually launch using SpaceX's Falcon 9, on a Transporter rideshare mission.

Re: I'm sure SpaceX will be happy to launch them

[techmage]

SpaceX is just about the only company with a real rideshare program. Everyone else views it as an afterthought.

Re:

[paugq]

Not true. There's entire companies, like PLD Space, dedicated to launching satellites with their own reusable spacecrafts.

https://www.pldspace.com/en/