First of all, congratulations to you and your teams on winning the CASSINI Business Accelerator contract! Pieter, for anyone who hasn’t heard about it, could you explain to us what this contract is all about?

“Yes, of course. The CASSINI Business Accelerator is a program from the European Commission to accelerate space start-ups and make them competitive in the global market. With a budget of €8.5 million, the European Commission wants to pull European space companies out of the shadows of the highly-invested American and Asian projects.”

What will this mean in practice? How will this money be used?

“The program will offer support through both learning and acceleration support, and €6 million in seed money. So the largest part of the budget will be dedicated to supporting the accelerated start-ups and scale-ups financially after finishing the program. The acceleration journey itself will consist of learning (Verhaert) and acceleration support (Plug and Play, CIVITTA and Sting) in dedicated locations and markets of interest, as well as mentorship in key areas such as sales and business development planning, investment readiness, and market expansion.”

A well-rounded program with a clear purpose! Who will be eligible for this program?

“All starting entrepreneurs within the European Union that are working on space-related innovation projects can apply to this program. Twice a year, 20 start-ups or scale-ups will be selected to participate in the 6-month acceleration journey.”

Benoit, you and your team are taking on quite the challenge. Why is Verhaert’s OpenLab in such a good spot to shape and manage the CASSINI Business Accelerator?

“Well, the CASSINI Business Accelerator is definitely the biggest accelerator contract we’ve ever won, but it’s not our first time managing this type of initiative. Over the last decade, we had a big role in other space acceleration initiatives like setting up and managing the ESA Space Solutions Center Belgium, including technology transfer, business incubation and funding. On top of that, we’ve co-organized programs like FIRE, Point.IoT and recently the CASSINI Hackathons. All this experience gives us the confidence to take on this new challenge together with Plug and Play, CIVITTA and Sting.”

Based on your experiences, what’s one aspect people sometimes overlook when setting up this kind of program?

“Acceleration programs are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Even if you set up a thematic accelerator targeted to one market, you still need to allow room for tailored support. The larger the group of participants, the more different their needs will be. To make sure all teams are fit to become key players in the international market, you will have different gaps to fill. That’s why we’re so pleased that Verhaert Innovation Academy, part of the Verhaert group, will also support this. Customizable innovation courses are one of their key offerings and expertises.”

Dany, you must feel really proud of your team for reaching this milestone. So tell us, what does this mean for the Strategic Innovation team and Verhaert in general?

“This contract confirms that we’re not only leaving a mark in the Belgian, but also the European and global innovation landscape. It’s truly a milestone in our efforts to help boost the European capacity to innovate and puts us in the pole position to continue doing so. Innovation is a well-established growth strategy, but unfortunately, the return is often too low. That’s where we can help.”

So does this mean that this accelerator will also benefit other innovation domains?

“Definitely! What Formula 1 does for the automotive industry, space does for many innovation areas on Earth. Space has become a very dynamic industry: large private space companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are inspiring many small companies to capitalize on the innovation wave too. It’s become a technological playground to develop new materials, systems, technologies and so much more. That’s why ESA Space Solutions Belgium, for example, has been investing heavily in transferring space technology into everyday applications. It’s the future for innovation on Earth.”

And a final question, why should European NewSpace start-ups apply for the CASSINI Business Accelerator?

“Getting your product or service to the market successfully is not a walk in the park. Doing it alone is nearly impossible. Regardless of how far your technology stands, you still need an entire ecosystem to make it ready to launch. And that’s the unique offer of the CASSINI Business Accelerator, a direct link to experienced industry experts to build your network and connect with investors.”

Special thanks to Pieter, Benoit and Dany!

	Pieter Deleye Manager Innovation Acceleration Services – Strategic Innovation
	Benoit De Vrieze Coordinator OpenLab
	Dany Robberecht Director Strategic Innovation

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Introducing the CASSINI Business Accelerator

The growth of space companies in the Americas and Asia has often overshadowed the many different players in Europe, in the USA for example, funding is 9 times higher than in the European Union. With the CASSINI Business Accelerator, the European Commission will boost entrepreneurship in space-related businesses across the EU to reclaim its position in the market. This contract consists of a €6 million fund that will be divided across the accelerated start-ups and scale-ups at the end of a 6-month journey.

The 2-year contract to organize this accelerator has been awarded to a consortium of 3 companies. Within the consortium, Verhaert Masters in Innovation has the lead, assisted by Plug and Play Tech Center, CIVITTA, and Sting. The consortium will ensure space participants are prepared and are facilitated in international sales and investment gathering. After these 2 years, the contract can be extended with another 2 years and a total investment of €17 million.

What will participants get out of it?

Every year 40 start-ups and scale-ups will be accelerated with a focus on scaling them from local peripheries to a European and global market as well. The program will allow entrepreneurs across Europe to connect with potential clients and investors across different countries, changing the narrative from local to international.

Verhaert will lead the consortium and manage the project, with a focus on providing learning support for the participants. CIVITTA, Plug and Play, and Sting will provide acceleration support in dedicated locations and markets of interest, as well as mentorship in key areas such as sales and business development planning, investment readiness, and market expansion.

“Our mission is to get more funds to invest in exciting European space companies. Supporting these start-ups early on, will give them the boost they need to get picked up by VCs and become key players in the international market”, continues Tomas Jonsson, CASSINI Space Entrepreneurship Initiative.

The first communications will be initiated in the coming weeks and the first cohort of 20 participants will be welcomed in May 2023.

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The space industry has changed significantly over the last years, in particular fueled by start-ups broadening the conventional definition of the space industry. New technologies, new business models, and new market segments are developed at a pace never seen before. Old versus NewSpace, presently it has become merely a semantic discussion. While space technology in its conventional sense was all about being in orbit, today it stands for a range of enabling technologies that fuel a wide variety of ‘terrestrial’ verticals, including wind energy, marine, insurance, finance, mobility, infrastructure, telecom, life sciences and many more.

Space tech can generally be considered part of the deep tech environment, or technologies that are based on tangible engineering innovations or scientific advancements and discoveries. However, our consortium sees a specific challenge for space tech companies, as they do not yet have routes to commercialization that are as established as they’re for deep tech start-ups in life sciences or biotech, for instance. Therefore we advise focusing on enabling scaling of space tech start-ups and bridging the gap towards commercialization of space tech, for both upstream and downstream start-ups.

Segmenting the dynamic space ecosystem

Space technology and data utilization contribute positively to a range of policy areas, including climate and weather monitoring, access to health care and education, water management, efficiency in transportation and agriculture, peacekeeping, security, and humanitarian assistance. Space can add value to most sustainable development goals (SDGs) set forward by the European Commission. F.e. UNOOSA joined the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency in an early 2018 study demonstrating that 65 out of 169 targets underpinning the SDGs directly benefit from the use of earth observation and satellite navigation systems. We prioritize the next 5 segments.

1. Going to space

Reducing launch costs, and making access to space easy and affordable with European suppliers is definitely one of the most visible efforts undertaken by NewSpace actors. Zero to Infinity is developing a range of solutions providing agile access to space, but also Isar Aerospace, Skyrora, ISIS, Pangea Aerospace, Exotrail are building a versatile small launch capability.

The growing interest in suborbital flights and space tourism. Even if the business case isn’t yet proven, the efforts spent on this activity by SpaceX and BlueOrigin have a direct impact on orbital launchers.

The active quest for small launchers for small satellites. There are many initiatives such as Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket; Vector Space Systems with the full-scale prototype of its launch vehicle; and Hyimpulse Technologies with its small sat orbital launcher based on green hybrid propulsion technology. These are just a few examples of developers active in Europe.

2. Space for space

This segment covers all activities related to operations in space with diverse maturity levels, such as:

• Debris mitigation and end-of-life disposal
• In-orbit servicing including refueling, repairing, upgrading, and space tugs services
• In-space manufacturing.

3. New horizons in (deep) space

This segment covers disruptive approaches for very long-term applications such as asteroid mining, in situ resource utilization (ISRU), and exploration or journeys to Mars. ISRU concepts were initially designed by space agencies, scientific institutions, or disruptive thinkers. Some start-ups raised significant amounts of money but the potential market for commercial activities is uncertain.

4. The space subsystems & equipment

The space supply chain is usually organized in ‘tiers’. Smallsat platforms, electric propulsion engines, flat antennae, optical communication terminals, software-defined radio modules, generic mission control or telemetry, etc. The boom of cubesats and smallsats fostered the emergence of new companies in the space supply chain and the evolution of the legacy ones. VEOWARE Space in Belgium is an example of a company manufacturing attitude and orbit control systems for next-gen satellites.

5. Down-to-earth

This sector is particularly meaningful because it includes both institutional and commercial markets with more clear market growth opportunities and tougher competition. The down-to-earth segment covers practically every imaginable industry vertical.

For earth observation, satellites were until recently owned by governmental organizations or by several commercial operators contracted by public institutions, through public investment or public-private partnerships: the public sector is the main user with more than 75% of commercial imagery purchased by public institutions.
The Copernicus program has set forward a flourishing ecosystem in earth observation imagery and more companies are starting to deploy privately owned satellite constellations providing a massive stream of imagery. Their disruptive approach is based on the strategy to:

• Reduce revisit times, contrary to focusing on high resolution
• Minimize infrastructure costs to provide affordable data. While the evolution of the EO data market is still limited, the impact is visible across 3 axes:
  1. A low-cost approach is a game-changer in satellite manufacturing.
  2. Revisit time matters more and is highly considered for replacement of legacy missions.
  3. The investment in data analytics and artificial intelligence is booming.

Communication satellites and services are the most commercialized part of the space industry. While the market is largely dominated by operators of GEO satellites, the disruption comes from large constellation initiatives with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of satellites in LEO orbits. The market has young players, but also reputed brands entered the segment: O3B (owned by SES in Luxembourg), Oneweb (UK), Starlink, Boeing, Viasat, Telesat, Leosat, etc. NewSpace start-ups also address new markets such as IoT and M2M, where less complex and more affordable systems are relevant.

Global navigation and positioning systems with Europe’s Galileo fully operational, Europe is more independent than before. With continued support from the different agencies in Europe this independent, public-driven, highly accurate system will drive further entrepreneurship and technology differentiation in Europe. According to the EUSPA 2022 Market Report, the main growth opportunities are in high-volume devices, safety- and liability-critical devices, high-accuracy devices, and timing devices.

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Earth observation systems generate huge amounts of data. This is a blessing, but without large scale automated data processing and analysis can quickly become a curse for your project. In this talk, Niels Verleysen and Daniel Gheorghita, Consultants AILab at Verhaert explore the unique role that data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence play in making NewSpace data actionable.

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Accurate and precise data is extremely important when using remote sensing in your decision-making process. In this webinar, Pieter Deleye, Manager Innovation Acceleration Services – Strategic Innovation at Verhaert, and Stefan Adriaensen, researcher at VITO, share their knowledge built over several years about monitoring and calibrating optical payload of satellites in orbit as a service. This service allows them to further improve and preserve the quality of EO data products and its applications.

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The NewSpace ecosystem is booming thanks to the emergence of small platforms. Any company in earth observation is now more than ever able to launch satellite constellations and commercialize the data. However, developing micro- and nanosatellites is not without its challenges. In this session, Didier Beghuin, CTO Development, and Philippe Antoine, CTO Research, from Lambda-X share their insights on maintaining imaging quality, differentiating from competition and reducing costs and time in development.

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One of the biggest bottlenecks in EO applications remains revisit frequency. Especially in the agriculture and food industry, the current 5 days frequency means a tremendous loss of data. In this webinar, Benoit Deper, CEO at Aerospacelab shows how their MultiSpectral Companion Mission is set to overcome this obstacle and enable daily visits. Thanks to a set of small multispectral satellites, they will be able to generate recurring high-quality data, and many benefits and opportunities for several industries.

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The CASSINI Hackathons and Mentoring, initiated by the European Union and its space program, is a series of 6 hackathons that tackle global challenges using European space technologies. Now in its 3rd edition, this hackathon provides access to European space data, information and signals from Copernicus, Galileo and EGNOS, plus other valuable tools to help participants take on one of our three pressing challenges. The top ideas will be awarded at both local and EU levels, and the overall winners will enter a 6-month mentoring program that includes 100 hours of customized expert mentoring.

Here’s what to expect

If you’re a rising innovator in Europe, you’re invited to participate in the CASSINI Hackathon at one of our 10 locations. Each hackathon location features its own unique set of experts, prizes, and additional special features. Once you select a location, it’s time for registration, team formation and ideation! Your team will choose to solve one of three challenges, all related to the theme of European tourism:

1. Creating sustainable destinations: Develop innovative ideas or design new products or services that reduce the carbon footprint of tourism travel. For this challenge, participants are encouraged to explore the areas of carbon footprint measurement, alternative destinations or modes of transport, online travel agents and other intermediaries, disruptive travel concepts, and understanding travel patterns between cities or countries.
2. Experiencing lesser-known cities and cultures: Develop innovative ideas or design new products or services to offer travelers a unique and sustainable way to experience local destinations while supporting local businesses and communities. For this challenge, participants are encouraged to explore the areas of crowd management and slow tourism, personal recommendations and itineraries, social recognition and social media, state-of-the-art virtual travel experiences, and supporting local businesses and communities.
3. Exploring nature with care: Develop innovative ideas or design new products or services to offer tourists a unique and sustainable opportunity to explore our nature. For this challenge, participants are encouraged to explore the areas of conservation of local nature and biodiversity, social recognition, and social media, supporting local businesses and communities, the generation of (new) routes and points of interest, and tourist information about the environmental state of areas.

Get your spot

Remember, no previous space experience is required! This is your chance to engage with the sector, even if it’s for the first time. The application process couldn’t be easier: simply choose a challenge and decide how you’ll leverage EU space technologies to reshape European tourism. Register here: hackathons.cassini.eu

Hackers aren’t the only ones who can take advantage of the CASSINI Hackathons & Mentoring. If you’d like to participate as an organizer or mentor, we’d love to hear from you. All interested individuals, organisations, companies, and institutions are invited to apply to support the next generation of space-based entrepreneurs. Information on how to get involved can be found here for mentors and organizers.

Now is your chance to become part of this exciting European initiative to promote EU Space technology and its many applications. Hack with a purpose and leverage EU space data, services, and signals to strengthen and transform the way Europe does tourism! More information: hackathons.cassini.eu

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Space technology is a great opportunity to innovate and create a competitive edge in commercial services and products. In this webinar, Pieter Deleye, Manager Innovation Acceleration Services – Strategic Innovation, explains how the ESA Space Solutions Belgium initiative supports the integration in IoT, connectivity and AI within ports, cities and logistics with funding, ecosystems and expert mentors.

Interested in attending our ReThinking NewSpace webinar on March 29th together with Lambda-X, VITO and Aerospacelab? Sign up on the event page!

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EO for reliable, detailed and up-to-date information

Innovating NewSpace starts with improving optics in micro- & nanosatellites, data processing through algorithms and embedded AI Particularly earth observation proves to be a versatile tool for reliable, detailed and up-to-date information on services on Earth.

Using satellite data allows you to see the bigger picture, derive clear connected patterns and supplement local infrastructure for prediction models. Earth observation opens the doors for future business application in several fields, from agriculture and marine, to urban planning and material management.

4 sessions, 4 earth observation challenges

Although earth observation systems have improved tremendously over the years, the challenges in providing cost-effective data, making micro- and nanosatellite optical systems more effective and integrating AI, are still to be solved. During this webinar we’ll tackle 4 recurring challenges in 4 sessions:

• 9h30 – Commercializing EO through daily global coverage (Aerospacelab)
• 10h00 – Optical design challenges for earth observation (Lambda-X)
• 10h30 – Preserving EO data quality through in orbit calibration (VITO)
• 11h00 – The critical role of AI in earth observation (Verhaert)

Discover new insights on sustaining successful EO-based products and services in this era of big data and IoT during the ReThinking NewSpace webinar. For more information about the sessions, please visit the event page.

Sign up for the webinar ‘ReThinking NewSpace’

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