The European Space industry Is booming. Despite the boom, the industry is struggling to find commercial buyers for the most valuable edition: data.
On Living Planet Symposium In 2025 in Vienna, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the leaders of the private sector put on the courageous space ambitions of Europe and demanded increased cooperation to eliminate deep commercial gaps. Josef Aschbacher, General Director of the ESA, emphasized a central focus.
“The earth observation within the European space authority has a great priority”, ” he said.
The ESA recently had successful missions. His miniature satellite φsat-2, for example, has began to be transferred High -resolution images back to earth and will support forest fires, earthquakes and flood disaster management. The satellite can also be used to recognize ships, collect data for illegal fishing and monitor sea pollution.
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For European startups that want to develop innovative new services from space, the industry can feel like a sealed bubble. Daniel SmithTrade and investment envoys for space for the Scottish government and founder of AstroagenzWarned, there are big fractures between the different players.
He pointed out the separation between launchers, upstream and downstream space companies and European companies that prevent them from benefiting from space data.
“There is still a lot to do because these companies still have difficulty commercializing,” Smith told TNW. “You still have difficulty selling this data to other sectors. Since the space sector does not want to buy the data.”
Make the message correct
This year the ESA started with a budget of € 7.68 billion (approx. 7.91 billion USD). This corresponds to a decline in funds by 1.4% compared to 2024 and is put in the shade for 2025 by the allocation of $ 25.4 billion from NASA. She also does not compete with that estimated budget of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
In order to close the budgets, maintain a competitive advantage in space and to meet its ambitions, the ESA has turned to the private sector. The aim is to become a leading provider of straw observation services, but can only get through the involvement of the local private sector, which according to Smith is not in the loop for the application options for space technology.
This could be a big problem. If European companies do not create a solid demand for space technology services, the entire industry will endanger. This includes space travelers, satellite manufacturers and rocket manufacturers.
“I see how Earth’s observation company is going out of business, some of which are older than 10 years and they close because they cannot commercialize,” said Smith.
While government organizations such as ESA offer grants and incentive programs, applicants often do not concentrate on monetization and commercialization, Smith added.
This gives them great opportunities. The straw observation mainly uses data from LEO satellites with low earth (Leo) that have extensive use cases.
Leo is already well established for weather forecast and climate change applications. Sectors such as agriculture, energy, infrastructure, logistics, sea season and finance also apply the satellite data to achieve the real effects. Acceptance largely depends on leadership vision and data ability.
Innovative applications continue. For example the Scottish Tech company Space intelligence Use satellite data to create confidence in the financial market for the Carbon Office Finance Market. According to Smith, the key to the development of the potential of earth observation is as we think about technology:
“In the end, space technology is about the earth, not about space.”
Sales room data
The space industry is typically divided into the sectors located upstream and downstream. Upstream covers everything from production to the start, including rockets, room areas and satellite operations. Domested services now offer space data for private companies to be used.
Redged room data providers – driven by software developers and coding experts – call out satellite data, analyze and make it accessible to private companies.
The data you collect in Leo railways can be immensely valuable. It could drive the European space industry ahead and drive the development of its space travelers, rocket launchers and satellite companies forward. However, marketing the data is currently a challenge.
As Smith explained, many space companies have difficulty selling their straw observation data to other sectors.
“The space sector and rocket company does not want to buy the data,” said Smith. “You want to activate the data, you want to start the satellites, so it’s still a big gap.”
The reasons why European companies do not use room data in their business activities are diverse. This includes a lack of understanding of application cases, stigms connected to the space – such as slow and expensive processes – and the failure of the industry to open their value potential private partners and to convey it clearly.
Where startups can start
European companies that consider data for new companies have to focus on the downstream space services, said Smith.
Tower Offers a positive example. The company operates a huge star network of affordable nano satellites that work in Leo, where they collect extensive, detailed data.
The data have supported a variety of applications. This contain Monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions, optimization of the IoT system in production, natural disaster monitoring and Maritime data Analytics for raw material dealers.
Spire breaks through the electricity model aimed at the current by pursuing a holistic approach for the entire room supply chain. The company has produced more than 200 satellites and brought it onto the market, built it in Europe and launched them by space keepers all over the world.
“They focus very much on constellations that they can provide [continual] Reporting, «said Smith. “They build the satellites for customers, but they also build them for themselves and then sell their data that comes from their satellites,” he added.
Spire is not the only company that offers innovative downstream services in Europe. Other examples are catalystwhich recently signed This “Statement for a responsible space sector” and Hydrosatethat specializes in water, irrigation and plant management solutions.
The latest satellite of hydroosate Started in June. The aim is to promote the use of thermal satellite data and AI for food production, security and natural resource management.
Powerful applications also appear in critical infrastructure and resource management. For example, the forest services use room data from downstream providers to transform processes that were previously carried out manually. Tasks such as the inspection and measurement of forest health, size and volume or evaluation of dams and pipes are now supported by satellites.
Traditional, manual approaches to these tasks can be dangerous, time -consuming and expensive. Today they can be rationalized and improved with space seats from Leo satellites that are equipped with different sensors, including radio frequency, radar, high-resolution cameras and infrared.
Companies also merge the data from Leo Earth observations with IoT or floor -based sensor information. “It is never just room data,” said Smith.
The end result
European companies do not necessarily have to build their own satellites to benefit from space data. Many providers already operate extensive constellations that offer rich, implementable knowledge. Startups and companies can use the advantages.
The growth and impact of straw observation will depend more on European companies in order to use this wealth of spatially derived data. As Smith said to us: “Satellites are already up there and they go up there more and more. We need people who use them.”
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