Belgium plans to build 500 satellites per year
By Carlos PIRES, the | |
Walloon society Aerospace laboratorybased in Charleroi, built a 16,000 m factory with the aim of increasing satellite production to 500 units per year.
The new production line focuses on communications and Earth observation gear and is being built with venture capital support from Charleroi Sambrinvest. The company raised €11m in 2019 and another €40m earlier this year and says it is well funded at the moment.
The company is a member of the European Commission’s New Symphony consortia and is seeking EC support for a European low-orbit broadband constellation.
Aerospacelab has already reserved capacity for future rocket launches SpaceX “Carrier” (Carry 8, 9 reserved for 2023 and 10 possibly in 2023).
The company says it used the Florida production plant built by a joint venture that included Airbus and OneWeb.
While its current production tends to be on smaller satellites (up to 150 kg), the company says it has ambitions for much larger spacecraft, between 500 and 1000 kg.