The European Space Agency (ESA) has entrusted multinational technology company GMV with the operational development of mission planning functions for the expansion missions of the Copernicus program, Europe’s main Earth observation system. This contract places GMV in a key position within the next generation of European space services and reinforces its role in one of the most strategic programs for climate change monitoring and land management.
Every day, Earth observation missions acquire large volumes of images that make it possible to analyze phenomena such as the evolution of vegetation and sea ice, monitor natural disasters, support agriculture and urban planning, and more. In this context, mission planning functions (MPFs) play a key role, as they determine what data are acquired and when and how they are downloaded to ground stations, optimizing the use of satellite and ground resources and ensuring that the mission’s scientific and operational goals are met.
“Planning Earth observation missions is highly complex, as it requires coordinating activities such as maneuvers, image acquisitions, and data downloads, as well as adhering to multiple operational and temporal constraints. All of this makes it essential to have cutting-edge, robust planning systems, such as those developed by GMV,” says Laura Fernández Pérez, section head of GMV’s Mission Planning Systems Division and coordinator of the new contract.
The ESA’s trust in GMV is based on the company’s extensive experience with the Copernicus program: it has developed, operated, and maintained planning systems for missions such as Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3, Sentinel-6, and CO2M, covering their whole life cycle. This experience positions GMV as one of Europe’s leading companies in this field.
Under this contract, GMV will lead the development and maintenance of the mission planning functions for two of the new Copernicus expansion missions: CRISTAL and ROSE-L, with Alia Space Systems as a subcontractor. The company will also play a central role in defining, coordinating, and overseeing the planning functions of the program’s other new missions.
The planning functions will be integrated with the Sentinels Mission Planning Framework (SMPF), a generic and shared planning platform developed by GMV and Alia Space Systems, forming the complete mission planning system. The SMPF is a strategic component for the ESA, as it makes it possible to unify and optimize the operations of both current and future missions. This approach improves the system’s overall efficiency and facilitates the future evolution of Copernicus, ensuring its adaptation to new requirements and needs. The contract covers both the detailed development of the planning functions and their long-term maintenance and evolution, ensuring the continuity and robustness of these systems in future phases of the program.
“This contract further establishes GMV as a leader in the Mission Planning Systems field as part of the European Commission’s Earth observation initiative, Copernicus. The ESA has also entrusted GMV with responsibility for all future missions over the next 15 years, recognizing and reflecting the company’s excellent work and the high quality of the systems delivered,” said Juan A. Tejo, head of GMV’s Mission Planning Systems Division.
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