Open Cosmos

Open Cosmos Ltd

Company type	Private
Industry	Aerospace engineering
Founder	Rafal Jorda Siquier
Headquarters	Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, United Kingdom
Area served	Worldwide
Number of employees	~150 (March 2025)
Website	www.open-cosmos.com

Open Cosmos is a satellite mission provider and microsatellite manufacturer, focusing on Earth Observation and satellite communication missions.

History

Open Cosmos was founded by Rafal Jorda Siquier in 2015, and now operates bases in the UK, Spain, Portugal ^[1] and Greece. Its aims to reduce the cost of access to space. ^[2]

Open Cosmos has joined forces with Space Park Leicester to support in the development of the Elfen Project, which is a mission aimed at measuring solar winds, and its affect on near earth space. ^[3]

In September 2023, it was announced that Open Cosmos had raised $50 million in funding from backers ETF Partners, Trill Impact and A&G, along with smaller strategic investors, including Accenture Ventures. ^{[4] [5] [6]}

In July 2025, Open Cosmos acquired Portuguese start-up, Connected, which focuses on 5G NB-IoT capabilities for space. ^[7]

Missions

• QB50: First Mission. Multi-point in-situ measurements of the lower Atmosphere.
• Enxaneta: Narrowband IoT mission with Sateliot
• LS2: IoT satellite for Lucuna Space, providing connectivity to ground sensors.
• DOVER: Pathfinder for GNSS-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solution. (Lost in UK launched Virgin Orbit mission)
• Menut: Earth observation satellite focusing on the impact of climate change.
• ALISIO-1: 6U CubeSat. SWIR imager for environmental monitoring and a laser comms module for improved data transfer.
• PLATERO: Integrating Earth Observation, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence for enhanced environmental monitoring.
• MANTIS: 12U CubeSat, combining Earth Observation and Artificial Intelligence to address the challenges in the energy and mining sector.
• HAMMER: 6U CubeSat, combining key technologies to deliver near real-time analysis and global coverage. ^[8]
• Phi-Sat-2 : European Space Agency mission, alongside CGI ^{[ disambiguation needed ]}, Ubotica, Simera CH Innovative, CEiiA, GEO-K and KP Labs. 6U Cubesat designed to show how AI technologies can advance Earth observation. ^{[9] [10] [11]}
• 6GStarLab: (Launching Q4 2025) 6U CubeSat for the evaluation of 6G communication frequencies using multi-frequency devices. ^[12]
• NanoMagSat: (Launching 2027) European Space Agency mission comprising of 3 x 16U CubeSats, all carrying miniaturised absolute magnetometers mounted at the end of a boom. ^{[13] [14]}
• UK Atlantic Constellation Pathfinder: (Launch TBC) Ocean, Earth and Climate monitoring satellite, intended as a pathfinder towards the UK contribution to the Atlantic Constellation. ^[15]
• ORPHEUS: (Launch TBC) Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) announced that it had awarded the £5.15 million Orpheus mission contract to Astroscale UK, with Open Cosmos as a subcontractor and platform provider. This mission is the successor to the Prometheus-2 and CIRCE missions that were lost aboard the Virgin Orbit launch in 2023. ^[16]
• Greek government constellation: (Launch TBC) Earth observation constellation to provide high-resolution imagery to the Greek government. ^[17]

References

1. "Open Cosmos To Expand Portuguese Footprint". Payload. 4 November 2024.
2. "UK start-up aims to slash the cost of satellite launches". The Daily Telegraph. 18 April 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2025.
3. "Satellite firm joins space park to track solar wind". BBC News. 20 September 2024.
4. "Picture brightens for space start-up Open Cosmos with new funding". The Times. 11 September 2023.
5. "Accenture (ACN) Adds Open Cosmos to Its Investment Portfolio". Yahoo! Finance. 12 September 2023.
6. "Open Cosmos, a UK satellite startup focused on sustainability, raises $50M". TechCrunch. 11 September 2023.
7. "Open Cosmos acquires Connected in landmark European spacetech exit". Tech.eu. 3 July 2025.
8. "Open Cosmos launches groundbreaking Hyperspectral 'HAMMER' Satellite". Open Cosmos (Press release). 5 March 2023.
9. "Introducing Φsat-2". European Space Agency.
10. "AI-powered Phisat-2 launched by Open Cosmos and ESA". GIM International. 20 August 2024.
11. "Open Cosmos and ESA launch AI app-powered satellite". The Engineer. 19 August 2024.
12. "Open Cosmos preparing 6GStarLab satellite for launch". Electronics Weekly. 20 August 2024.
13. "ESA awards development contract for NanoMagSat". European Space Agency. 24 November 2024.
14. "ESA Award Open Cosmos a €34.6M for NanoMagSat Mission". European Spaceflight. 27 November 2024.
15. "Space for Our Future: UK aims to join Atlantic Constellation with funding for new Earth observation satellite". GOV.UK. 21 November 2023.
16. "Dstl announces Orpheus satellite mission contract". GOV.UK. 11 June 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
17. "Britain's Open Cosmos wins £51m Greek satellite contract". UKTN. 29 May 2024. Retrieved 13 August 2025.

External links

• Official website
• LinkedIn Account