(03/11/2020) Unseenlabs announces the launch of nano-satellites BRO-2 and BRO-3 and the deployment of the constellation dedicated to the geolocation of ships at sea.
The launch of BRO-2 and BRO-31 nanosatellites will take place in mid-November at the Rocket Lab launch complex on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand.
After being the first French new space start-up to successfully launch its first satellite, BRO-1 in August 2019, which has been technically and commercially operational since then, the launch of BRO-2 and BRO-3 marks the beginning of the deployment of the Unseenlabs constellation, which will comprise between 20 and 25 nano-satellites by 2025.
Created in 2015 by brothers Clement and Jonathan Galic, both aerospace engineers (Airbus Space Division, Atos), Unseenlabs has become in 5 years the European leader in the geolocation of ships (cargo, tanker, container carrier, commercial ships, fishing boats …) at sea.
Given the increase in commercial traffic2, the stakes involved in protecting the oceans, or the fight against illegal fishing, knowing precisely and in real time the activities at sea is becoming more and more necessary.
Thanks to its proprietary on-board technology based on the identification of electromagnetic waves emitted by ships, Unseenlabs is able to geolocate from space, any ship at sea, in near-real time, to the nearest kilometer.
Unseenlabs’ technology is the only one today that allows to geolocate a ship so precisely and quickly from a single nano-satellite. With the launch of BRO-2 and BRO-3, the Unseenlabs constellation will now include three satellites. Each one will be a different measurement point, allowing to monitor 3 different areas of interest simultaneously. The objective over the next five years is to create a constellation of 20 to 25 nanosatellites, which will make it possible to increase the system’s responsiveness and the speed at which ships can be tracked.
Marketed since January 2020, the Unseenlabs service is gaining in identification accuracy with each satellite launch.
« We are the only company to have developed a system that works with a single satellite, for an unequalled level of geolocation accuracy. In concrete terms, this means that our constellation’s performance is multiplied with each new launch: with two additional nanosatellites in orbit, we will have the best revisit time available on the market for radio frequency detection from space. « says Jonathan GALIC, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Unseenlabs.
« The launch of the BRO-1 mission in August 2019 was a success both technologically and commercially, putting Unseenlabs on the growth trajectory we had anticipated. Today, we are ahead of our 2021 commercial pipeline. The deployment of these two new satellites is the second step in the creation of our constellation, which will have between 20 and 25 nanosatellites in 2025, with a 20 times higher turnover objective » said Clément Galic, co-founder and CEO of Unseenlabs.
1 BRO : Breizh Recon Orbiter.
2 In 2020, there are 54,000 commercial vessels, 4.6 million fishing vessels according to (Safety & Shipping Review – 2019).
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About Unseenlabs
Created in 2015, Unseenlabs is an innovative company of French origin, leader in Europe in RF satellite geolocation of ships at sea. Its proprietary on-board satellite technology allows to geolocate any ship at sea, in near-real time, to the nearest kilometer, from a single nanosatellite. Unseenlabs provides a wide range of maritime players with accurate and up-to-date data on ship positions, enabling better monitoring of activities at sea. Whether it is to meet the data needs of maritime companies, or to help institutions and organizations fight against illegal and anti-environmental behavior, such as illegal fishing or illegal dumping, the Unseenlabs service is a tool at the service of the oceans. In 2018, Unseenlabs welcomed BPI, the Brittany region and Héméria in its capital for an amount of 7.5M€. Unseenlabs.space
Presentation video : https://youtu.be/W6Ai0vyKeCM
PRESS CONTACTS
Stéphanie LAURENT stephanie.laurent@dentsuaegis.com +33 (0)6 13 68 00 17
Cannelle GAUCHER cannelle.gaucher@unseenlabs.fr +33 (0)6 66 54 09 49