Developing the digital marketplace of the Italian IRIDE satellite constellation

Planetek Italia is part of the industrial team, which will build the infrastructure for accessing the data and services of IRIDE - the innovative Italian Earth observation satellite constellation promoted by the Italian Government, and funded by the PNRR - to be managed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI).

IRIDE's digital market place will provide a single, reliable and cyber-protected access point for all institutional bodies and commercial customers, transforming acquired Earth observation data into a wealth of information and analytical data for use in geoinformation services in various application areas of daily use.

The new platform will integrate advanced technologies and open standards and will be interoperable with other Earth observation data delivery, processing and analysis systems.

Planetek Italia will contribute to the development of IRIDE's digital market place in collaboration with an industrial team that includes e-GEOS (Prime), Leonardo, Telespazio, SERCO, Exprivia and Atos. A team of companies with a consolidated experience, gained in the most important space Earth observation programmes - such as Copernicus and COSMO-SkyMed -, in the use and advanced processing of geoinformative data, and with a strong expertise in ICT (Information & Communication Technology), cyber security and the protection of critical digital infrastructures, as well as a vast knowledge of space systems.

The industrial team which will develop the IRIDE marketplace, includes the two Apulian companies Exprivia and Planetek Italia, which together with Serco, and D-Orbit form the OSIRIDE consortium. The Osiride consortium will also play a role, both as Prime and as a working team, in other components of the IRIDE constellation: from upstream to midstream and services.

IRIDE is one of Europe's largest low Earth orbit (LEO) space programme and is a major component of the NextGenerationEU dedicated to the development of space activities, supporting the ecological and digital transition. The programme will implement a system that includes all components (upstream, downstream, and services) to provide geospatial services at the national and European levels, both to public administration and private customers.

IRIDE will consist of a constellation of satellites of various types and sizes combining SAR, optical, panchromatic, hyperspectral and infrared sensors. The constellation will be built in Italy and completed by 2026 with support from ESA and ASI for a total value of 1.1 billion euros allocated under the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PNRR). The constellation will help the Civil Defense Department and other administrations deal with hydrogeological instability and fires, protect coastlines, and monitor critical infrastructure, air quality, and weather conditions.