Satlantis and SuperSharp: dream team for orbiting telescopes in space based in Cambridge and Bilbao

The strategic alliance between Satlantis and SuperSharp Space Systems is delivering astonishing results that you may not have noticed – because they’re mostly taking place in space.

The Spanish company – the largest European provider of high-resolution optical payloads for small satellites – acquired a controlling interest in orbiting telescopes cmaker SuperSharp in 2023, following approval from the UK Secretary of State.

The deal, which is now advancing the way companies use telescopes in space, emerged following a connection between the senior leadership of the two companies, explains Ignatio Marés, head of corporate development at Satlantis, which is based in the Basque part of northern Spain.

In a conversation with Ignatio and SuperSharp’s CEO, Marco Gomez-Jenkins, it became apparent that the two companies are uniquely aligned.

In 2018 SuperSharp’s CEO and co-founder, Marco Gomez-Jenkins, “wanted to start a space company” and left his native Costa Rica to study at Imperial College in London as an MBA student. In 2019 he started working as a research assistant at the University of Cambridge and became an enterprise fellow at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and began working to commercialise the unfolding space telescope technology developed at the university. Later that year, after meeting fellow co-founders Prof Ian Parry – now CSO – and astrophysicist George Hawker, SuperSharp began working on the Earth-imaging technology that is providing insights to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

In 2022, reports Ignatio, Satlantis became aware of SuperSharp at a space conference in Leicester.

“It was a trade show and we happened to meet them there,” Ignatio explains. “We exchanged views – I was working for Satlantis and living in London at the time.

“I had a conversation with Juan [CEO Juan Tomás Hernani] and said I’d met this very promising company and thought there may be parallelisms between our thermal cameras and their infra-red cameras. It turned out that Jean-Jacques [Jean-Jacques Dordain, the chairman of Satlantis and head of the European Space Agency from 2003 to 2015] knew of SuperSharp and he decided to visit them in Waterbeach.

In fact, Rafa [Rafael Guzmán, CTO and founder of Satlantis] had known Ian for 30 years, so there was a mutual link, and in October 2022 we went up to Cambridge with colleagues and visited Marco and team for the first time, and very soon after we thought it would be a very good fit as the two companies are very synergetic and together we could cover the full spectrum of light, from the visible to infra red.

“We were already planning to make an investment but it was such a strong connection between all of us that we started talking about building a stronger link, not just a collaboration, so we took a 51 per cent stake, but from the beginning we made it clear we didn’t want to make an acquisition but rather to make SuperSharp part of Satlantis while respecting their autonomy.”

But a 51 per cent stake sounds like a controlling interest?

“We have always respected the sovereignty of the company,” replies Ignatio. “We always seek an agreement and it’s been very easy to work together so far and reinforce the idea of SuperSharp as an independent UK company. SuperSharp has two independent directors – Sir Stuart William Peach [a former RAF Air Chief Marshal] and Mark Garnier, an MP dealing with space-related industries [Garnier is a British Conservative Party politician and former banker who has been MP for Wyre Forest since 2010].

“So they are part of the team, they sit on the board and also have an active voice in the company. There are eight seats on the board, three are from SuperSharp, three from Satlantis, and the two independent members, so although 51 per cent implies it belongs to a controlling entity, when it comes to decision-making and the implementation of decisions, SuperSharp is autonomous.”

So SuperSharp remains independent, with its individual brand and unique approach to space, while benefitting from access to Satlantis’ resources and infrastructure. The agreement has resulted in a Competence Centre for Optical Space Technologies in the UK covering the whole range of the light spectrum to serve current and future customers.

The Waterbeach company specialises in thermal infrared payloads for Earth observation satellites. It has designed, assembled and manufactured four telescopes at its base, with four more on the way. SuperSharp’s telescopes are “the heart of mission and the camera is at the centre of that. The rest – the antenna, batteries, and sub-systems to support camera and download the data – are subcontracted out.”

From a commercial perspective, Satlantis’ portfolio of high-resolution visible (VIS), near infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) payloads will be enhanced with SuperSharp’s expertise in mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) instruments. The technology promises four times better resolution per unit cost compared with satellites currently on the market. The use of the camera is made available to third parties, explains Marco.

“In terms of how what we’ve seen since we started five years ago has evolved, the price of launches and satellites has gone down dramatically,” says Marco. “The size of our telescope has gone up – what was the size of a microwave is now the size of a washing machine, so there’s been a 20 per cent increase in size but the resolution increase is phenomenal, because when we go to bigger telescopes we can capture much sharper images.

“That opens up a new customer base and new applications, so we can monitor individual vehicles, from security and defence, based on heat coming out of an engine, to an investment bank – ie a hedge fund uses satellites to count cars in large parking lots. We can work out how long a car stays based on the heat it emits. Even when a car leaves it’s going to be hotter, and we can detect that.”

The whole in-space market is on the up and SuperSharp is part of that, Marco adds.

“The sector is now very dynamic and a lot more accessible. The UK Space Agency is doing a good job of trying to build up the supply chain, also globally the launches are getting cheaper, the satellite platforms are getting cheaper, and there’s more partners in the value chain for areas outside your expertise.

“There’s still a lot to do. It’s still a young market, with issues including space debris and security. Sometimes it feels a lot like the Wild West, but it’s exciting rather than alarming.

“With growth there are always new challenges, but if it’s going in the right direction – which I think it is – I’m all for it.”