Astroscale France and HEMERIA Join Forces to Develop Sovereign GEO Capability for Global Markets

Strategic French partnership combines proven defence satellite platforms with flight-proven rendezvous and proximity operations expertise to deliver agile, cost-effective capability in geostationary orbit

• Astroscale France and HEMERIA are joining their complementary expertise to develop and export an agile geostationary orbit (GEO) solution for defence and sovereign customers

• The partnership combines HEMERIA’s proven defence satellite platform heritage with Astroscale’s flight-proven rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) expertise

• The approach is designed to provide customers with a faster, more cost-effective route to operational GEO capability, strengthening France’s sovereign industrial base while responding to growing requirements from allied nations

Toulouse, France, Sep. 15, 2026 – Astroscale France, the French subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc. (“Astroscale”), and HEMERIA, a leading French space systems company, today announced plans to establish a strategic partnership to develop and export a French microsatellite solution for operations in geostationary orbit (GEO).

The planned collaboration will combine the companies’ complementary expertise to address growing international demand for agile and capable GEO solutions across defence, sovereign and dual-use markets.

HEMERIA will provide its proven experience in the design and manufacture of agile satellite platforms for demanding defence and institutional missions, including heritage from the YODA programme. Astroscale France will contribute its advanced, flight-proven RPO expertise and associated payload capabilities.

By combining an established platform with proven RPO technology, the companies aim to offer customers a faster and more cost-effective route to operational GEO capability than traditional large-scale programmes.

The solution is being designed around an agile mission architecture, with the ambition to reduce development timelines, programme risk and cost while retaining the advanced manoeuvring and close-proximity capabilities required for demanding defence missions. Rather than requiring investment running into hundreds of millions of euros, the approach is intended to make advanced sovereign GEO capability achievable on a significantly more accessible cost and delivery profile.

From awareness to action in GEO

At approximately 36,000 kilometres above Earth, GEO is home to some of the world’s most critical infrastructure, including strategic communications, weather services and national security capabilities.

As GEO becomes increasingly strategic and contested, governments and defence operators need more than visibility. They need the capability to understand activity around critical space assets and, where required, inspect and characterise objects at close range to inform operational decisions.

Advances in observation and Space Domain Awareness (SDA) are providing an increasingly detailed picture of the GEO environment, but ground-based monitoring has limitations. Understanding the nature, behaviour or condition of an object can require a closer look.

RPO provides that next layer of capability. By enabling a spacecraft to safely approach, maneuver around and inspect another object, RPO can provide detailed close-range information that cannot be obtained through ground-based monitoring alone, turning awareness into actionable intelligence.

The Astroscale France and HEMERIA partnership is designed to deliver this operational capability through a lightweight, agile and responsive GEO solution developed for the evolving requirements of defence, sovereign and dual-use customers.

Astroscale has demonstrated complex RPO in orbit across multiple missions, including ADRAS-J, which successfully approached and characterised a large piece of unprepared orbital debris. Astroscale France is building on that global flight heritage in Toulouse, developing sovereign French and European expertise in RPO and on-orbit servicing.

HEMERIA brings decades of experience developing space systems for institutional, commercial and defence customers, supported by established industrial and cleanroom facilities in France. Its work on the YODA programme provides relevant heritage in agile satellite capabilities for operations in GEO.

Under the partnership, each company will focus on its core expertise, with HEMERIA providing the satellite platform and Astroscale France contributing the RPO payload and associated capabilities. This complementary model is intended to accelerate development, reduce programme risk and provide customers with a credible route to operational GEO capability.

A French capability with global ambitions

Philippe Blatt, President and Managing Director of Astroscale France, said: “Geostationary orbit supports infrastructure that is fundamental to our economies, security and everyday lives. As the environment becomes more strategic and complex, visibility alone is not enough. Governments and defence operators increasingly need the ability to understand, inspect and characterise activity around their critical space assets.

“By combining HEMERIA’s platform and defence heritage with Astroscale’s flight-proven RPO expertise and the sovereign capabilities we are developing here in France, we have an opportunity to deliver a high-performance, agile solution that can be deployed faster and more cost-effectively for France and its international partners.”

Nicolas Multan, Chairman of HEMERIA, said: “GEO is becoming an increasingly strategic and contested environment, creating an urgent need for sovereign, agile and operational capabilities.

“This partnership combines two highly complementary areas of expertise: HEMERIA’s proven experience in defence satellite platforms, notably through the YODA programme, and Astroscale’s flight-proven expertise in rendezvous and proximity operations.

“Together, we have the industrial credibility and technological maturity to deliver a realistic and competitive solution for France and allied nations. Our shared ambition is to build in France a sovereign GEO capability designed from the outset for operational deployment and international markets.”