AAC Clyde Space, one of the leaders in small satellite technologies and services, has won its first order for the Cyclops Earth observation satellite constellation by entering into a pre-commercial agreement valued at GBP 612,000 (approx.  SEK 8.3 M) with the Scottish Government. The project will start in Q3 2024 and continue until Q3 2026.

The Cyclops constellation will be made up of four satellites manufactured under the xSPANCION project. The satellites will provide high resolution image data enabling, amongst many other applications, the efficient monitoring of tree health. To identify trees affected by pests and disease, models are trained on data from previous helicopter and ground surveys.

Development of the solution pioneered by AAC Clyde Space was in response to a Challenge set as part of CivTech 9. CivTech is Scottish Government's flagship innovation programme which brings together public sector expertise and private sector innovation to solve real problems and develop new products. The pre-commercial agreement now entered into will focus on the analysis, including automation and integration, of image data into Scottish Forestry's Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) and operations. Moreover, the Cyclops constellation is expected to start delivering data to the client under this pre-commercial agreement in 2025.

"It is exciting to have the Scottish Government as our first customer for the Cyclops constellation. The services we will provide from these 'Made in Glasgow' satellites epitomize the benefits of using data from space: a cost-effective way of monitoring Scotland's forests at a time of increased need. And teaming up with Scotland's government early on has allowed us to develop data services that meet the high requirements of public organizations," says AAC Clyde Space CEO Luis Gomes.

The satellites in the Cyclops constellation will be the first 16U satellites built by AAC Clyde Space and introducing a new generation of EPIC VIEW satellites. Manufacturing of the first two satellites is underway, in preparation of the launch of the first satellite during first half of 2025. Once commissioned, AAC Clyde Space will sell data from the Cyclops constellation globally and at lower cost than previous systems, making it well suited to wide-area monitoring all over the globe.

Click here to learn more about AAC Clyde Space's Space Missions.