ESA and Altair collaborate to enable the space entrepreneurs of the future with simulation and data analytics tools
ESA has signed a letter of intent with Altair to enable space entrepreneurship and help startups facing the huge challenges of building the future of aviation and space. The collaboration falls under the ESA Partnership Initiative for Commercialisation (EPIC) and will target companies supported by ESA’s Commercialisation Networks, including ESA’s Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs), ESA Technology Brokers, ESA Phi-LabNET as well as ESA Φ-lab (ESRIN) and the InCubed Earth Observation commercialisation programme.
The partnership
Altair provides software and cloud solutions in simulation, high-performance computing (HPC), data analytics, and AI and has decades of global experience and reach in the space and newspace sector. Altair’s tools and solutions are used by established companies and emerging startups to develop, test, optimise, and build their innovative products, including satellites, launchers, sensors and antennas, probes and rovers.
The intended partnership will allow ESA supported startups priviledged access to Altair’s Start-up Acceleration Programme as well as technical support and mentorship. The collaboration was off to a good start at ESA’s Industry Space Days in September 2024 where Altair representatives were able to engage with ESA supported start-ups and other EPIC partners. Altair joins an expanding EPIC network as the twelfth partner alongside Airbus, Ellipsis Drive, Iceye, Idaero Solutions, Novaspace, OVHCloud, Planet Labs GmbH, Scaleway, Sinergise, Thales Alenia Space and UP42.
The comments
“At ESA, we are constantly looking for ways to equip space entrepreneurs with the best tools and resources to succeed in an increasingly competitive industry. Our partnership with Altair is an exciting step in this direction, offering startups privileged access to advanced simulation and data analytics tools. This collaboration will empower our ESA BICs and other ESA Commercialisation Networks to accelerate innovation, reduce development costs, and bring breakthrough ideas to market faster. Altair’s expertise aligns perfectly with our mission to enable the next generation of space pioneers,” comments the Head of the Entrepreneurship & Business Incubation Office at ESA – Cornelis (Niels) Eldering.
Michele Castorina, Head of the Φ-lab Invest Office and InCubed Programme Manager, comments: “At Φ-lab, we are thrilled to embark on this partnership with Altair. By combining the technical, commercial and financial support provided by the InCubed programme with Altair’s innovative approaches in data analytics, we are confident that this partnership will bring fantastic results for the benefit of the scientific and commercial Earth observation communities.”
“I’m proud and honored that ESA is giving Altair the opportunity to partner on an initiative that will accelerate the introduction of new ideas and technologies in the sector, enabling innovators and pioneers to build with us the future of the space industry. We deal every day with companies who face incredible engineering, production and maintenance challenges, and that are struggling to use the huge amount of data available to get timely insights and take decisions. This is why we have agreed to provide startups and all the entities supported by ESA with unlimited simulation and data analytics software empowered by artificial intelligence and all the training they need to use it. By digitalizing engineering and testing startups can drastically cut the cost and time to bring an MVP (Minimum Viable product) to the market, explore many more ideas and increase their success possibilities in a tough, very competitive environment,” comments Paolo Colombo, Global Strategy Director for Aerospace and Defense ar Altair.
Photo: Paolo Colombo, Alrair and Cornelis (Niels) Eldering, ESA at ESA’s Industry Space Days 2024
Capture: ESA