Credit: HummingSat
SWISSto12 has announced that during the 2025 ESA Ministerial Council meeting, Member States committed €73 million in additional funding for the Renens-based satellite manufacturer’s HummingSat project.
In early 2022, ESA and SWISSto12 signed a contract to begin work on the HummingSat Partnership Project with the aim of developing a micro-geostationary satellite. Part of the agency’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme, Partnership Projects provide co-funding to satellite operators developing innovative solutions for the telecommunications market.
The HummingSat micro-geostationary satellites will be 1.5 cubic metres in volume, approximately one-tenth the volume of a traditional geostationary satellite, with a launch mass of around 1,000 kilograms. The satellites will be placed in geostationary orbit, some 36,000 kilometres above Earth, and will have an operational lifespan of 15 years.
SWISSto12 secured an initial round of funding from ESA for the project following the 2022 ESA Ministerial Council meeting in Paris, during which Member States committed €30 million. On 21 January, the company announced that ESA Member States had committed an additional €73 million in funding for the project during the 2025 Ministerial Council meeting. According to the company, the new funding will be used to accelerate the development and industrialisation of HummingSat, as well as to scale up its manufacturing capacity.
“The recent subscriptions of Member States and Cooperating States at the ESA Ministerial Council to the HummingSat Project, and the latest round of funding from European private investors sends a strong message to the global market that SWISSto12 is at the heart of satellite communications innovation,” said SWISSto12 CEO Emile de Rijk.
The company has already sold four HummingSat satellites, one to Intelsat and three to Viasat. When Intelsat signed its agreement with the company in November 2022, becoming the first HummingSat customer, its satellite was expected to be launched in 2025. The launch date for this first HummingSat satellite is now expected to take place no earlier than 2027.
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