Hydrosat Unveils Osiris Constellation for 2027 Launch

Hydrosat has unveiled its next-generation Osiris satellite constellation, with the first two spacecraft scheduled for launch next year. The thermal infrared Earth observation company, based in Paris, France, announced the new system today.

CEO Pieter Fossel described the new satellites as "VanZyl-2 on steroids." He told Payload that the engineering team managed to improve both image resolution and the area covered simultaneously, a feat he said is usually a trade-off. "Usually, you get to do one or the other-swath or resolution," Fossel said.

Enhanced Payload Specifications

Each Osiris satellite will carry an integrated payload of five sensors. This represents a major upgrade over the company's existing VanZyl-1 and -2 satellites currently in orbit.

The key specifications for the Osiris payload are as follows:

For comparison, the current VanZyl satellites offer customers 30-meter resolution in visible near-infrared and 70-meter resolution on the long-wave infrared band.

Mission Configuration and Data Delivery

The Osiris constellation will operate in an always-on configuration, continuously capturing stripmap imagery of the Earth as the satellites pass overhead. This data will feed directly into Hydrosat's analytics product, known as the Discovery Platform. Customers will use this platform to monitor day-to-day changes over specific sites of interest.

Thermal infrared sensors provide a unique capability because they do not rely on sunlight. This allows them to detect activity day or night, making them valuable for spotting phenomena like troop movements or power usage under darkness. These capabilities have already proven attractive to defense and intelligence customers using Hydrosat's existing VanZyl data for ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) campaigns.

Growing Government and Commercial Business

Hydrosat's thermal data has secured several recent government contracts. The company won a NASA CSDA (Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition) contract in June. In July, it secured a stage 2 contract with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), building on work that began in 2023. An August award under the SpaceWERX STRATFI program will fund continued development of its thermal infrared capabilities.

The company is also expanding beyond selling analyzed data into the hardware business. Hydrosat has begun offering its next-generation infrared payloads to other entities wanting to add the capability to their own observation constellations. Last week, the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Kazakhstan. The proposal involves integrating Hydrosat's payload and AI analytics into a Kazakh government spacecraft.

Fossel indicated that more hardware sales are likely, driven by an increasingly commercial customer base. He told Payload that pure commercial revenue currently makes up about 40% of the business, but that ratio is expected to shift. "Our commercial business has been consistently delivering growth quarter after quarter, year after year, for the last three years, and we expect that to continue," Fossel said. The company is not waiting for the new Osiris satellites to begin operations, as it continues to serve clients with data from its existing VanZyl constellation.