Satellites for Sovereignty: How SATLANTIS is Tailoring Space Tech to Africa’s Unique Challenges

As a committed international partner to Africa’s NewSpace movement, SATLANTIS continues to demonstrate how high-resolution optical satellite technology can address real-world challenges across the continent. We spoke with Juan Tomás Hernani, CEO of SATLANTIS, during the 2025 NewSpace Africa Conference to understand their strategic vision, technical solutions, and on-the-ground engagement in African markets.

SATLANTIS has consistently supported the NewSpace Africa Conference, playing a key role in its success each year. What drives this commitment? What makes this conference valuable to SATLANTIS, and how does it align with your broader goals as an organisation?

While other markets like Europe are saturated with institutional policies that drive a technology-first approach to space, Africa represents a young and vibrant opportunity to drive space innovation based on real societal and technological challenges. These include climate change, water quality and scarcity, precision agriculture, illegal mining, fire prevention, coastal monitoring, illegal fishing detection, maritime traffic, and enforcing appropriate behaviour at sea, which are key issues for nearly every African nation.

Space offers a fantastic opportunity to accelerate progress in these areas. SATLANTIS has recognised the need to connect deeply with the African spirit and become a true, long-term partner to several countries, working together to solve these critical national challenges.

What is SATLANTIS’s approach to agricultural monitoring in Africa? Can you share specific examples of how your multispectral imaging has been implemented in African farming communities and what measurable improvements in crop yields have resulted?

We have participated in upstream and downstream initiatives, some financed by the European Space Agency (ESA), such as the EO Clinic (Earth Observation Clinic), and others involving institutions like the African Development Bank and the World Bank. These efforts promote using space-based technologies to advance precision agriculture across diverse crop types.

Land registration is another key pillar of sustainable economic development, and our work covers a wide range of environments, from tropical crops to drier vegetation types. Satellite data enables the identification of light and spectral patterns that indicate early signs of disease, wildfire risks, or water stress, supporting timely, informed decisions.

A strong example is our ESA-financed project in Uganda, which showcased how satellite-based agricultural diagnostics can be effectively applied in distinct national contexts.

Your company emphasises the ability to follow “irregular geometry on Earth” with your imaging technology. How has this capability addressed unique African geographical challenges, such as monitoring irregular field boundaries or tracking nomadic farming practices?

Traditional satellite technology is constrained by fixed orbital paths, limiting flexibility. SATLANTIS has developed groundbreaking orbital agility that allows our satellites to:

• Maximise observation time over a city, 
• Deviate toward borders or coastlines,
• Linger over areas of interest.

This unique flexibility maximises the quality and quantity of data collected. In addition, using spectral imaging allows us to extract key agricultural insights from specific wavelengths. For instance:

• Crop health in the red edge band
• Nutrient content in SWIR
• Over-fertilisation zones
• Plant diseases in the red band

These insights enhance agricultural management and planning.

The panchromatic modes you offer farmers, what specific insights have these provided in African contexts that weren’t possible with previous monitoring technologies?

Panchromatic imaging offers sub-meter resolution, helping identify planting patterns, field boundaries, and land-use changes that older technologies missed, particularly in fragmented or informal farming systems common across Africa.

Beyond agriculture, how are your high-resolution imaging capabilities applied to other African priorities such as urban planning, forest management, or water resource monitoring? Are there specific case studies you can share?

Our technology supports critical applications, including water resource management and biomass measurement in wild areas, feeding into national land-use policies, environmental protection, and climate resilience.

You’ve mentioned a desire to partner with African universities. Have any specific academic collaborations been established, and what knowledge transfer models have proven most effective in building local capacity?

We believe that a country’s ability to absorb and apply the data must match any satellite project. That’s why we actively engage with African universities to help build academic programs focused on downstream, vertical applications of space technology.

Our knowledge transfer model is simple yet effective:

1. Bring African professionals to work at SATLANTIS offices in Spain, the UK, France, and the US.
2. Support the creation of dedicated training programmes within partner universities.
3. Help establish or enhance academic degrees focused on satellite engineering, geomodelling, and applied data science.

This immersive approach ensures long-term competence and sovereignty in satellite data usage.

Your ‘End-to-End Solutions’ approach suggests vertical integration. How are you localising the ground segment and data processing components to ensure African stakeholders maintain sovereignty over their agricultural data?

Vertical integration doesn’t mean countries must do everything alone; it means they have the tools to remain sovereign in critical scenarios, especially amid geopolitical uncertainty.

We advocate for building national infrastructure — antennas, downlink stations, and local data hubs — to support data capture and processing. At the same time, we maintain integration with international centres of excellence that provide:

• Algorithm development
• Downlink services
• Advanced processing capabilities

This dual strategy allows African nations to operate independently while remaining globally connected.

As SATLANTIS works to break into the African market, what unique challenges have you encountered in adapting your high-resolution optical technology to African agricultural contexts, especially compared to Europe?

The NewSpace era, with its emphasis on small satellites, has democratised access to space. We’ve significantly reduced entry costs, making it possible for countries with GDPs as low as USD 15 billion to own and operate a satellite tailored to their national priorities.

However, local insights are critical. Just as tropical diseases are best understood within Africa, so too must spectral diagnostics for agriculture be developed with local (and regional) data and experts. Identifying crop diseases, tracking soil degradation, or predicting pest outbreaks requires on-the-ground context.

That’s why we emphasise ecosystem development, partnering with universities and startups in Africa that can interpret data using local knowledge and environmental conditions.

You’ve identified limited government funding as a challenge. What innovative financing models are you exploring to make your solutions accessible to African governments with constrained space budgets?

We rely on several innovative financing mechanisms, including:

1. International institutions like the World Bank, African Development Bank, and the European Commission are particularly interested in projects tied to climate, food security, and sustainability.
2. Export Credit Agency (ECA) tools from the UK, Spain, and France support ambitious African space projects by de-risking financial commitments.

These financing instruments provide powerful bridges that enable African nations to pursue strategic, long-term investments in space.

How do you approach data pricing and access models differently in African markets than your European or global customers?

Africa’s unique strength lies in its ability to coordinate implementation efficiently. Unlike more fragmented ecosystems in mature markets, African space programmes can quickly align all stakeholders, leading to rapid deployment and measurable impact.

This enables us to offer streamlined, impact-oriented models that deliver real value quickly rather than replicating Europe’s longer, more complex timelines. Africa doesn’t need to follow the same path; it can leapfrog into the future by embracing NewSpace innovation tailored to its own development needs.

Any final thoughts?

Yes. I’d like to close with a point of passion. We’re struck by their energy, drive, and talent whenever we visit African universities or engage with young professionals. It’s deeply inspiring. We firmly believe that space, particularly NewSpace, offers a transformational opportunity for Africa’s youth. It’s more than technology: a pathway to meaningful careers and a better-managed, more sustainable continent. This is what drives SATLANTIS: a human mission to empower people, especially the next generation, to lead the future.