Seville-based Airbus plans to launch the first satellite of its new Pléiades Neo Next programme in early 2028. The satellite will lift off from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, aboard an Avio Vega C launcher. With this programme, the company is strengthening its position in the field of Earth observation and reinforcing its commitment to remaining at the forefront of geospatial technologies.
The Pléiades Neo Next programme is fully financed, manufactured and operated by Airbus Defence and Space, which will make the constellation’s full imaging capacity available to users. This capability will serve a wide range of sectors, including defence and intelligence, agriculture, the environment, maritime, disaster response, mapping, location-based services, civil engineering, urban planning and public services.
The new constellation will retain one of the distinctive features of the Pléiades systems: the ability to directly task observations just minutes before the satellite passes over the area of interest. This flexibility is especially relevant for critical applications that require a fast and precise response.
With Pléiades Neo Next, Airbus further consolidates its Earth observation strategy based on a complementary fleet of optical and radar satellites, enabling it to offer services and applications tailored to different operational needs. This combination ensures varying levels of resolution and observation capabilities under changing weather conditions, enhancing the versatility of the group’s geospatial offering.
The planned 2028 launch marks a new milestone in Airbus’s space roadmap, at a time of growing demand for high-precision geospatial data for both civil and institutional uses.
Source: Actualidad Espacial
