Greece’s microsatellite constellation now has its ground station. As part of the National Microsatellite Programme, the Hellenic Ministry of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence has installed a satellite ground station at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) in Crete. The station is the operational communications centre for the Greek constellation, providing telemetry, telecommand and data transfer.
The consortium that built the ground station is led by Open Cosmos Aegean. The Libre Space Foundation completed the installation of the station.
The station
The station uses an S-band dish under a protective radome, on a steel antenna tower on the FORTH campus. In the photo above, the radome is lifted by crane into place over the dish during installation.
FORTH is the largest research centre in Greece, with long-standing work in satellite remote sensing, astrophysics, telecommunications, quantum communications and space surveillance. Together with the University of Crete it also runs the Skinakas Observatory. The agreement to host the station at FORTH, between FORTH and the General Secretariat of Telecommunications and Posts, started on 1 November 2025.
HELEO
HELEO is the first Greek optical constellation: seven satellites delivering daily high-resolution imagery for the Greek land registry, sea-pollution monitoring and agricultural efficiency. The constellation is procured by the European Space Agency and built by Open Cosmos. The National Microsatellite Programme is implemented with the Hellenic Space Center and ESA, with resources from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (Greece 2.0).
LSF takes part in HELEO as a subcontractor. Besides the master ground station, it delivers the AIS and IoT payloads flying on the constellation’s satellites. They are based on SatNOGS-COMMS, the open-source radio that also flies on the PHASMA satellites.
Built on SatNOGS
The station builds on the open-source SatNOGS network, which LSF has developed and operated since 2014 and which today coordinates hundreds of volunteer ground stations worldwide.
Timeline
- 2024-07 — LSF joins HELEO as a subcontractor to Open Cosmos
- 2025-11-01 — hosting agreement for the ground station at FORTH begins
- 2026-04 — ground-station integration and installation in Crete
- 2026-08 — installation complete, announced by the Ministry of Digital Governance and AI
What’s next
The station will support the constellation’s operations once the HELEO satellites launch, on the Open Cosmos roadmap.
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Disclaimer: Views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union/European Commission/ESA/Hellenic Ministry of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only, and the European Union/European Commission/ESA/Hellenic Ministry of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.