HELEO is the first Greek Optical Constellation, procured by ESA under contract esa12133 and prime-contracted to Open Cosmos. Libre Space Foundation participates as subcontractor providing RF rideshare payloads and the master satellite ground station, under a subcontract countersigned on 23 July 2024.
What LSF does
LSF delivers the AIS and IoT rideshare payloads (based on the SatNOGS-COMMS platform) integrated onto the constellation’s satellites, supplies harness and antenna subsystems, operates TVAC and integration activities on the flight model, and establishes the master satellite ground station leveraging the open-source SatNOGS network. The ground station is hosted at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) in Crete; the consortium building it is led by Open Cosmos Aegean, and LSF completed its installation in 2026.
Where we’re going
Seven-satellite optical constellation delivering daily high-resolution imagery for Greek land registry, sea-pollution monitoring and agricultural efficiency; includes very-high-resolution optical, multispectral, hyperspectral, IoT, AIS receivers and on-board AI. Manufacturing at Open Cosmos’s Aegean facility in Greece.
Where the project stands
Flight-model integration and environmental test phase (April 2026) — active TVAC, assembly and conformal-coating rework; launch targeted on the Open Cosmos 2025–2026 roadmap. The ground station at FORTH, Crete is installed (August 2026).
Milestones
- 2024-05-29 — ESA selects Open Cosmos to build the Greek optical constellation
- 2024-07-23 — LSF subcontract countersigned
- 2024-09 — NDA in place; proposal extract finalised
- 2025-08 — harness finalisation
- 2025-10 — flight-model assembly photo campaign
- 2025-11 — antenna VNA characterisation
- 2026-03 — HELEO TVAC test campaign
- 2026-04 — conformal rework; ground-station integration
- 2026-08 — ground-station installation at FORTH, Crete completed and announced by the Ministry of Digital Governance and AI
Links
License
LSF-developed RF / payload follows SatNOGS-COMMS open-source baseline; mission-level documentation is commercial-confidential under NDA.