Argentine satellite company outsources launches to China

Latin America

Argentine satellite company Satellogic has out-sourced its product launches to China.

The company aims to deliver weekly mapping of the earth.

It’s goals, provide vital information for sectors such as forestry, agriculture and energy, at an affordable price.

CGTN’s Joel Richards reports.

Soon it will be possible to have weekly updates of one-meter resolution images like these around the world. The potential for sectors such as agriculture, forestry and energy is vast.

The satellites to take these images are made by the company Satellogic, just outside Montevideo, Uruguay.

The 45-kilo satellites are made manually, a process is overseen by engineers like 33-year-old Esteban Fernandez.

“We take into account the feedback from the technicians working here to improve the process and so we can do things better, of better quality and faster, and that way scale up make more satellites,” said Esteban Fernandez an engineer at Satellogic.

“China has a very good record success record in launches and is launching very often. It has a growing industry of manufacturing and launching rockets, so for us it is a good partner,” said Gerardo Richarte a co-Founder at Satellogic.

Satellogic’s agreement is with China Great Wall Industry Corporation and sees co-operation between Latin America and China in space exploration expand into the commercial arena, says investigator Ignacio Villagran of the Argentina-China study center.

“The innovation here is the idea in itself. There is not a transfer of technology, each party has its own technology but they both benefit, using its launch capabilities in the case of China and the collecting and analysis of data that the company Satellogic has,” said Ignacio Villagran the Director of Argentina-China Study Center.

Satellogic aims to have a constellation of these small satellites in orbit to collects information for clients at a more affordable price.

“Today governments and big organizations can access the technology; we believe everybody needs to have access to the technology. I don’t mean everybody must have a satellite, but everybody must have access to imagery and solutions coming form technology from satellites,” said Gerardo Richarte a co-Founder at Satellogic.

More satellites are due to be launched in the coming months, and the full constellation should be deployed by the end of next year.