As part of the French investment program France 2030, Bpifrance has awarded a multi-million Euro funding to a consortium led by Leanspace to support the Hammaguir project, which will help launch providers stay competitive in the global market by giving them the keys to build the modern, cloud software ecosystems they need.
Hammaguir was the name of the first French launch base, built in the 1950s, which hosted hundreds of launches of the “Pierres précieuses” experimental rockets, culminating in the Diamant launcher and the placing in orbit of the first French satellite, Astérix. This site, at the cutting edge of technology at the time, saw the appearance of the first data management equipment and computers for space missions, which allowed data processing, simulations, calculations, and even running rehearsals before firing.
Today, the launcher market is seeing an increasing amount of complexity and tighter time constraints, as the barriers for new space companies continue to lower. Micro-launcher operators are seeking differentiators in an increasingly crowded market, and need new approaches to make their business models, yet unproven, viable.
Guillaume Tanier, co-founder and CEO at Leanspace said “Leanspace’s objective is to provide launch companies with the tools they need to drastically accelerate their engineering processes, both for the industrialization of launchers and the conduct of launch campaigns. This funding will be used to scale up Leanspace’s cloud platform by developing a suite of new cloud services addressing three major needs of the launcher market: digitization of test campaigns across all equipment and sites, rapid reconfiguration of the launch infrastructure, and data-driven operations”
The outcome of the Hammaguir project is a unified, cloud-native software infrastructure to fuel engineering activities, ranging from designing rockets, testing rocket engines, conducting launch campaigns, reconfiguring launch infrastructures and sharing operational data with customers, suppliers and spaceports. These outcomes will be key to enabling the launch companies’ business models, which rely on successfully handling a high pace of launches, and managing different payloads and launch sites.
Stuart Gill, Product Manager and Hammaguir Technical Lead said: “Today, digital and cloud technologies are underutilized by the launch segment for a myriad of reasons including security, technical complexity, governmental regulations and the cost of existing solutions. Our work in Hammaguir will help to bridge these gaps, including answering concerns about cybersecurity and the applicability of the cloud in the launcher domain.”
The project will be executed by a consortium consisting of Leanspace and three other space companies. Latitude will be a pilot user of the technology, Clemessy and Spacedreams will be creating new products based on it. Together, the members of the consortium bring ample experience in launch vehicle design, development and manufacturing, as well as systems engineering, launcher operational concepts, and cloud technologies. Through the project, the consortium will produce a set of proven, market-ready solutions which empower small satellite launcher companies.
Bastien Baticle, Head of Electrical and Software Systems at Latitude, explained: “With the Hammaguir project, Latitude will be able to digitalize and centralize the management of its data from different test campaigns, such as the Navier test campaign. Continuum of data and single source of insights through tests but also production, integration and launch operations will enable Latitude to offer a high degree of flexibility to its customers, with high responsiveness and high quality, at an affordable price”.
