End-to-End Small Satellite Missions

Alén Space focuses on two principal areas: small satellites and radio payloads. Together, these capabilities allow the company to support customers at different stages of mission development, depending on their technical requirements and the level of support they need.

Its small satellite offering covers the full mission lifecycle, beginning with the definition of customer requirements and initial spacecraft design. This extends through manufacturing, testing, integration, and operations, allowing customers to work with a partner throughout the development process.

On the communications side, Alén Space applies its radio expertise to payloads designed to collect signals for applications such as maritime surveillance and spectrum monitoring. Depending on the project, customers may require a standalone payload or a complete satellite incorporating the relevant signal-collection capabilities.

The company can also provide solutions involving multiple satellites, supporting constellation deployments where a single spacecraft cannot deliver the required coverage or revisit frequency.

This flexibility enables customers to select the level of support appropriate to their mission, whether they are seeking a specific communications technology or a complete space-based data collection system.

Alén Space's technical roots can be traced to a research group at the University of Vigo in Spain. The team contributed to the development and launch of Spain's first CubeSat, establishing a foundation of expertise in small satellite engineering.

The company was subsequently established in 2019, building on this research experience to develop commercial satellite technologies and mission solutions.

Since then, Alén Space has grown from approximately 17 employees to more than 100, expanding both its engineering capabilities and its capacity to develop and deploy increasingly capable satellites.

This growth reflects the broader evolution of the small satellite industry. Technologies that were once largely associated with academic research and experimental missions are now being adopted across commercial and government programmes, with customers seeking reliable systems that can support operational objectives.

Alén Space's university origins continue to influence its customer relationships. Academic institutions remain an important part of its customer base, alongside startups, established companies, and government organisations. The company also participates in projects involving organisations such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

One of the central challenges in satellite development is identifying the right technical solution for a customer's actual needs.

Customers often begin with a clear objective, such as monitoring maritime traffic across a particular geographic area. However, translating that objective into a viable satellite mission requires decisions about spacecraft numbers, payload capabilities, coverage, budget, and the expected results.

Arizkorreta explains that these factors can significantly influence the final system architecture. A customer with a limited budget may initially be able to afford only one satellite. While that spacecraft can demonstrate the technology and collect useful data, its limited visibility over a particular area may restrict how frequently it can gather information.

In such cases, Alén Space works with the customer to identify practical alternatives. These might include beginning with a technology demonstration, selecting a payload with different characteristics, or designing a system that can eventually expand into a larger constellation.

The objective is to balance immediate requirements with longer-term ambitions, ensuring that initial investment supports a realistic development path rather than creating unnecessary limitations later.

For established organisations with larger budgets, the priorities may be different. These customers may focus on producing satellites at scale and optimising individual components across a constellation to improve overall coverage, reliability, and resilience.

Although the implementation differs, the underlying principle remains the same: the satellite architecture should be driven by the customer's mission objectives, not simply by the availability of a particular technology.

Radio communications represent a core area of Alén Space's expertise. The company develops technologies that enable satellites to collect and process signals for a range of applications, including maritime surveillance.

For maritime use cases, satellite-based receivers can collect signals transmitted by ship transponders, providing information that can support monitoring activities over wide geographic areas. This creates opportunities for organisations seeking to gather maritime data without relying exclusively on terrestrial infrastructure.

However, the value of such a system depends on more than the capabilities of an individual receiver. The satellite's orbit, the number of spacecraft deployed, and the frequency with which a region can be observed all influence the resulting data service.

A single satellite may be sufficient for an initial demonstration or a mission with limited requirements. A constellation can provide more frequent opportunities to collect information and support applications that demand broader or more consistent coverage.

Alén Space works with customers to evaluate these considerations and determine how the payload, spacecraft platform, and mission architecture should work together.

The company also supports other radio-based applications, including spectrum monitoring, while integrating partner-developed optical payloads when a project requires capabilities outside its own manufacturing portfolio.

Satellite constellations introduce a different set of engineering and operational considerations from single-spacecraft missions.

Instead of designing one satellite to fulfil a specific objective, constellation developers must consider how multiple spacecraft will work together to deliver the intended service. This includes evaluating coverage, coordinating payload capabilities, and ensuring that the system can scale to meet operational requirements.

Alén Space contributes to constellation projects in different ways. In some cases, the company supplies complete satellites. In others, it provides specific technologies or payloads that form part of a wider collaborative programme.

The Atlantic Constellation is one example discussed during the interview. Within this collaboration, Alén Space contributes the Spanish side of the project through radio payloads focused on maritime surveillance.

This illustrates how satellite programmes can combine the expertise and contributions of multiple organisations rather than relying on a single provider for every component.

For Alén Space, the approach reflects its broader role as both a spacecraft provider and a specialist in radio communications. Its contribution can be tailored to the project's requirements, whether that means delivering complete satellites or supplying technologies for integration into a larger system.

Not every satellite mission relies exclusively on hardware developed by the spacecraft manufacturer. Customers may already have a specialised instrument or may require a different payload supplied by another company.

In these situations, integration becomes a critical part of mission development.

Alén Space has particular experience in radio communications, but it also supports projects that incorporate optical technologies developed by external partners. Because the company owns the spacecraft platform hardware and software, it is responsible for ensuring that the payload works correctly within the overall satellite system.

This requires close collaboration between the spacecraft team, the payload manufacturer, and the customer. Hardware interfaces, software compatibility, operational requirements, and the mission's concept of operations must all be considered.

Integrating internally developed hardware can be more straightforward because the engineering team already understands its design and behaviour. Third-party equipment requires additional work, as engineers must first understand how the external system operates before adapting it to the spacecraft.

The integration process therefore involves more than physically installing a payload. The complete system must operate as intended and meet the customer's mission requirements.

By combining its own platform technologies with external payloads where needed, Alén Space can support a broader range of applications without requiring every component to be manufactured in-house.

Successful satellite development depends on identifying constraints early and incorporating them into the mission design.

Budget is one important consideration, but it is closely connected to other technical decisions. The number of satellites a customer can deploy affects coverage, while the choice of payload influences what data can be collected. These decisions, in turn, determine whether the resulting system can achieve the customer's objectives.

Alén Space addresses these challenges by adapting its involvement to the customer's level of preparation.

Some organisations already understand their requirements and know which capabilities they need. In these cases, the company focuses on identifying a suitable technical solution and defining how the two organisations can work together.

Other customers begin with a broader idea but have limited experience in spacecraft development. For these projects, Alén Space can become involved from the earliest stages, helping define requirements, shape the mission, and identify the value the customer expects to obtain.

This collaborative approach is particularly relevant for startups and organisations entering the space sector for the first time. It allows them to develop a practical route from an initial concept to an operational system while accounting for technical and financial constraints.

Looking ahead, Arizkorreta sees significant potential in combining different communications technologies to create more capable space-based networks.

Radio communications will continue to play an important role, but optical technologies offer opportunities to complement existing systems. By combining different approaches, future satellite architectures could support communications between spacecraft, connections with Earth, and links involving satellites operating in lunar orbit or beyond.

Small satellite platforms provide opportunities to integrate multiple technologies into a single mission architecture, depending on the project's objectives and technical requirements.

One particularly exciting area is lunar exploration. As missions extend beyond Earth orbit, communications must connect different parts of the space environment, from the lunar surface to lunar orbit, Earth orbit, and ultimately Earth-based infrastructure.

Developing reliable links across these different environments will be important for supporting future exploration activities and the growing number of spacecraft operating beyond traditional Earth-orbit missions.

These developments point towards a more interconnected space infrastructure, in which satellites can serve as nodes within broader communications networks rather than functioning only as isolated spacecraft.

As satellite deployments increase, sustainability and safety are becoming increasingly important considerations for the space industry.

Arizkorreta highlights the need for a more regulated environment in which satellite operators and technology providers take greater responsibility for the space environment they share.

This makes sustainability an important consideration alongside performance, reliability, and cost. Mission developers must consider not only what a satellite can achieve during its operational lifetime, but also how space activities can be conducted responsibly over the longer term.

For manufacturers and mission providers, this reinforces the importance of collaboration across the industry. Responsible space operations require organisations to consider the wider implications of their decisions and contribute to practices that support the continued use of space.

As the market evolves, these considerations will remain relevant to both individual satellite projects and larger constellation programmes.

The growing range of small satellite applications is creating opportunities for universities, startups, established businesses, and government organisations to develop space-based capabilities. However, turning an idea into a functioning mission still requires expertise across spacecraft engineering, payload development, software, integration, and operations.

Alén Space addresses this challenge by combining small satellite platforms with radio communications expertise and a collaborative approach to mission development. Its involvement can range from providing specialised payloads to delivering complete spacecraft and supporting constellation programmes.

By helping customers understand technical constraints, select appropriate technologies, and plan for future growth, the company enables missions to be designed around practical requirements rather than isolated hardware specifications.

Whether the objective is maritime surveillance, scientific research, commercial data collection, or future communications networks extending towards the Moon, the ability to align technology with mission goals remains essential.

As small satellites become increasingly integrated into commercial and scientific infrastructure, flexible engineering partnerships will continue to play an important role in making space-based solutions more accessible.

Discover how Alén Space develops small satellite platforms, radio communications payloads, and integrated mission solutions by visiting Orbital Transports SmallSat Catalog.

Browse Alén Space in the SmallSat Catalog →

Watch the full SatSupply™ Insights interview with Alberto Arizkorreta of Alén Space and James Durston of Orbital Transports to learn more about the technologies, engineering decisions, and emerging opportunities shaping the small satellite industry.