CNES Hails Success of France’s 1st Industrial Nanosatellite

PARIS (CNES PR) — 2 years in orbit: success for the 1st French industrial nanosatellite, ANGELS, designed by Hermia, Thales Alenia Space and Syrlinks with the support of CNES and extension of its operational life!

Triumph for ANGELS, the 1st French industrial nanosatellite designed by Hemeria in collaboration with CNES, which is celebrating its two years in orbit, thus marking the end of the initial contractual commitment signed between the two partners.

Five times more efficient and ten times smaller than its predecessors, ANGELS has kept its promises: reliability, service life and operability, integrating perfectly into the existing Argos constellation. Its results demonstrate the seriousness of the Hemeria teams, responsible for the platform and satellite integration, and those of Thales Alenia Space and Syrlinks who developed the Argos-Neo payload.

This success is also the demonstration of a win/win partnership between the manufacturers Hemeria, Thales Alenia Space, Syrlinks and the public institution CNES.

Faced with this success, CNES and Hemeria signed a life extension agreement of two and a half years.

Nicolas Multan, CEO of Hemeria, declares: “For two years, our satellite went through a testing and debugging phase, then finally official integration into the existing Argos constellation. Reliability, lifespan and operability exceed expectations, and it seems important to me to communicate on this operational success. The other important news is the extension of the operational life of ANGELS by two and a half more years! almost five years, which demonstrates CNES’s confidence in our solution and remains remarkable in this range of products, moreover, for a first experience ”.

Caroline Laurent, Director of Orbital Systems at CNES, recalls that “ANGELS is a first for French industry and CNES in terms of in-orbit demonstration of new miniaturization and in-flight agility capabilities, thanks to technological breakthroughs brought about by Hemeria, Thales Alenia Space and Syrlinks companies. It is the precursor of a series of commercial satellites which will meet the needs of a new generation of space missions, complementary to traditional programs. It was also an important and emblematic step for CNES in the world of newspace and new modes of intervention with the establishment of an organization and innovative working methods around the project, the teams of CNES and Hemeria being gathered on the same plate,

ANGELS ‘technical prowess bodes well for the IoT constellation of Kinéis, all of whose nanosatellites are designed by Hemeria and Thales Alenia Space. Nicolas Multan specifies: “All this bodes well for the Kinéis constellation, which has just passed its CDR (Critical Design Review) and whose satellites will be put into orbit from the first half of 2023”. 

Alexandre TISSERANT, President of Kinéis, adds: “ANGELS is a real technological gem. It meets all our performance expectations for the IoT (Internet of Things) and allows us to better prepare for the arrival of our constellation on many points: technological validation on board (satellite and instrument), deployment of miniaturized terminals and very low consumption. The doubling of the lifespan of ANGELS is great news, both for us and for our thousands of users! “

“We are associated with this collective success and are proud to contribute to it. Argos NEO is the miniaturized instrument at the service of the new expectations of New Space and its new functions recently downloaded will allow Kinéis to experiment on ANGELS the frequency spectrum necessary for the development of the future constellation at the service of the Internet of Things,” says Benoit Broudy, Head of navigation activities at Thales Alenia Space.