ESA seeks solutions for satellite video from very low Earth orbit
The European Space Agency has opened a new call in which it is asking industry and the academic community for complete mission concepts for continuous video monitoring of Earth from very low Earth orbit, the so-called VLEO. This is an orbital belt that is generally considered to range from approximately 250 to 350 kilometres in altitude, although ESA, in a broader technical context, describes VLEO as the region below about 450 kilometres. It is precisely this shorter distance from Earth's surface that makes this belt especially attractive for observing the planet: optical systems can record finer details, data transmission can be faster, and revisits over the same area can be organised more frequently than with conventional Earth observation satellites in higher orbits. In the latest call, the focus is no longer only on individual technical solutions, but on entire, feasible missions that could demonstrate that continuous satellite video from VLEO is possible both technically and economically.
According to the campaign description, ESA wants to encourage the development of platforms that would not serve only for occasional capture of individual frames, but for permanent or at least longer-term observation of a selected location. This is an important difference compared with the dominant mode of satellite observation today, which is mostly reduced to series of photographs and repeat overflights at certain time intervals. In that sense, the agency treats video recording from space as a new operational capability, particularly useful for monitoring phenomena that develop rapidly on the ground. In the campaign, the ability to record at least ten minutes of video at 15 frames per second over an area of interest is stated as a reference point, which shows clearly enough that ESA is not seeking a cosmetic improvement of existing systems, but a real shift towards more persistent observation of dynamic processes.
Why VLEO is attractive for a new generation of observation missions
Interest in very low Earth orbit has been growing in recent years because it combines several advantages that are particularly important for Earth observation, telecommunications, and security applications. ESA states that proximity to the surface enables higher spatial resolution and lower latency, while at the same time it can reduce requirements for the size and power of individual instruments. In other words, the same or a similar effect that would require a larger, heavier, and more expensive system in a higher orbit could be achieved in VLEO with a smaller satellite. This opens the possibility of lower platform costs, more flexible launches, and faster development of constellations that would serve for monitoring space, infrastructure, borders, climate change, or natural disasters.
An additional advantage of VLEO, which ESA often points out, relates to space debris. Unlike many higher orbits, objects in very low Earth orbit naturally slow down because of residual layers of the atmosphere and re-enter the atmosphere within a relatively short time after the end of their operational life. This makes VLEO a kind of “self-cleaning” orbital zone, which is an important argument in a period when congestion in certain orbital belts is becoming an increasingly serious issue for the space industry and regulators. For European institutions, which are placing ever greater emphasis on the sustainability of space activities, precisely this combination of operational benefit and reduced risk of long-term debris retention is one of the reasons why VLEO has emerged as a strategically attractive area.
However, the same proximity to Earth that brings gains in image quality and transmission speed also creates a number of technical problems. Satellites at these altitudes experience significantly greater atmospheric drag than spacecraft in conventional low orbits. That drag constantly slows the satellite and lowers its orbit, so highly efficient orbit maintenance systems are necessary for longer operations. In addition, spacecraft are exposed to atomic oxygen, which can erode surfaces and accelerate material wear, while communication windows and energy management can also be more demanding. That is precisely why ESA, in its earlier VLEO activities, funds projects dealing with aerodynamics, resistant materials, and propulsion, including concepts of air-breathing electric propulsion that would use sparse molecules from the upper layers of the atmosphere as propellant.
What ESA is specifically asking applicants to provide
The call is being carried out through the Open Space Innovation Platform, better known as OSIP, which ESA established as the main entry point for new ideas from the European research and industrial ecosystem. Unlike narrower technological competitions, what is being sought here is not one subsystem, one sensor, or one software solution, but a complete mission architecture. This means that teams must show what the entire platform would look like: from the optical instrument, satellite bus, and communication chain to the concept of operations, economics, and the path towards demonstration in orbit. Such an approach suggests that ESA at this stage does not want only to collect interesting ideas, but to identify those concepts that could by the end of the decade become real demonstrators or the foundations of future operational services.
The campaign also sets a financial framework. The total reference mission budget, excluding launch cost, must not exceed 50 million euros, and the solution must be ready for demonstration in orbit by 2030. This is an ambitious enough, but not unrealistic threshold: high enough to enable a serious technological leap, yet strict enough to remove from focus concepts that would be too complex, too expensive, or too far from practical application. In practice, this means that ESA wants studies that can show a clear balance between performance, cost, risk, and development time. In other words, the concept must be convincing not only from an engineering perspective but also from a programme perspective.
According to the campaign rules, the call is open for approximately six weeks. Up to eight ideas should be selected for the development of full proposals, and up to five teams may receive a cooperative agreement worth 120 thousand euros for a six-month pre-Phase A study. The most successful concept would then be invited for joint elaboration in ESA's Concurrent Design Facility, a well-known centre for the rapid and interdisciplinary definition of space missions. This part of the process is important because it shows that the competition is not conceived as a one-off promotional exercise, but as a filtering mechanism for separating projects that can move from an idea into more serious institutional development.
From floods and fires to agriculture and security
The purpose that ESA sees for such platforms is very broad, but not arbitrary. The call description particularly highlights floods, wildfires, and other dynamic phenomena in which conventional satellite images are often insufficient because they provide only a sequence of separate “photographs” of the situation. In the case of fires, for example, what is crucial is how the front changes from minute to minute, how the wind redirects the spread, and where new hotspots appear. In the case of floods, it is crucial to monitor levee breaches, the spread of the flood wave, or traffic bottlenecks in near real time. Video from orbit, especially if it can be transmitted with low latency, could give field services a qualitatively different type of information from that offered by a single satellite image.
Humanitarian and security applications are also among the top priorities. Continuous observation of certain areas could be useful for monitoring crisis zones, large migration flows, maritime routes, critical infrastructure, or rapid changes on the ground after earthquakes, landslides, and other disasters. At the same time, ESA also emphasises civil, developmental, and environmental benefits. In agriculture, such missions could enable the monitoring of changes in crops over shorter time intervals, which is important during periods of drought, frost, or pest attacks. In environmental monitoring, video from VLEO could help in the analysis of coastal erosion, riverbed dynamics, ice, major pollution incidents, or changes in urban areas. The word “dynamic” is probably the best summary of the problem ESA wants to address: not static maps, but processes in progress.
It is important, however, to note that ESA is not speaking here only about a better image, but about a new type of service. If it really becomes possible to offer more persistent video surveillance from VLEO at an acceptable cost, the European Earth observation sector could gain a market segment that is only now emerging. Earlier ESA activities had already examined the concept of a “persistent video service”, that is, a very low-latency and continuous observation service, and some studies spoke of constellations capable of observation with a resolution of about one metre at low cost and with rapid data delivery. The new call makes that direction more concrete and tries to turn it into a scalable platform, which points to a shift from individual demonstrations towards systems that could later be expanded, multiplied, or commercially offered.
Europe's race for operational video from space
This call does not come in an empty space, but at a moment when both institutions and the market are trying to determine what is realistically possible in very low orbits. ESA already opened a broader call for ideas related to VLEO in 2023, and during 2024 announced that the campaign had been successful and that twelve projects had been funded, distributed across three main groups: aerodynamics, propulsion, and innovative systems for Earth observation and telecommunications. Among the activities that were then launched are studies directly related to persistent observation and video services. This means that the new call is not an isolated experiment, but a continuation of an already initiated institutional line of work in which ESA is gradually closing the key technological and business unknowns.
That continuity is important also because VLEO is not only a technological issue, but also a business one. For continuous satellite video to make sense, it is necessary to prove that users really need such a service and that they are willing to pay for it. Public civil protection services, insurers, logistics companies, the agricultural sector, energy companies, and defence systems have different requirements for spatial resolution, imaging frequency, observation duration, access rules, and data security. That is precisely why, in its VLEO studies, ESA does not ask only for technical designs but also for an assessment of programme and financial options, that is, a path towards a sustainable service model. If it turns out that the required level of video surveillance can be offered reliably and at a price acceptable to users, Europe could gain a new niche in the global space economy.
On the other hand, the challenges remain significant. Specialist literature and ESA technical materials warn that VLEO requires a very careful compromise between spacecraft aerodynamics, material resistance, propulsion power, thermal management, data transmission capacity, and the overall lifetime of the system. High-fidelity video generates large amounts of data, so the question is not only how to record it but also how to process, store, compress, and downlink it to Earth fast enough for it to retain operational value. In crisis situations, information delayed by hours often loses most of its usefulness. Therefore, a successful concept will have to show that it is capable of aligning optical performance with communication and computing capacities, without exceeding the budget framework set by ESA.
What the success of this campaign would mean for Earth observation
If the campaign produces a concept that can truly move from study to orbital demonstration by 2030, the consequences could be significant for both the public and the commercial sector. For public institutions, this would mean access to data that better follow an event while it is happening, and not only its consequence after a certain time delay. For scientists and analysts, a new layer of observation would open up for processes that are difficult to understand through infrequently captured satellite frames. For industry, this could mean the emergence of a new class of services in which satellite observation comes closer to the logic of constant monitoring known from aerial and ground systems, but with significantly greater geographic coverage.
At the same time, this call also shows the broader direction of European space policy. ESA is using OSIP ever more openly as a tool for seeking ideas that are not only scientifically interesting but also operationally relevant, market-aware, and measurable in time. Within that framework, VLEO is emerging as one of the areas where Europe is trying to combine technological innovation, sustainability, and applications with a direct social impact. At a time when climate extremes, security instability, and pressure on critical infrastructure require a faster and more precise picture of the situation on the ground, the idea of satellite video from very low orbit no longer seems like a futuristic demonstration, but like a concrete response to needs that are already rapidly accumulating.
Sources:- European Space Agency – overview of the OSIP platform and the way ESA gathers new ideas through campaigns and channels (link)
- European Space Agency – article on strengthening activities in very low Earth orbit, with a description of the advantages and technical challenges of VLEO (link)
- ESA Activities Portal – thematic overview of VLEO capabilities, altitude range, benefits, and key technical challenges (link)
- ESA Activities Portal – the “Persistent Video Service” activity, which develops the system and business basis for a very low-latency and continuous video service from VLEO (link)
- ESA Activities Portal – the “Creating Persistent Surveillance with VLEO Satellite” activity, with a description of the constellation approach to persistent observation from VLEO (link)
- ESA Multimedia – description of the concept of continuous monitoring and data transmission from a VLEO constellation for low-latency and persistent surveillance needs (link)
- Aerospace – expert overview of the development of VLEO satellites and remote sensing, with an emphasis on the advantages and technical obstacles in that orbit (link)
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