On April 29th 2025, the European Space Agency’s Biomass satellite lifted off aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Biomass is one of ESA’s Earth Explorer missions meant to demonstrate cutting-edge space technologies and provide crucial information about our planet.

During its planned five-year journey in space, at an altitude of 666km, Biomass will give unprecedented insights into our forests by measuring the amount of carbon stored in trees, thereby enhancing our understanding of the global carbon cycle and the impacts of deforestation and climate change.

The successful launch of Biomass not only marks a milestone in Earth observation technology but also demonstrates the capabilities of the Vega-C rocket, which ensures Europe’s autonomous access to space. Moreover, it is an important event for SPACEBEL as we have been playing a significant role in the Biomass mission and are one of the industrial partners contributing to the Vega-C launcher.

As subcontractor of SERCO in the ASCEND project, we develop and evolve since mid-2024 the cloud-based data discovery and data access software through which the Biomass products will be distributed. The SPACEBEL software is part of the ESA MAAP platform.

SPACEBEL has been bringing our mission-critical software expertise and support to Vega and Vega-C prime contractor Avio, in the development and evolution of the on-board software, in the Vega guidance, navigation and control software engineering activities and in the simulation software meant to test and validate the various functions of the flight software of Europe’s small rocket.