European satellite operator Eutelsat has announced a partnership with Skynopy to explore selling the spare capacity from its OneWeb ground stations to Earth observation operators.

First steps will involve tests with KA-Band antennas at the 42 OneWeb sites across the world.

“Any LEO ground station network has, by nature, idle time on its ground stations,” Skynopy co-founder and CEO Pierre Bertrand told SpaceNews. “Skynopy will define and test with Eutelsat how to take benefit from this spare capacity.”

Betrand added: “Skynopy, by using the spare capacity of OneWeb sites – antenna time, site space and high-speed backhaul, is commercializing a unique service, maximizing both metrics that Earth observation satellite operators care for: data freshness and data rate”

Paris-based startup Skynopy intends to use its software and replacement feed system components to retrofit some of Eutelsat’s antennas for the Earth observation market, adding its own S, X, and Ka-band antennas to the effort at OneWeb gateway sites.

The massive volumes of data being produced in orbit, especially by Earth observation, can overwhelm satellite operators trying to focus on designing, building, and operating satellite hardware, creating room in the satellite market for more software service providers and other middlemen. An increasing number of governments and global militaries are demanding fresh, detailed satellite imagery, as well as hyperspectral and radar information, which in turn is often stored for years or even decades.

Skynopy intends to begin an initial phase of experimentation in the coming months with a one-year beta testing program to be run for selected satellite operators in Ka-Band ahead of a commercial launch.

Last year, Eutelsat announced plans to carve out its ground infrastructure, then worth around $863 million, with the intent to sell much of it to private equity firm EQT Partners of Sweden to create a ground-station-as-a-service (GSaaS) business, which would become the world’s largest pure-play company in that sector.

Skynopy, a French startup providing ground station services for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, completed a new €15m ($17.7m) funding round earlier this year to expand its ground station network.

Founded at the end of 2023, Skynopy has more than 15 antennas in its network, combining third-party ground stations from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Kinéis with deployments of its own antennas. OneWeb Eutelsat is also named as a ground station partner on the company’s website.

With Project Kuiper and the Starlink constellation rapidly investing in new ground station infrastructure worldwide, interest in creating a more flexible GSaaS market may be intended to absorb contracts from the LEO giants and their own Earth observation ambitions, as well as the satellite market’s existing Earth observation heavyweights, as government and defense recognize the irreplaceability of the application.