Everyone now sells sovereignty. Read the contract to find out whose ministry can still say no.
Satellogic, GomSpace and ICEYE all offer national programmes with real substance behind them. The differences are in what the nation ends up owning, where the data is processed, and which foreign export authority stays in the chain afterwards.
Our national programmes are delivered by a firm that has built and launched satellites, ground stations and space-data programmes. Satellites, ground segment, mission control and trained national operators are handed over as working capability, structured for national ownership from day one rather than as a demonstration.
Side by side
| Attribute | Represented by UnstratSovereign Space Infrastructure | SatellogicSpace Systems and Constellation-as-a-Service12United States and Argentina | GomSpaceNational Space Capacity Building345Denmark | ICEYENational SAR programmes (MikroSAR, Poland)6Finland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programme scope offered136 | Satellites, ground stations, communications, data analytics, mission control and trained national operators | Satellite purchase with launch, mission operations and training included, plus ground segment services and optional in-country AIT facility support | Training, a hands-on training mission, ground-segment establishment, operational capability transfer and optional local assembly support | SAR satellites with optional additional ground segment and a mobile ISR platform providing near real-time tasking, download and analysis |
| Who owns the satellites1236 | The nation, from day one | Purchased Mark V spacecraft are owned by the customer with sovereign control; Constellation-as-a-Service customers buy access and priority tasking instead | The training mission uses GomSpace platforms flown by the customer's operators; ownership terms not published | Poland purchases three satellites with an option on three more within 12 months |
| Where imagery and data are processed136 | Inside your jurisdiction. No raw data leaves the country | Customer-managed data processing with cloud and on-premise options, and an in-country command centre | Ground-segment establishment support including mission control and national operating procedures | Not published; ground segment is offered as a purchasable option |
| In-country assembly and integration136 | Not published | Customer involvement in Satellogic AIT processes, with optional in-country AIT facility design and development support | Optional local assembly support, available when aligned with national strategic goals | Partnership with local industry to provide the mobile ISR platform |
| Workforce transfer134 | Your operators fly the satellites and your analysts own the console | Training is included in the contract alongside launch and mission operations | GomSpace Academy with master-level accreditation, plus a training mission in which operators design, assemble, launch and run a real satellite | Not published |
| Applications catalogue behind the programme23 | 734 applications mapped across 16 sectors, each tagged by maturity | Constellation-as-a-Service includes analytics, operations and data management; no application count published | Programme stated as prepared for future integration with defence, disaster-response and environmental agencies, and as an on-ramp to maritime domain awareness, SIGINT, aviation and SATCOM missions | Not published |
| Published programme precedent236 | Not published | Constellation-as-a-Service documented for sovereign governments, with areas of interest usually defined as national territory plus 50 to 100 km | Modular national capacity-building programme, described from foundational training to a full training mission | Poland MikroSAR agreement, about EUR 200 million, three satellites with an option on three more plus ground segment |
| Refresh and obsolescence125 | Not published | Purchased Mark V up to 5 years; the service constellation runs a 3-year lifecycle with one third refreshed annually | Platform kits are designed for 5 years in LEO | Not published |
| Insulation from denial of service36 | Structured against documented denial: GPS shut-offs, imagery embargoes and operator kill-switches | Not published | Framed around national independence and the argument that countries without space industry pay others for strategic services indefinitely | Described as sovereign reconnaissance, with optional cross-tasking and capacity sharing with other nations |
| Origin and residual foreign approval146 | Independent and non-aligned | United States and Argentina | Denmark; EU export chain. Knowledge-transfer programmes are evaluated case by case by GomSpace | Finland; EU export chain |
Competitor values are quoted from the vendor documents listed under Sources, as published on the date shown. Configurations vary, so treat every row as a starting point for the evaluation rather than a like-for-like test result.
What the table means
Sovereignty has become a feature name. Test it against four questions.
Who owns the spacecraft. Where the raw data is received and processed. Who can task during a crisis. Whose export licence covers the spares and the next software load. Satellogic answers the first three well: purchased spacecraft, in-country command centre, customer-managed processing. ICEYE has demonstrated the first with a real contract. GomSpace answers the training and ground-segment questions with a documented capacity-building programme. None of the three can answer the fourth, because they are domiciled in states whose ministries review exports.
The training mission is the honest yardstick
GomSpace publishes something valuable: a programme in which national operators design, assemble, launch and run an actual satellite, with accreditation attached. That is what capability transfer looks like when a supplier means it, and any competing programme should be measured against it. Our answer is the same shape and wider in scope, covering satellites, ground stations, communications, analytics and mission control together, with the operators flying the fleet at the end of it.
The catalogue argument
A national space programme is easier to fund and far easier to defend politically when it serves more than one ministry. We map 734 applications across 16 sectors and tag each by maturity, so a finance minister can see agriculture, disaster response and border security in the same business case as defence ISR. None of the three competitors publishes an equivalent catalogue, which is a genuine difference in how the programme gets justified rather than how it gets built.
Conditions attached to knowledge transfer
GomSpace states plainly that its transfer of knowledge programmes are subject to specific requirements and are evaluated case by case. That is a fair and transparent position for a supplier to take. It is also a description of a gate. Our programme is written so ownership and operation transfer as part of the delivery, rather than as an option the supplier assesses when the time comes.
Questions buyers ask
What is the best alternative to Satellogic Constellation-as-a-Service for a country that wants to own its space programme outright?
Satellogic itself offers a purchase route: buy a Mark V with launch, operations and training included, plus optional in-country AIT support. That is a real ownership path and worth evaluating. Our programme covers a wider scope in one contract, satellites, ground stations, communications, analytics, mission control and trained operators, with processing inside your jurisdiction and no raw data leaving the country. The remaining difference is the export chain: Satellogic operates under US and Argentine authority, we do not.
How does a national space programme compare with buying imagery as a service on cost?
Service access is cheaper in year one and requires no engineers. A national programme costs capital, buildings, salaries and time. The calculation changes over a decade, and it changes completely if imagery access is ever denied during a crisis. The middle path several countries take is a service subscription for immediate needs, running in parallel with a build programme, so the subscription can be dropped once the national capability is flying.
How long does it take to build sovereign space capability from nothing?
Published programmes give some sense of the shape. GomSpace structures capacity building as a modular programme from foundational training through to a training mission where operators build and fly a real satellite. ICEYE's Polish agreement began implementation immediately with an option on further satellites within 12 months. Our own maritime programme delivers a first operating picture in 6 to 9 months. A full national capability with trained operators is a multi-year commitment in every case, and any supplier promising otherwise is selling something else.
Which supplier gives the most complete technology transfer?
GomSpace publishes the most detailed transfer curriculum, including master-level accreditation and a hands-on training mission, though it states that knowledge transfer is assessed case by case. Satellogic includes training and offers in-country AIT support. Our programme is structured so the transfer is the delivery: your operators fly the satellites, your analysts own the console, and the processing sits in your jurisdiction from the start.
Why does a non-aligned supplier matter for a national space programme?
Because a space programme is a thirty-year relationship, and every EU, US or Chinese supplier carries a government that can review it. Nations have already been denied GPS accuracy, imagery and operator services during disputes they did not choose. A non-aligned supplier does not eliminate commercial risk, but it removes the specific risk of a foreign cabinet deciding your capability is inconvenient this year.
Sources
- 1. Satellogic, Space Systems: NewSat Mark V (datasheet, May 2024) (copy held on this site)Retrieved: 2026-07-31
- 2. Satellogic, Constellation-as-a-Service data sheet (July 2023) (copy held on this site)Retrieved: 2026-07-31
- 3. GomSpace, National Space Capacity Building (solutions page)Retrieved: 2026-07-31
- 4. GomSpace, GomSpace AcademyRetrieved: 2026-07-31
- 5. GomSpace, Platform Kits: a fast-track, ready to assemble CubeSat kit (V. 3-5-2025) (copy held on this site)Retrieved: 2026-07-31
- 6. ICEYE, ICEYE to provide SAR satellites for the Armed Forces of Poland (press release, 14 May 2025)Retrieved: 2026-07-31