OVERVIEW:
Top Stories
Danish Space Office to be Merged into New Office
Satlab, Sternula and Gatehouse Satcom Join ESA Low-LEO Work Tied to IRIS²
In Six Months, Denmark’s Largest Space Mission Will Come to an End
DHI Contributes to WMO State of Global Water Resources 2025
News Briefs
GOMX-5 Ready for October Launch After Integration into Deployer
GomSpace Signs EUR 3.8M Multi-Phased Partnership Agreement
Terma Wins New MDA Space Contract for Constellation Ground Support Equipment
Space Inventor to Build 16U Platform for Singapore’s Crimson-2
Danish Graphene Selected for Taiwan SpaceTech Startup Programme
Researchers Simulate Lightning Formation on an Exoplanet for the First Time
Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute: Neutrino “Flavour” May Decide if Dying Stars Explode or Become Black Holes
Skywalker 2.0 Negotiates Full Vertical Corners
DanSTAR Completes Campus Static Fires of Parhelion
Gatehouse Satcom Launches “Space Fast Track”
Peter Mariager Becomes CTO of Gatehouse Satcom
Sternula Coordinates PASUVO Port-Arrival Project
Events and Meetings
30 Sep - TICRA GRASP Fundamentals Webinar
7 Oct - DHI Webinar: Actual Evapotranspiration and Root-Zone Soil Moisture from Copernicus Data
Funding Opportunities for Danish Space Actors
ESA BASS Pilot and Proof of Concept (EUR 500,000 / EUR 250,000)
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Danish Space News will be on a short break for the National Day and Mid-Autumn holidays in China and will be back NET 13 October.
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TOP STORIES
Danish Space Office to be Merged into New Office
The Danish Space Office (Rumkontoret) at the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science (UFS) is being reorganised. In a written reply to Danish Space News (22 Sep), UFS says its space-related tasks will from now on sit in a new office - EU, International and Space (EU, International og Rum) - that gathers the agency’s international work. The new organisation takes effect 1 October, when an updated organisation chart is due.
UFS says it will “to a large extent” keep the same space tasks as before, but strategic handling of Danish interests in the EU’s space programmes moves to the department in the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. Across UFS, 35 staff have been warned of intended dismissal and 17 grant-administration staff will move workplace to Odense; the agency will not say whether any of that touches Rumkontoret.
Rumkontoret has been the desk of UFS for regulating Danish activities in outer space - including approvals and the national registry of space objects - for Denmark’s participation in international space cooperation (notably ESA and the EU’s space programmes), and for coordinating with other Danish authorities that have space-related duties. It also steers funding and counselling for Danish research and industry in the space field.
Satlab, Sternula and Gatehouse Satcom Join ESA Low-LEO Work Tied to IRIS²
On 17 September, ESA announced it had signed 18 consolidation contracts bringing together nearly 80 companies to study new secure and resilient connectivity services that aim to shape the future of the EU's secure connectivity constellation, IRIS². Three Danish companies - Gatehouse Satcom, Satlab and Sternula - are among the subcontractors.
Satlab, a maker of radio and VDES payloads for small satellites, will deliver the VDES payload for ALCYON, an ESA in-orbit validation concept led by French operator Kinéis. ALCYON is meant to demonstrate maritime monitoring (VDES) and aviation monitoring (satellite ADS-B) from low Earth orbit.
“We are proud to contribute to how Europe can monitor its maritime areas from space,” says Satlab CEO Jesper A. Larsen in a press release. “ALCYON also shows that Danish space industry has both the technology and the skills to contribute to Europe’s shared security.”
Satlab’s VDES technology has already flown: a Satlab unit flew on the MARIOT project, launched on SpaceX Transporter-6 on 3 January 2023.
Sternula, a provider of satellite-based communication for maritime use, will lead VDES operations for ALCYON.
“We will be working to include VDES under the European IRIS² umbrella as a “Low LEO” service. Thanks to Kinéis for inviting us to be part of this ambitious venture!” says Sternula CEO Lars Moltsen on LinkedIn.
An ESA spokesperson confirmed to Danish Space News that Gatehouse Satcom, a satellite communications software company specialising in 5G non-terrestrial networks, is among the Danish subcontractors on the Low-LEO contracts. The company has not separately detailed its Low-LEO role in the public materials used for this issue.
In Six Months, Denmark’s Largest Space Mission Will Come to an End
On 31 March 2027, ASIM - Denmark’s biggest space mission to date - is due to end science operations. Shortly after, the instrument on the International Space Station is expected to be ejected and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
In the remaining months, ASIM will focus on “secondary science,” physicist Carol Anne Oxborrow of DTU Space tells Danish Space News. She heads the ASIM Science Data Center at DTU.
In the interview with Danish Space News, Oxborrow highlighted three aspects of the secondary science programme:
Collaborators in Brussels are using ASIM’s optical data on meteors breaking up in the atmosphere to study their composition.
At DTU, aurora specialists will continue running timed observations at high magnetic latitudes, where they observe clear, strongly fluctuating X-ray signals from the aurora.
Spanish partners, including a group in Granada, are working on long-continuing current lightning, with timed observations planned so ASIM can watch from above while a ground lightning mapping array watches from below.
Oxborrow also noted that preparations to wind down ASIM are taking place, such as finding ways to store all the data from the mission. When the time comes, ASIM is expected to be parked, then nudged off the International Space Station by the robotic arm to burn up in the atmosphere.
DHI Contributes to WMO State of Global Water Resources 2025
The World Meteorological Organization released its “State of Global Water Resources 2025” report, highlighting a continued decline in freshwater storage and retreat of glaciers. DHI, a Danish consultancy specialising in water environments and satellite-based tools, contributed to the report with data from the DHI Global Hydrological Model, which combines high-resolution satellite information with global datasets on weather, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, soil and landscapes.
“One of the biggest challenges in global hydrology is understanding water conditions in regions where monitoring data is limited or unavailable. In the DHI Global Hydrological Model, we combine satellite observations with global datasets to estimate both meteorological conditions and the physical parameters that drive the model. By deriving model parameters directly from physical landscape characteristics observed from space and by using forcings from global datasets, we can generate valuable water insights even in ungauged regions. We are proud to contribute this capability to WMO’s State of Global Water Resources report, helping turn data into the knowledge needed for better water management and climate resilience,” says Jakob Luchner, Senior Hydroinformatics Engineer and Research Program Coordinator at DHI.
NEWS BRIEFS
GOMX-5 Ready for October Launch After Integration into Deployer - GomSpace’s ESA-supported GOMX-5 CubeSat has completed qualification testing and final review and is integrated into its deployer, ready for launch in October 2026, ESA reported on 10 September. The eight-unit CubeSat is a General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) in-orbit demonstration. [LINK]
GomSpace Signs EUR 3.8M Multi-Phased Partnership Agreement - Small satellite manufacturer GomSpace has signed a multi-phased commercial partnership in the EMEA region worth about EUR 3.8 million with a new European customer specialising in advanced systems and critical technology. The agreement covers missions, mission services, platform kits and standard products, with deliveries planned from late 2026 into 2027. [LINK]
Terma Wins New MDA Space Contract for Constellation Ground Support Equipment - Terma has been selected by MDA Space as part of the MDA Aurora supply chain, with a new contract covering constellation ground support equipment - including power simulation and checkout, RF, and central supervision. [LINK]
Space Inventor to Build 16U Platform for Singapore’s Crimson-2 - Space Inventor will build a 16U satellite platform for Crimson-2, a mission with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore carrying an atomic-oxygen detector and Aliena MUSIC-HM electric propulsion. Launch is planned for July 2028. [LINK]
Danish Graphene Selected for Taiwan SpaceTech Startup Programme — Danish Graphene, a graphene materials company, has been selected for the TAcc+ International SpaceTech Startups Supporting Program 2026 in Taiwan. [LINK]
Researchers Simulate Lightning Formation on an Exoplanet for the First Time - Small-scale electrical processes that could mark the beginning of lightning in the atmosphere of an exoplanet have been successfully simulated for the first time. DTU Space conducted the study together with international research partners. [LINK]
Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute: Neutrino “Flavour” May Decide if Dying Stars Explode or Become Black Holes - A new University of Copenhagen study finds that neutrino flavour conversion - how ghost particles switch type - can change whether a collapsing massive star goes supernova or forms a black hole, especially for stars about 16–30 times the Sun’s mass. [LINK]
Skywalker 2.0 Negotiates Full Vertical Corners — SKYWALKER 2.0, an Aalborg University and ESA LATTICE space-robotics project on crawling robotic arms for large space structures, can now traverse ±90° vertical corner transitions while staying attached, after earlier flat-surface and ±45° results. [LINK]
DanSTAR Completes Campus Static Fires of Parhelion - DanSTAR, the Danish student rocketry association at DTU, has completed several full-rocket static fires of its roughly 4-metre Parhelion vehicle on campus - the first such campus static fires since Valkyrie about five years ago. [LINK]
Gatehouse Satcom Launches “Space Fast Track” - New programme aimed at helping NTN satellite operators reach live service faster, built around Gatehouse’s standards-based protocol software stack (with Sateliot and Iridium cited as NTN users). [LINK]
Peter Mariager Becomes CTO of Gatehouse Satcom - He previously served as the company’s VP of 5G Technology for the past two years. [LINK]
Sternula Coordinates PASUVO Port-Arrival Project - Sternula is coordinating an international consortium on PASUVO (Port Arrival System Using VDES + data-driven optimization) for greener and just-in-time port calls. [LINK]
EVENTS AND MEETINGS
30 Sep - TICRA GRASP Fundamentals Webinar
TICRA hosts a webinar on GRASP fundamentals for analysis and design of reflector antenna systems, with Cecilia Cappellin. About 45 minutes plus live Q&A.
7 Oct - DHI Webinar: Actual Evapotranspiration and Root-Zone Soil Moisture from Copernicus Data
Danish consultancy DHI is hosting a webinar on how Copernicus Earth observation data can be used to estimate actual evapotranspiration (ET) and root-zone soil moisture (RZSM) from field scale to global monitoring. Agriculture accounts for up to 80% of freshwater withdrawals; DHI’s products, developed with partners including ESA, FAO, the EU Joint Research Centre and the Danish Environment Agency, feed into applications such as the global actual ET product for the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. Speaker: Radoslaw Marcin Guzinski, Ph.D., Senior Remote Sensing Specialist and Software Engineer at DHI.
The webinar takes place on 7 October 2026, 07:00–08:00 UTC (09:00–10:00 CEST), online.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR DANISH SPACE ACTORS
ESA BASS Pilot and Proof of Concept (EUR 500,000 / EUR 250,000)
The Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science has earmarked EUR 3.4 million (about DKK 25 million) for Danish Pilot and Proof-of-Concept projects under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme, which helps innovative ideas mature into viable, market-ready space-based services and applications. Danish-registered companies and institutions apply directly to ESA, with support of up to EUR 500,000 per Pilot project and EUR 250,000 per Proof-of-Concept project (plus any required co-financing), for applications closing 30 November 2026. ESA evaluates the proposals; Technology Broker Denmark can advise on the process.
Danish Space News is a publication operated by Space Denmark. Feel free to contact Editor-in-Chief Thomas Schumann (thomas@spacedenmark.dk) for story tips, feedback, or if you want to connect with the Danish space ecosystem.
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Image Credit: ESA / GomSpace.