Serco awarded ESA contract to support ASCEND
Above: Italy night view from space.
Courtesy Serco
The contract commenced in June and marks a pivotal extension of Serco’s longstanding support to the space sector.
Under this new frame contract, the Serco-led consortium will deliver comprehensive IT and scientific support services to various user communities. These services will include the operation and development of critical EO applications such as Catalogue & Explorer, Data Access, Discovery & Download and the Product Algorithm Laboratory. These tools are designed to facilitate an intuitive and effective system for accessing and sharing EO data, thereby fostering enhanced collaboration and innovation in Earth Observation (EO) product development.
ASCEND is set to revolutionise the way the scientific community accesses and processes data by offering advanced data access, processing services, and scalable IT resources for both deployment and operational use. The project aggregates and catalogues data from multiple Earth Observation missions, providing users with access to high-resolution imagery and comprehensive datasets necessary for in-depth analysis and research.
The initiative focuses on supporting the development of three new Earth Explorer Missions: Biomass, EarthCARE, and FLEX, and continues the operational follow-up of the BIOMASS MAAP developments. This will empower users to not only update existing algorithms and processors but also to innovate and develop new tools tailored to their research needs.
Guido Vingione, our European Business Development Director, stated: "Serco is pleased to be part of the ASCEND project, leading this innovative service, which will revolutionize the way scientific data is processed, and opening new horizons to the research era. We are eager to build impactful applications that integrate existing ESA’s EO Ground Segment services and create a secure, scalable, and user-tailored collaborative environment for various EO missions.”
Serco has a rich history of over 40 years in supporting the space sector, having assisted more than 50 customers with their space missions. This contract further strengthens Serco’s role as a trusted partner to ESA, delivering impactful IT services to both the Earth observation sector and the wider space community. It reaffirms our commitment to making a positive impact on research in the space sector through data.
