Portuguese Tech Firms Help Rescue ESA's Stranded Satellite Mission in Space

When the European Space Agency lost contact with one of two satellites flying in formation around Earth, it turned to an unlikely rescue team: two Portuguese technology companies whose expertise in drone communications and orbital tracking proved critical to re-establishing the link.

The Proba-3 mission, launched from India in December 2024, is one of ESA's most ambitious experiments in precision spaceflight. Two satellites, named Coronagraph and Occulter, fly just 150 metres apart. The Occulter blocks sunlight for the Coronagraph, creating an artificial solar eclipse that allows scientists to study the Sun's corona -- the superheated outer atmosphere that drives solar wind and space weather. Under normal circumstances, the corona is visible only during the few minutes of a natural total eclipse.

In mid-February, ESA lost contact with the Coronagraph satellite. For more than a month, engineers worked to restore communications. The breakthrough came with help from two Portuguese firms: Tekever, a Lisbon-based drone and defence technology company now valued as a unicorn, and Neuraspace, a Coimbra-based startup specialising in space traffic management.

The Nervous System Between Two Satellites

Tekever's involvement in Proba-3 dates back to 2014, when the company was selected to lead the consortium responsible for the Inter-Satellite Link, the communication system that allows the two spacecraft to talk to each other in real time.

Pedro Rodrigues, Tekever's director of Space, described the system as "the nervous system that connects the two satellites." Built on Tekever's proprietary GAMALINK technology, the hardware and software enable the ultra-precise coordination needed to maintain formation flight accurate to the millimetre.

"In a formation flying mission, loss of contact between satellites is the most critical scenario," Rodrigues explained. "If the satellites cannot hear each other, the mission goes blind and risks collision." When the Coronagraph fell silent, Tekever's inter-satellite link became the priority channel for reconnecting the two platforms, allowing ground teams to resynchronise navigation and control systems.

Eyes on the Ground

Neuraspace contributed a different but equally vital capability. The startup deployed its network of ground-based optical telescopes to track the orbital position of the stranded satellite, measuring its brightness over time and helping ESA engineers determine its precise location and orientation.

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Coimbra, Neuraspace has built its business around monitoring space debris and satellite orbits using artificial intelligence. The Proba-3 crisis gave the company an opportunity to demonstrate that its tracking infrastructure could support high-stakes operational missions, not just routine debris monitoring.

A Growing Space Ecosystem

The Proba-3 rescue is the latest in a series of milestones for Portugal's space sector. Tekever, which began as an autonomous systems startup, now works with ESA on multiple programmes. The company's technology is used in the HERA mission -- humanity's first planetary defence mission, studying the Didymos asteroid system -- and it leads the ATLARCTIC project to develop a high-resolution radar satellite for Arctic and North Atlantic environmental monitoring.

Portugal's space ambitions have grown steadily since the country became an ESA member state in 2000. The Portuguese Space Agency, established in 2019, has worked to position the country as a niche player in areas like satellite communications, Earth observation, and space debris tracking. Annual Portuguese contributions to ESA programmes now exceed 40 million euros.

For the country's tech sector, the Proba-3 story offers a compelling narrative: Portuguese companies are not merely assembling someone else's components but designing and operating critical systems in some of Europe's most demanding scientific missions.

Why It Matters Beyond the Headlines

Space technology might seem remote from daily life, but its applications are increasingly tangible. The satellite communications, GPS systems, weather forecasting, and environmental monitoring that underpin modern economies all depend on the kind of precision engineering and orbital management that Tekever and Neuraspace provide.

For Portugal's growing community of technology workers and digital nomads, the space sector represents one of the country's most promising knowledge-economy success stories. It is capital-light, talent-heavy, and plugged into European institutional frameworks that provide long-term funding stability. As the Iran war disrupts traditional energy and trade flows, the strategic value of autonomous European space capability is only likely to grow.