Telespazio UK Awarded an ESA Contract to Develop AI-enabled Satellite Data Quality Assurance Tool

07 July 2020

Telespazio UK, a subsidiary of Telespazio – a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%) – has been awarded a European Space Agency (ESA) contract to further develop a tool to automate quality assurance analysis of Satellite-based Earth Observation data products.

The new tool uses advanced machine learning techniques to automate processing of EO Products within a high-performance Cloud Computing environment. It will be made available as an easy to use Cloud-based service for New Space mission providers and Institutions.

The volume of EO data from satellites has increased 10x in the last 5-years due to modern satellites launched by New Space companies and Governments/Institutions. The total data generated is already on the petabyte scale and it is not feasible to perform quality assurance of such data volumes with only human interaction alone, or traditional image processing techniques. The automated tool seeks to address this challenge of analysing the huge volume of EO data products. 

“Quality assurance is a critical step in the Earth Observation value chain. Yet with the drastically increasing volumes of acquired data, traditional approaches to quality assurance are no longer viable. This activity will explore how novel technologies, such as cloud processing and new machine learning approaches, can help making the process more efficient and ensuring that the best quality data products are delivered to the user community.”

Dr Patrick Griffiths, EO data engineer at ESA/ESRIN  and technical officer for the project

The new activity, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), seeks to build on previous internal development activities. Overall, it seeks to strengthen Telespazio UK’s world leading capabilities in EO data quality assurance and to provide an easy-to-use service to commercial organisations and institutions.

“We are excited to be applying innovative Artificial Intelligence technology to develop this tool. This new capability allows cost effective provision of quality control services to our customers and allows them to continue provide leading-edge EO data and information products to their users”.

Dr Geoff Busswell, Head of Sales at Telespazio UK

This satellite image sensed over the Tunisian section of the Sahara Desert, demonstrates the presence of the scan start anomaly. This anomaly, which occupies the left hand side of the product scene, originates from the fault where the data sampling start time within each mirror scan is delayed and so a near-consistent proportion of data is lost from each nominal scan line (Image: ESA/NASA/USGS)

Other News & Stories

08.09.2025
The Lario Space Centre hosts the third edition of LarioSpace

Astronauts, executives and space industry experts will gather on September 11–12 for LarioSpace 2025, an international event on innovation and technologies in the New Space Economy, hosted at Telespazio’s Lario Space Centre on Lake Como.

07.08.2025
Towards the Digital Twin of Italian Soil

Leonardo, through e-GEOS, a company owned by the Italian Space Agency (20%) and Telespazio (80%), will support the Department for Sustainable Development (DiSS) of the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) in the development of a Digital Twin of the Italian territory. The initiative falls under PNRR investment M2C4 I.1.1, which focuses on the development of an advanced monitoring and forecasting system. This high-resolution digital model of the terrain, built using airborne laser surveys (LiDAR) and aerogravimetric data, will serve as a strategic asset for understanding the morphology of the land and will lay the foundation for future Digital Twins capable of simulating and further studying its behaviour.

31.07.2025
U-ELCOME: Hospital Drugs Delivered by Drones Take Off in Abruzzo

The operational phase of the drone-based hospital drug delivery service officially launched today in Abruzzo. The initiative is part of the European U-ELCOME project (U-space European COMmon dEpLoyment), co-funded by the Horizon programme, and aims to foster the widespread adoption of U-space services in European airspace, enabling safe and coordinated operations alongside traditional aircraft.

24.07.2025
Telespazio successfully completes the LEOP of EUMETSAT’s MTG-S1 weather satellite

Telespazio has successfully completed the LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) operations for the MTG-S1 weather satellite of EUMETSAT, launched on July 1st from Cape Canaveral.

08.09.2025
The Lario Space Centre hosts the third edition of LarioSpace

Astronauts, executives and space industry experts will gather on September 11–12 for LarioSpace 2025, an international event on innovation and technologies in the New Space Economy, hosted at Telespazio’s Lario Space Centre on Lake Como.

07.08.2025
Towards the Digital Twin of Italian Soil

Leonardo, through e-GEOS, a company owned by the Italian Space Agency (20%) and Telespazio (80%), will support the Department for Sustainable Development (DiSS) of the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) in the development of a Digital Twin of the Italian territory. The initiative falls under PNRR investment M2C4 I.1.1, which focuses on the development of an advanced monitoring and forecasting system. This high-resolution digital model of the terrain, built using airborne laser surveys (LiDAR) and aerogravimetric data, will serve as a strategic asset for understanding the morphology of the land and will lay the foundation for future Digital Twins capable of simulating and further studying its behaviour.

31.07.2025
U-ELCOME: Hospital Drugs Delivered by Drones Take Off in Abruzzo

The operational phase of the drone-based hospital drug delivery service officially launched today in Abruzzo. The initiative is part of the European U-ELCOME project (U-space European COMmon dEpLoyment), co-funded by the Horizon programme, and aims to foster the widespread adoption of U-space services in European airspace, enabling safe and coordinated operations alongside traditional aircraft.

24.07.2025
Telespazio successfully completes the LEOP of EUMETSAT’s MTG-S1 weather satellite

Telespazio has successfully completed the LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) operations for the MTG-S1 weather satellite of EUMETSAT, launched on July 1st from Cape Canaveral.