For half a century, satellites have chased the same prize: ever sharper pictures of Earth. Each advance brought more pixels and greater clarity, but only in terms of how things looked. Now, a different kind of technology is emerging, one that reveals the biochemical composition of man-made and natural objects: hyperspectral imaging. By capturing hundreds of spectral bands tied to chemical and biological signals, it can detect crop stress before the eye can see it, trace pollutants as they spread or expose a camouflaged vessel by its unique spectral fingerprint.
This is not the next rung on photography’s ladder. It is the start of a new discipline — less a camera, more a laboratory in orbit. And here, Europe finds itself in the rarest of positions: out in front. Still, its lead is fragile: While the United States and China are increasingly pairing public funding with commercial constellations, Europe’s progress still depends on government programs with decade-long timelines.
To stay competitive, Europe must embrace a hybrid model that marries public investment with private innovation, or risk watching its scientific and technological advantages erode. There is momentum. Across agriculture, forestry and climate monitoring, European agencies and startups have taken an early lead, while other regions have focused on defense and intelligence use cases. ESA is already preparing to integrate hyperspectral data into Copernicus, the world’s most extensive Earth observation program. Finland’s environment agency has piloted it to track and identify harmful algae blooms.
ESA’s next hyperspectral mission, CHIME, is slated to launch by the end of 2029. This is too far away. Climate change and national security demand a credible space strategy now, backed by serious funding. Government programs alone can’t deliver it. Europe needs a hybrid model in which commercial space companies complement science missions with frequent coverage, AI-powered analytics and innovation at lower cost. Without that partnership, Europe’s early lead in hyperspectral risks is becoming another missed opportunity.
A strategic opening for Europe
The stakes are anything but abstract. Hyperspectral will shape industries that matter most in the decades ahead. Farmers will utilize it to mitigate the impact of climate change, which will have a direct effect on food security. Blue carbon markets will depend on it to credibly verify carbon credits. Corporations and financial institutions that need more transparency on environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks will rely on it to monitor compliance and environmental impact. And defense agencies will treat it as a new layer of intelligence, able to expose what conventional optics cannot, for instance, plant nutrition deficiency and stealth vessels. In each case, the buyer is not a space agency but a public institution or commercial entity that requires continuous, credible information that is currently not available.
That demand will be met. The question is: by whom? The U.S. and China are already building hybrid ecosystems in which public programs anchor private constellations through data-buy contracts and long-term procurement. In the U.S., this approach helped startups such as Planet and BlackSky evolve into critical national providers, while newer entrants like Capella Space and Umbra now supply radar imagery through NASA’s Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program and related defense procurements. China guarantees domestic demand for its own firms. Both models ensure fast innovation cycles and strategic control over critical data.
Europe, by contrast, still treats scientific and commercial missions as largely separate, with government programs focused on research and policy goals, and private operators left to find their own markets. This structure hinders innovation and forces them to pursue private funding rather than serving public goals.
To maintain its lead, Europe needs a coordinated framework where agencies fund standards, launches, calibration and sovereign data, while private companies deliver higher-frequency coverage and analytics. If it succeeds, it can consolidate its lead in civilian Earth monitoring and, in doing so, define the standards that others must follow. That position is the foundation of credibility for carbon markets, climate policy and food security alike.
Europe has stood at this threshold before. With Galileo, its homegrown satellite navigation system built as an alternative to GPS, it proved that constructing global infrastructure was possible, even in the face of skepticism. Hyperspectral is the next such opportunity: a chance to build the systems and standards that turn raw spectra into insights the world can act upon. If Europe hesitates, others will shape the category. If it commits, it can claim it.
Why public-private partnerships are the missing link
Hyperspectral imaging is too data-heavy, too complex and too strategically important to be left solely to government programs with decade-long timelines. Europe needs a model similar to NASA’s commercial data-buy programs, where agencies fund validation and standardization while relying on private constellations to provide continuous coverage and rapid innovation. ESA is already extending Copernicus with contractual data access from private operators, allowing commercial satellites to fill temporal or spectral gaps between existing and future missions, such as CHIME. Now, ESA must enforce its Copernicus Contributing Missions program by providing anchor customer contracts to accelerate an industrial-ready, interoperable solution and attract funding.
This approach works because incentives align. Governments get access to validated, sovereign data and maintain control over environmental and security-critical intelligence. Private companies, in turn, gain stable demand, data-sharing frameworks and anchor customers to accelerate scale.
The U.S. has already demonstrated the effectiveness of this model through partnerships with Planet and Maxar, integrating private data into federal systems at a lower cost. China has taken a more state-directed path, combining public funding with industrial policy to ensure domestic firms have steady demand and access to launch and data markets. The result is the same: rapid commercial deployment underwritten by government coordination. Without similar hybrid models, Europe risks losing its early scientific leadership in hyperspectral imaging to faster-moving ecosystems abroad.
From data to actionable insights
Adopting a hybrid model is only the first step. Once data flows from both public missions and commercial constellations, Europe will face a different challenge: making that information usable at scale. Each hyperspectral satellite produces terabytes of raw data daily, far beyond the reach of ordinary satellites. Turning those complex datasets into actionable intelligence requires specific expertise and skill, which is currently limited. To fast-track raw data to actionable insights, AI-powered automated processing and models are needed.
European hyperspectral intelligence companies are already building seamless data acquisition and advanced AI-powered processing systems in orbit and on the ground to deliver automated insights for agriculture, environmental monitoring, blue carbon markets and maritime monitoring. What they need now is the connective tissue: computing capacity within Europe, spectral libraries and governance frameworks that ensure the resulting insights are trusted across borders.
That is why Europe’s next step is not simply to launch more satellites. To maintain its lead, it must invest in the entire ecosystem of companies leading the way in automating Earth observation intelligence services. It must invest in the computing and storage capacity to support the creation of AI and spectral library standards, and foster public-private partnerships that expedite the transfer of insights from research to the market. And above all, it must recognize that hyperspectral imaging is not a niche upgrade to Earth observation, but a strategic capability for agriculture, climate and security.
Europe has watched entire technology categories — from semiconductors to social media — slip abroad. Hyperspectral does not have to be the next. The window is narrow, but the opportunity is real: to build satellites, infrastructure and standards that make Europe the place where new, trusted information about the health and safety of the planet itself is produced.
<em>Jarkko Antila is the CEO of Kuva Space, a pioneering Finnish Earth observation company. Jarkko’s experience includes leading technology teams at renowned organizations like the Finnish Research Center (VTT) and Inficon. He co-founded Spectral Engines, a successful spectral sensor company, where he served as CEO for six years before its exit. Before his role at Kuva Space, Jarkko founded a deep-tech business consultancy firm. With a Master’s degree in Space Technology, he has been involved in various space projects, including the development of hyperspectral payloads for satellite missions such as OMI and Aalto-1.
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