Flight Ticket Initiative - first contracts

The European Commission and ESA are offering companies and organisations an opportunity to fly their technology for development or validation on a satellite mission as part of the Flight ticket initiative. 

The first five contracts have been signed with European companies as part of the Flight Ticket Initiative organised by ESA and the European Commission – helping companies demonstrate or validate services and technologies on board satellites that are supplied as “ready-to-fly”.

The Flight Ticket Initiative provides co-funding of launch opportunities to European companies and organisations to fly their services and test new satellite technologies in orbit.

Have a product or technology that needs to be qualified… in space? The flight ticket initiative was developed by the European Commission and the European Space Agency to offer an opportunity for European companies to test or prove their products in space, to boost their competitiveness in the space industry and foster new space technologies, because let’s face it, nothing sells better than space-proven hardware.

The satellites themselves will be delivered ready-for-launch. They will fly on a launch mission that will be selected competitively.

These types of flights are also called in-orbit demonstration or validation, abbreviated to IOD/IOV, as they are meant to demonstrate or validate that something can be used in space.

Think your product will work in the harsh conditions outside Earth’s atmosphere, or do you want to prove your new idea for satellite technology? The Flight Ticket Initiative is your fast-track way to get on board and leave gravity behind.

At ESA, the Flight Ticket Initiative is administered under the Boost! programme.