Skynopy, a French space startup, has won a major deal in the ground satellite services arena. Airbus Defence and Space has tapped the company to support the enhancement of the ground segment for its very high-resolution optical imagery services based on its Pléiades Neo constellation. Skynopy, founded in 2023, aims to bring a fully software-defined ground segment, combining centralized orchestration and virtualized modem technologies to enable rapid deployment of new ground stations and flexible resource allocation. Pléiades Neo satellites are part of Airbus’ high-resolution optical constellation, delivering native 30 cm resolution imagery with high reactivity for a wide range of applications, including defence, security, disaster management, civil engineering, environmental monitoring and commercial services. “This collaboration with Airbus Defence and Space illustrates how a fully software-defined and virtualized ground segment can bring tangible performance gains for very high-resolution Earth observation services.