SPACE-SI (Slovenian Centre of Excellence for Space Sciences and Technologies)

SPACE-SI was established in 2010 in Ljubljana by a consortium of academic institutions, high-tech SMEs and industrial/insurance companies, uniting five research institutions with around 46 researchers and engineers to advance small-satellite technologies for Earth observation, meteorology and astrophysics. Its R&D focuses on high-resolution remote sensing and formation-flying missions, backed by microsatellite technology, ground control infrastructure, integration facilities and a laboratory for space-environment component testing.

Its flagship achievement is NEMO-HD, Slovenia's first microsatellite, co-developed with the Space Flight Laboratory at the University of Toronto and launched on a Vega rocket from French Guiana on 3 September 2020. NEMO-HD combines real-time HD video with multispectral imaging (2.8 m panchromatic / 5.6 m multispectral) for smart-city, river-basin, maritime, forest, agriculture, drought, flood and invasive-vegetation monitoring.

Ground infrastructure includes two ground stations, the fixed "Axyom" station near Pomjan and the transportable "Stream" LEO tracking station in Ljubljana, paired with the "STORM" automated data-processing chain, plus a laboratory with a Nano Indenter G200, thermal-vacuum chamber and ISO Class 8 cleanroom. Staff have contributed to international missions including RAVE, GAIA, Kepler, Planck, Swift, Fermi and LAPAN-TUBSAT, and combine small-satellite data with Copernicus for ecology, agriculture, forestry, urbanism and disaster monitoring.