Startical

Startical was created in 2021 as a public-private joint venture between ENAIRE, Spain's state-owned air navigation service provider, and Indra, a global leader in air traffic management (ATM) technology. The company was founded to close a longstanding gap in aviation safety: the lack of surveillance and communication coverage over oceanic and remote regions where ground-based radar and VHF infrastructure cannot reach.

Startical is developing a constellation of more than 200 small low-Earth-orbit satellites purpose-built for ATM, combining ADS-B surveillance with VHF voice and datalink communications between pilots and air traffic controllers, fully compliant with Safety-of-Life requirements. The system is designed to be fully compatible with existing avionics and ground infrastructure, requiring no modifications to aircraft equipment or additional training for pilots and controllers.

In March 2025, Startical launched its first in-orbit demonstrator, IOD-1, aboard a SpaceX Transporter-13 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, developed as part of the European-funded ECHOES project. Within months it achieved the world's first VHF voice and data link from space. A second demonstrator, IOD-2, followed in June 2025 aboard Transporter-14, with its satellite payload engineered by Indra with ENAIRE's support. Startical has since conducted live operational trials with air navigation service providers and airlines across the South Atlantic corridor, including the Canary Islands, Azores-Santa Maria, Dakar Oceanic, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast and Brazil's Atlantic region.

In December 2023, the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference approved a new allocation for the Aeronautical Mobile-Satellite (Route) Service within the VHF band (117.975-137 MHz), officially authorizing its use from space -- a milestone Startical actively supported through its participation in ITU and ICAO regulatory forums. Startical's projects have received support from the European Union (ECHOES, Connecting Europe Facility / SESAR Joint Undertaking) and from the Spanish Space Agency and European Space Agency (VOCALS, ESA ARTES programme).