Exotrail is strengthening its spacevan manifest with a new mission to geostationary orbit scheduled for early 2028, commissioned by CNES as part of the France 2030 plan. This program, supported by the French space agency, CNES, aims to develop a perennial European capacity for the orbital deployment of small satellites from geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to operational geostationary orbit (GEO).
This new mission will be based on an optimized spacevan GEO platform, consolidating Exotrail’s position as a multi-orbit, multi-mission service provider. With this selection, the French government reaffirms its confidence in Exotrail’s technological capabilities. This mission, the second in the GEO program initiated by Exotrail, adds to a rapidly expanding manifest of missions.
A successful first mission to low-Earth orbit demonstrated the company’s satellite delivery services and onboard payload capacity, as well as its mobility capability with an orbit modification of almost 150km altitude. Exotrail is preparing its next missions: two further flights into low-Earth orbit are scheduled for 2026, with customers to be specified shortly, as well as a first GEO mission in 2027. This new GEO mission, scheduled for 2028, confirms the company’s strategic acceleration in all orbits.
As part of this ambitious development, Exotrail also announces the arrival of Olivier Mathieu as Vice President In-Orbit Services, a member of the Executive Committee. With a wealth of experience acquired at Airbus Defence and Space and the European Union Space Programme Agency (EUSPA), Olivier Mathieu will steer all spacevan-related activities from Exotrail’s Toulouse site. In particular, he will be in charge of expanding the teams and piloting upcoming orbital missions.
The hiring of dozens of additional talents is already underway between Massy and Toulouse to support the design, industrialization, and operation of these ambitious missions, as well as the preparation of future roadmap activities, notably dealing with in-orbit rendezvous and proximity operations.
To mark the occasion, Exotrail co-founder and CEO Jean-Luc Maria said, “With this new mission and the arrival of Olivier Mathieu, we are strengthening our ability to provide sovereign, agile, and sustainable space logistics to Europe. Our spacevan mission manifesto reflects our strategic vision: to offer our commercial and institutional customers end-to-end orbital services for deployment, experimentation, and tomorrow, proximity operations, in all orbits.”
