The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) has awarded a new contract to the multinational technology firm GMV, to lead a consortium that will include Indra and Hisdesat as the other key members. The contract covers the design, development, and deployment of the Communications Hub, a key element of the European Union's GOVSATCOM programme. 

The award of this contract culminates the rigorous competitive bidding process, which included the pre-selection of consortia and the subsequent execution of several parallel contracts for the preliminary design and final demonstration of the future system's capabilities, with the leadership of the "core team" and significant contributions from other companies such as Hispasat and neXat. During this process, GMV and its partners demonstrated outstanding technical responsiveness, commitment, reliability, and flexibility, all of which proved decisive for the final award of the contract. 

GMV's contract with EUSPA has a maximum budget of €107 million. GMV leads an industrial team made up of several European companies, with core team members playing a pivotal role. It is worth mentioning GMV’s management capabilities and technical expertise in space systems and cybersecurity, Indra’s technological leadership in communications, and command and control systems, and Hisdesat’s operational experience. This important contract paves the way for a bright future and will create new opportunities for highly skilled employment within these companies.

GOVSATCOM is one of the five components of the European Union's space programme, along with Copernicus, Galileo, EGNOS, and the Space Situational Awareness Programme. Its mission will be to provide secure and cost-efficient satellite communication services to authorized governmental users in the EU Member States. It will provide these users with communication services in various scenarios, such as crisis management, border and maritime surveillance, and critical infrastructure management, as well as services related to security in polar regions.

The Hub is a fundamental element of the GOVSATCOM architecture. Its function is to ensure the optimal delivery of satellite communication services, to meet the demand for required operational services of EU Member States users. The Hub's planning will cover predefined medium-term communication needs, as well as dynamic and urgent requests arising from unforeseen scenarios, all under strict security and resilience requirements. In addition to the satellite communication resources of the European Union's Member States, the Hub will also handle the services provided by the EU's future multi-orbital secure communications constellation, known as IRIS².