Space industry in Argentina

Satellogic

Buenos Aires, Argentina commercial

Satellogic is an Earth observation company building a 200+ satellite constellation to provide affordable, high-resolution geospatial imagery enabling weekly remapping of the entire planet. Founded in Argentina and now headquartered in Delaware as a U.S. company, Satellogic operates over 50 spacecraft providing up to eight daily revisits of points of interest. Each Satellogic commercial satellite carries two payloads: a high-resolution multispectral imager delivering sub-meter imagery and a hyperspectral camera capturing 29 wavebands at 25-30 meter resolution across visible to near-infrared spectrum. This dual-payload architecture enables both detailed visual analysis and spectral signature detection for agriculture, forestry, mining, and environmental monitoring applications. In 2024, Satellogic continued constellation expansion with multiple launches: NewSat-46 (TSAT-1A) in April built by India's Tata Advanced Systems Limited, NewSat-44 (Maria Mitchell) on SpaceX Transporter-10 in March, and three satellites including NewSat-48, NewSat-49, and NewSat-50 in August on SpaceX Transporter-11 from Vandenberg Space Force Base. In December 2024, Satellogic signed a strategic partnership with Maxar Intelligence to bring Satellogic data to the U.S. government defense and intelligence market and international allied nations. The company announced a Global Consortium of Geospatial Imagery initiative to expand data access. Satellogic officially redomiciled to Delaware in 2025, becoming a U.S. company while maintaining its heritage of innovative, cost-effective satellite design. The constellation continues growing toward the goal of providing frequent, affordable Earth observation for daily decision-making worldwide.

ARSAT

Buenos Aires, Argentina government

ARSAT is an Argentine state-owned telecommunications company founded in 2006, focused on providing wholesale telecommunications solutions across Argentina. The company operates as a key infrastructure provider, delivering connectivity services including satellite and terrestrial networks, cloud solutions, datacenter services, and cybersecurity offerings. ARSAT’s core business centers around building and operating national infrastructure to expand connectivity throughout the country, with a stated emphasis on federal coverage. A defining characteristic of ARSAT is its ownership and operation of geostationary (GEO) satellites, specifically ARSAT-1 and ARSAT-2, which were constructed by INVAP, an Argentine technology company. These satellites are integral to ARSAT’s service offerings, enabling digital television broadcasting and internet connectivity services. ARSAT positions itself as a wholesale provider, suggesting its primary customers are other telecommunications companies and service providers who then deliver services to end-users. The company’s focus on national infrastructure and broad service offerings indicates a strategic role in expanding digital access and bolstering telecommunications capabilities within Argentina.

CONAE

Buenos Aires, Argentina government

The National Commission for Space Activities (CONAE, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales) is Argentina's government space agency, established in 1991 and headquartered in Buenos Aires — one of Latin America's most technically capable space agencies, known internationally for its SAR Earth observation satellite constellation, bilateral cooperation agreements with NASA and ESA, and its role as an anchor for Argentina's aerospace industrial base. CONAE's flagship achievement is the SAOCOM (Satélite Argentino de Observación Con Microondas) constellation — two L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites that together provide continuous SAR imaging of South America and other regions. SAOCOM 1A launched in 2018 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg in the first West Coast Falcon 9 launch, and SAOCOM 1B followed in 2020. L-band SAR (23 cm wavelength) penetrates vegetation canopy and can image through cloud cover — making SAOCOM ideal for agricultural monitoring (soil moisture mapping, crop identification, flood extent mapping beneath forest canopy), emergency management, and subsidence monitoring of infrastructure and cities. SAOCOM is part of a bilateral Argentina-Italy cooperation program: Italy's ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) provides COSMO-SkyMed X-band SAR data to CONAE in exchange for SAOCOM L-band data, creating a complementary multi-frequency SAR monitoring capability called SIASGE (Sistema Italo-Argentino de Satélites para la Gestión de Emergencias) that has been used extensively for disaster response in South America. Earlier CONAE programs include the SAC (Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas) series: SAC-A (1998), SAC-B (1996, technology demonstration), and SAC-C (2000, Earth observation with NASA data-sharing partnership). CONAE's Córdoba ground station receives satellite data and the agency operates the INVAP space technology company (which builds CONAE's satellites) through the provincial government of Río Negro. CONAE represents Argentina as a respected peer in international space cooperation, having contributed instruments to ESA's Earth observation missions and maintaining bilateral agreements with NASA, ESA, DLR, and China's CNSA. Argentina's status as one of only a handful of developing nations with indigenous SAR satellite design and manufacturing capability distinguishes CONAE globally.

INVAP

San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina commercial

INVAP (Investigación Aplicada) is an Argentine state-owned high-technology company headquartered in San Carlos de Bariloche, Patagonia, and owned by the Río Negro provincial government — one of Latin America's most capable aerospace and nuclear technology organizations, with a satellite manufacturing program recognized internationally for delivering complex space systems to both domestic and export customers. Founded in 1976 as a spin-off of the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), INVAP's original mandate was to design and manufacture research nuclear reactors. The company has since exported research reactors to Algeria, Egypt, Australia, Peru, and Saudi Arabia — a unique commercial achievement for a developing-nation nuclear technology exporter. This engineering culture of complex system integration transitioned naturally into satellite development as Argentina's space program expanded under CONAE (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales). In the satellite domain, INVAP has manufactured SAOCOM 1A and 1B — twin L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Earth observation satellites launched in 2018 and 2020 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. SAOCOM is operated by CONAE and forms part of a bilateral Italian-Argentine SIASGE constellation with the Italian COSMO-SkyMed radar satellites, providing complementary L-band and X-band SAR coverage for flood mapping, soil moisture measurement, agricultural monitoring, and emergency response. L-band SAR penetrates cloud cover and vegetation canopy, making SAOCOM particularly valuable for tropical and polar-region land monitoring. INVAP also manufactured the SAC-D/Aquarius satellite (launched 2011, a joint NASA-CONAE mission) that carried NASA's Aquarius instrument for global ocean salinity mapping alongside CONAE instruments for thermal radiation and microwave imaging. Additionally, INVAP built the SAC-A and SAC-C Earth observation satellites, establishing Argentina's continuity as one of the few developing nations with indigenous satellite manufacturing capability spanning optical, radar, and scientific payload platforms.

Orbith is a Buenos Aires-based Argentine satellite internet service provider founded in 2020 that has contracted with Astranis to operate a dedicated MicroGEO broadband satellite over South America. Astranis's MicroGEO platform (500 kg, ~10 Gbps capacity) provides a cost-effective alternative to traditional full-size GEO satellites for regional operators — Orbith is one of Astranis's first named South American customers. The service targets rural and underserved communities across Argentina and the broader continent where terrestrial fiber and 4G coverage is limited or absent. Orbith's model is a regional ISP leveraging Astranis's manufacturing and launch, providing local sales, customer support, and regulatory management, similar to other Astranis customer-operators in Alaska and the Pacific.

Veng

Buenos Aires, Argentina commercial

Founded in 2011 and based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Veng is a technology and services company specializing in the space sector. The company’s core business centers around the development of launch vehicles, specifically the Tronador II, indicating a focus on providing access to space. Beyond launch vehicle development, Veng offers a range of related services including satellite data solutions – combining SAR and optical information for applications in agriculture, hydrology, health, and business – and ground segment services such as antenna hosting, TT&C, data download, and software development for mission control centers. Veng demonstrates significant engineering and manufacturing capabilities, offering services from design and engineering to fabrication, assembly, integration, and testing. The company has invested in advanced facilities, including the Laboratory of Spatialization and Assurance (LEA), and recently completed installations of advanced electronic assembly lines and validation of friction stir welding techniques for structural tank manufacturing, in collaboration with institutions like CONAE and INTI. Recent activities highlight Veng’s growing international presence, with participation in industry events like Satellite 2024 in Washington D.C. and Space Show Brazil 2024. Furthermore, the company actively collaborates with CONAE on projects like the Development On-Board Computer (D-OBC), demonstrating a commitment to national space initiatives and technological advancement.