ESA awards three space companies for excellence and innovation
On 16 September at ESA's Industry Space Days 2026 event in the Netherlands, the European Space Agency honoured three space companies with annual awards based on evaluations of their work on ESA projects. Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (UK) received the Excellence Award as prime contractor for delivering two HydroGNSS satellites for ESA's HydroGNSS Earth Observation Scout mission on a demanding schedule following a late launch service change. Sener (Spain) received the Excellence Award as sub-contractor for technical performance and proactive support to the MetOp Second Generation programme. CompPair Technologies (Switzerland) received the Innovation Award for developing a self-healing composite material with embedded sensors and a distributed heating system that enables autonomous repair of damage through thermal activation of a healing agent.
