This Washing-Machine-Sized Satellite Breaks Government's GEO Optical Monopoly
Swissto12's HummingSat platform is about to do something that has only been done by governments before: optical data relay from a commercial smallsat in geostationary orbit. The Switzerland-based company announced March 23 that it has signed a contract with Space Compass — the Japanese joint ven...
Swissto12's HummingSat platform is about to do something that has only been done by governments before: optical data relay from a commercial smallsat in geostationary orbit.
The Switzerland-based company announced March 23 that it has signed a contract with Space Compass — the Japanese joint venture between satellite operator Sky Perfect JSAT and telecoms giant NTT — to build a washing machine-sized optical relay spacecraft called SC-A. Delivery is targeted for Japan's fiscal year 2028 (April 2028 through March 2029). It will be the first commercial GEO optical relay satellite in the smallsat class. according to SpaceNews
Optical data relay from GEO has historically been the exclusive domain of large, government-backed systems. Europe's European Data Relay System (EDRS) and Japan's LUCAS are the reference points — both substantial, government-funded programs. What Swissto12 and Space Compass are attempting is fundamentally different: putting optical relay capability onto a sub-tonne commercial platform and selling relay services as a product.
"The SC-A mission will demonstrate that significant and market competitive optical data relay services can be deployed from GEO based on a SmallSat platform such as HummingSat," Swissto12 CEO Emile de Rijk said.
The commercial logic is clear. Optical links offer substantially higher bandwidth than radio-frequency alternatives — critical as Earth observation satellites produce ever-larger datasets. Rather than building and operating their own relay infrastructure, customers can buy relay service from Space Compass the way they buy cloud compute. Space Compass is already positioning this as a dual-use platform: the company has a contract with Japan's Ministry of Defense for optical communications, and is studying interoperability with Hellas Sat's upcoming Hellas Sat 5, which is being designed with an optical payload.
The SC-A is the sixth HummingSat order Swissto12 has announced, following deals with SES, Viasat, and Astrum Mobile — all of which use RF payloads. The platform's GEO debut is SES's Intelsat 45 mission, scheduled for 2027. The optical terminals for SC-A are being procured from an established equipment supplier; Swissto12 has not disclosed which one.
What makes this worth watching is the constellation plan. Swissto12 and Space Compass are explicit that SC-A is a pathfinder toward a multi-satellite optical relay network with global coverage. If the economics hold — and that's the open question — it would represent a meaningful shift in how satellite data gets from LEO to ground. Optical relay in GEO serving LEO observation constellations is a different market than direct-to-ground downlink, and one that has historically required government-scale investment.
Small GEO is having a moment. Astranis, the U.S. small GEO specialist, is adding customers to its launch lineup. Finland's ReOrbit recently sold two sub-tonne GEO communications satellites to asset-financing company SLI. The common thread: operators facing LEO overcrowding and high launch costs are finding that a well-positioned GEO satellite at the right price point still makes sense for regional coverage and replacement cycles. Optical relay adds a new wrinkle — and a new vendor in a market that, until now, had no commercial entry point.
