During the Wallonia International Business Awards ceremony at La Hulpe, Aerospacelab was granted the title of Rising Star of 2022. Awex, Wallonia’s Export and Foreign Investment Agency, awarded this prize in recognition of Aerospacelab’s innovative products and services, as well as its contribution to sustainable development within the company’s growth and through its Earth observation services. 

Benoît Deper, Aerospacelab’s CEO and founder, accepted the award and stated: “What an honour to have been nominated and to win the Wallonia Rising Star Award. In the last four years Aerospacelab has grown from one office in Belgium to our headquarter in Mont-Saint-Guibert, a factory ramping up in Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve, and a megafactory in the making in Charleroi; but also established two subsidiaries in France and in Switzerland. We’re working hard to transform the space industry and make accessibility to space easier.” 

Aerospacelab provides cost-efficient satellite solutions thanks to its payload agnostic approach, short lead time, and the use of off-the-shelf components. The Versatile Satellite Platform (VSP) can host a wide spectrum of payloads customized to clients’ requirements: from Earth observation, for example to monitor natural disasters and related damage assessments, changes in land cover, detection of pollution and gas emissions, to understand climate change including surface condition of bare agricultural soil assessment, water cycles in arid zones and iceberg monitoring;  over telecommunication with inter-satellite link, IoT, broadband internet; to various technology demonstrations. 

At its first satellite factory in Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve, Aerospacelab has the capacity to design, manufacture, integrate and test 24 platforms a year. In Europe’s first satellite megafactory, operational in Charleroi from 2025, it will be able to produce up to 500 platforms a year. 

The Wallonia International Business Awards are organised biannually by Awex to reward the efforts and successes of Walloon companies that succeed in penetrating foreign markets with Walloon products and services.