GomSpace gets back its Spanish contract
December 15, 2023
In a surprise move, Spain’s Startical j-v of Indra and Spanish air-navigation authority Enaire has returned to Sweden’s small-satellite builder GomSpace to build at least the initial satellites of the planned Startical air-traffic-management constellation.
Just over a year ago the GomSpace contract was unexpectedly cancelled. The news propelled a significant uplift to GomSpace’s share price (up 52 per cent) on the company’s Nasdaq listing.
As well as the cancellation of the contract, Spain said it would not pay for work already carried out under the contract.
The dispute was over cost increases levied by GomSpace and resulted in GomSpace’s CEO losing his job and a 30 per cent reduction in the company’s headcount.
A December 11th statement to shareholders from GomSpace said the contract has been restarted and that it “will reuse the work performed for the previously suspended program to support Startical to perform the European ECHOES demonstration and settle disputes.”
The EU is committed to awarding €15 million into Startical.
GomSpace added that work on the ECHOES satellite would now start immediately in readiness for launch as planned in 2025.
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