Space Innovation Award honours communication system for space operations

TEKEVER‘s GAMALINK project is the winner of the first edition of the Space Science and Technology Innovation Award, organised by the Portuguese Space Agency. The award was presented this Wednesday, at the closing ceremony of the 8th edition of the New Space Atlantic Summit, by the Secretary of State for Science, Ana Paiva, the president of the Portuguese Space Agency, Ricardo Conde, and the chairman of the jury, José Manuel Mendonça, from INESC TEC.

The ESPRESSO project, from the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, received an honourable mention for the same award. The Portuguese Space Agency also honoured Professor Carlos Fernandes, from the Instituto Superior Técnico and the Instituto de Telecomunicações, with the Career Award.

“These projects are a clear example of the ability for innovation of the national space ecosystem. They combine scientific excellence, technological vision, and a concrete impact on national and European space ecosystems,” said Ricardo Conde, President of the Portuguese Space Agency.  

The Innovation in Space Award recognises projects with a strong innovative character, impact on the space sector, and potential for concrete application, and was awarded for the first time in 2025. The choice was the result of an application process by the promoting entities, which reached a total of 26 entries. Out of these, the Portuguese Space Agency team drew up a shortlist. The six finalists were then assessed by a jury of personalities linked to the Portuguese space and innovation ecosystem.

Tekever’s GAMALINK is a communication system between short and long-range satellites (between 10 centimetres and 1000 kilometres), which ensures precise distance measurements, time synchronisation, and data transfer, and which has been commercially validated, having been integrated into European Space Agency (ESA) missions such as PROBA-3 and HERA.

Ricardo Mendes, CEO of the company that recently achieved “unicorn” status, emphasised that the award “represents great recognition for the TEKEVER space team, which has been working on this product for so many years”. “Today, GAMALINK is on board several space missions, particularly PROBA 3 and Hera, and it plays a fundamental role by enabling the connection and communication between the various satellites that make up the two missions. Without GAMALINK, these missions wouldn’t exist,” said Ricardo Mendes, expressing his thanks for the recognition.  

The President of TEKEVER also promises to continue investing in this now recognised technology “over the next few years”. “We think it’s increasingly fundamental at a time when the whole space sector is betting on constellations and the connection between satellites is crucial.”

The honourable mention awarded to the ESPRESSO project recognises the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences’s role in developing optical systems for the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The high-resolution spectrograph ESPRESSO has made pioneering observations possible, including detecting low-mass planets and characterising exoplanet atmospheres.

And lastly, the Career Award was presented to Professor Carlos Fernandes, from the Instituto Superior Técnico and the Instituto de Telecomunicações, in recognition of a professional journey of excellence and an outstanding contribution to the development of space science and technology in Portugal.

The Innovation in Space Sciences and Technologies Award is symbolic in nature and constitutes public recognition for the best project of the year. The jury, chaired by José Manuel Mendonça (INESC TEC), also included Isabel Nunes (National Defence Institute), Pedro Arezes (School of Engineering at the University of Minho), Silvia Garcia (ANI), Cláudio Melo (ESO), and Marta Gonçalves (Portuguese Space Agency).