The First Airbus Pléiades Neo Next Satellite Will Be Launched Early 2028

Why It Matters

The launch expands Airbus’s high‑resolution imaging capacity, giving customers faster, more frequent data for critical decision‑making and strengthening Airbus’s competitive position in the geospatial market.

Key Takeaways

• First Pléiades Neo Next launches early 2028 on Vega C.
• Offers 20‑cm native resolution, highest in market.
• Enables multiple daily revisits worldwide, improving timeliness.
• Direct Receiving Stations and OneAtlas deliver images minutes after capture.
• Supports defence, agriculture, environment, mapping, utilities sectors.

Pulse Analysis

Airbus Defence and Space is expanding its Earth observation portfolio with the upcoming launch of the first Pléiades Neo Next satellite in early 2028. The mission will ride an Avio Vega C from the European Spaceport in Kourou, reinforcing Europe’s commercial launch capability. By building on the successful Pléiades Neo constellation, Airbus aims to keep pace with rivals such as Maxar and Planet, which are also pushing higher resolution and faster delivery. The addition of Neo Next signals Airbus’s intent to dominate the high‑resolution optical market and to offer end‑to‑end geospatial services.

The Neo Next platform delivers a native 20‑cm ground‑sample distance, matching the finest commercial optical sensors available today. Combined with an upgraded ground segment, Direct Receiving Stations and the OneAtlas cloud platform, customers can task the satellite minutes before over‑flight and receive imagery within minutes of capture. The constellation’s design enables several daily revisits over any point on Earth, dramatically reducing latency for time‑critical applications such as disaster response or military intelligence. Enhanced geolocation accuracy and higher request capacity further differentiate the service from legacy providers.

These capabilities open new revenue streams across defence, agriculture, environmental monitoring, maritime surveillance, mapping, and utilities. Faster turnaround and higher revisit rates translate into more actionable geo‑intelligence, a premium that many commercial and governmental users are willing to pay. Airbus’s broader strategy also includes complementary radar satellites and experimental stratospheric platforms, creating a multi‑layered observation network that can operate in all weather conditions. As demand for real‑time, high‑resolution Earth data accelerates, the Pléiades Neo Next programme positions Airbus to capture a larger share of the growing geospatial market.

The first Airbus Pléiades Neo Next satellite will be launched early 2028

Toulouse, France, 27 January 2026

Airbus will launch its first Pléiades Neo Next satellite early 2028 from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite will be launched on an Avio Vega C rocket.

With the Pléiades Neo Next programme, Airbus is reinforcing its Earth Observation capabilities and services to remain at the forefront of geospatial technologies. This new programme will result in new satellite assets and capabilities, including 20‑cm‑class native resolution.

“The Pléiades Neo Next programme builds on the success of our existing Pléiades Neo constellation which serves government and commercial customers around the world,” said Eric Even, Head of Space Digital at Airbus Defence and Space. “This programme will further enhance our standard of excellence in terms of quality, performance, and reliability to deliver images as well as geo‑intelligence services and applications.”

The Pléiades Neo Next programme is funded, manufactured, and operated by Airbus Defence and Space, with the full image capacity available for a wide range of sectors including defence and intelligence, agriculture, environment, maritime, disaster response, mapping, location‑based services, civil engineering, urban planning and utilities.

Users will continue to be able to directly task the Airbus satellites up to a few dozen minutes prior to the satellite over the area of interest. Images will be received through the customer’s Direct Receiving Stations (DRS) on the ground, or on the OneAtlas digital platform, swiftly after collection, allowing mission‑critical applications.

Working together, the Pléiades Neo and Pléiades Neo Next satellites will offer a higher revisit anywhere on Earth, up to several times per day, along with the best spatial resolution and geolocation accuracy available in the market. In addition to enhanced native resolution, Pléiades Neo Next development will further improve the ground segment, the DRS and the OneAtlas platform, resulting in a higher capacity of imagery requests as well as optimising the time between request, capture and reception.

With Pléiades Neo Next, Airbus is reinforcing its Earth observation capabilities and services to remain at the forefront of geospatial technologies. The Airbus fleet includes both optical and radar satellite constellations ensuring complementarity services and applications, including various resolutions, all‑weather and day‑and‑night capabilities. In parallel, Airbus is developing new capabilities based on stratospheric platforms.

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