A London space-science company that builds small telescope satellites and sells astronomers access to the data, starting with its Mauve ultraviolet satellite.
Blue Skies Space is a London-based company that wants more scientists to be able to do space astronomy. Instead of one big, slow government mission, it builds a fleet of small, agile and lower-cost satellites and sells access to their observations as a membership. Its first satellite, Mauve, carries a 13-centimetre telescope and a spectrometer, an instrument that splits light into its colours to reveal what a star is made of. Mauve studies hundreds of stars at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths to see how their flares and magnetic activity change over time, and what that means for planets orbiting them. A second satellite, Twinkle, is being built to study the atmospheres of planets around other stars.
The company was founded in 2014 by a team of academics, and Dr Marcell Tessenyi, who has a doctorate in astrophysics from University College London, is chief executive and co-founder. It says it aims to complement big observatories with a fleet of small, agile and cost-effective satellites, and describes data as a service as a new era of space research. Mauve is intended to show that the model works: it went from concept to launch in under three years and is designed to operate for three years.
Blue Skies Space is registered and based in London, and reports have described it as a UK start-up with staff in the UK and Italy. A UK government space blog in November 2025 covered the Mauve launch plans, noting UK Space Agency support for Twinkle through the European Space Agency. Construction of Mauve finished in June 2025 and the satellite was planned for launch on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare flight; we have not confirmed the outcome. Hardware partners include Hungarian company C3S and Dutch firm ISISpace, and more than 20 institutions worldwide had joined its membership programme, including Boston University and Japan's National Astronomical Observatory.
In 2024 a TechCrunch article put the team at about 12 people across the UK and Italy, so this is a small company where each person covers a lot of ground. Its pages do not describe culture directly. The academic founders and the scientist-led membership model suggest a collaborative, research-minded place, but that is our reading. The company is also exploring a larger ultraviolet telescope and a fleet of small lunar satellites to study radio signals from the early universe, under a study for the Italian Space Agency.
Roles in a company like this include astrophysicists and data scientists, spacecraft and systems engineers who manage the satellite builds and tests, software engineers who run data delivery, and business and partnerships staff who sign up universities and research groups. Physics, astronomy, engineering and computing are the common routes in. The company's website will show the current team and any openings.
Website: www.blueskiesspace.com
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