GMV deploys ESA´s SST core software in British and Finnish National Operation Centres

GMV, together with consortium partners Touch4IT and Iguassu, has begun S2P/S2-SD-08, a European Space Agency (ESA) activity titled “Demonstration of the Core Software deployment and test operation in an environment operated by community members.” The project extends the Collaborative Development Platform service and will deploy the Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) Core Software (CSW) in national environments, supported by an active user community. 

The activity will maintain a shared development platform while deploying Space Surveillance and Tracking Core Software into national environments through automated, repeatable operations.

SST services depend on timely processing of sensor observations into operational outputs that help operators understand the space environment and respond to risks. Within S2P/S2-SD-08, the consortium will demonstrate end-to-end operational use cases including sensor data ingestion, object cataloging, conjunction analysis, and re-entry prediction, linking software evolution directly to operational needs. 

Central to the effort is maintaining continuity of the Collaborative Development Platform (CDP), which serves as the backbone for community development and maintenance. GMV will continue to maintain the CDP from the preceding activity without interruption. It is responsible for preserving services such as GitLab repositories, Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, user management, and access policies, as well as executing operational steps such as domain transfer, certificate rollover, and smoke tests where required. 

The project also emphasizes repeatable deployment into national environments using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and automated verification. The CSW components, readily accessible through the CDP GitLab, will be built, tested, and deployed onto the national environments. The CSW’s automated test tool will also be deployed and executed for rapid verification. 

Two national hosting environments are addressed in the initial deployment and qualification campaigns: the UK Space Agency for the United Kingdom and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) for Finland. 

Alongside deployment, the consortium will collaborate with the SST User Forum (SST-UF) to define and execute operational user stories and reference scenarios, sharing operational artifacts and lessons learned throughout the community. This combination of community feedback, controlled releases, and automated deployment is designed to make national operations more consistent, maintainable, and extensible over time. 

GMV serves as the prime contractor and formal interface to ESA, leading CDP operations, CSW maintenance, and overall coordination. Touch4IT leads the United Kingdom hosting environment work and cross-national technical coordination, while Iguassu leads the hosting environment specification and automation work for Finland. The activity includes warranty coverage and, if triggered, a structured phase-out and handover package for developed assets and operational procedures.