Tipping the scales at just 20 kilograms, ANGELS is the first French commercial nanosatellite. It is carrying the first miniaturized Argos system instrument, called Argos-Neo.

Key figures

• < 20 kg (satellite)
• 1.5 kg (Argos-Neo instrument)
• 2.5 years from development to launch

Key milestones

• 18 December 2024: End of mission
• October 2020: Mission in-orbit commissioning
• August 2020: Satellite in-orbit checkout
• 18 December 2019: ANGELS satellite launched by Soyuz
• September 2019: Satellite Operational Qualification and Acceptance
• October 2018: Critical Design Review (CDR)
• October 2017: Preliminary Design Review (PDR)
• March 2017: Kick-off

Project in brief

ANGELS (Argos Neo on a Generic Economical and Light Satellite) is the first nanosatellite designed and developed by French industry with support from CNES. It is carrying Argos-Neo, an instrument 10 times smaller and consuming three times less power than the generation of Argos instruments currently in orbit.

CNES and French firm Hemeria co-funded and developed ANGELS with a resolutely Newspace approach to governance, design, development and testing, systematically employing miniaturized commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components. This approach came with a certain degree of risk, but enabled big reductions in costs and lead times.

The ANGELS project got underway in March 2017 and the mini-satellite was orbited on 18 December 2019 by a Soyuz launcher from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG). After two years in orbit, ANGELS successfully demonstrated its performance and CNES and Hemeria signed an agreement to extend the mission a further three years.

CNES’s role

CNES co-funded and co-developed ANGELS.

CNES contacts

CNES Project Leader
Laurène Gillot
E-mail: laurene.gillot at cnes.fr

Head of Telecoms & Navigation
Jean-Philippe Taisant
E-mail: jean-philippe.taisant at cnes.fr