Newsroom
- Aerospace
17 Sep 2026
Exail and ESA strengthen Europe’s access to critical inertial technology for future space missions
Exail and the European Space Agency (ESA) have announced a partnership to qualify an entirely European inertial measurement unit (IMU), helping secure a critical sovereign capability for Europe’s future space missions. The solution, known as the Astrix NS IMU, is designed to equip future European rovers, landers and manoeuvring spacecraft.
Following the development and testing of a fully functional engineering model of the AstriX NS IMU through the European Union H2020 EURISA research project, this new ESA co-funded project will complete the remaining development and qualification work. Once qualified, the IMU will be manufactured and marketed directly by Exail.
“Securing sovereign navigation technologies has never been more critical for Europe’s space ambitions. In space, an IMU is the only equipment capable of providing vehicles with the data needed to determine and control their trajectory in complete autonomy. Moving from an engineering model to a flight-qualified product is an essential milestone that allows space programmes to fully rely on this breakthrough.
With the Astrix NS IMU, Exail is turning this technological edge into a sovereign industrial capability for future missions,”
Securing a critical capability for future European missions
Reliable access to qualified inertial technologies is essential to the autonomy and resilience of European space programmes. By supporting the qualification of the Astrix NS IMU, ESA is helping ensure that future missions can rely on a European solution available at the required level of maturity.
Beyond the qualification of the product itself, the project will help strengthen Europe’s industrial capabilities and reduce its dependence on non-European technologies for a function that is critical to the operation of space vehicles.
