Hisdesat Servicios Estrategicos

Hisdesat is the Spanish government satellite services operator, created in 2001 to run secure communications for defence, security, intelligence and the foreign service. It was built as a joint venture, with Hispasat holding 43 per cent, Ingenieria y Servicios Aeroespaciales 30 per cent, EADS CASA 15 per cent, Indra 7 per cent and SENER 5 per cent, against an initial investment of 415 million euros. That structure changed at the end of 2025. Indra closed its purchase of 89.68 per cent of Hispasat from Redeia on 30 December, a deal valuing the operator at 725 million euros, and because Hispasat holds the 43 per cent block, Indra arrived at majority control of Hisdesat on top of the 7 per cent it already held directly. SEPI is the other shareholder of note, having built its position to just over 10 per cent by taking the CDTI holding in 2025. The company is small in headcount and large in assets, which is normal for a satellite operator. It sells capacity, not hardware.

Secure communications is the founding business. Hisdesat sells X band and military Ka band capacity to governments only, never to commercial traffic, and its customers include the Spanish armed forces, NATO and allied ministries. The original fleet was Spainsat, launched in 2006, and XTAR-EUR, launched in 2005 and operated through a joint venture arrangement that put Spanish capacity in front of US government users. Replacement came as the Spainsat NG pair, built by Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space, working in X band, military Ka band and UHF from two geostationary slots. Spainsat NG I launched in January 2025 on a Falcon 9 and entered service. Spainsat NG II went up in October 2025 and then hit trouble. Indra told the Spanish market regulator on 3 January 2026 that the spacecraft had been struck by a particle at around 50,000 kilometres altitude while raising orbit, with possible damage to propulsion or control. Defence services were unaffected because NG I and the legacy Spainsat cover the traffic, and a third satellite has been discussed as a contingency. Indra has folded the holding into a wider space ambition that includes the European IRIS2 secure connectivity constellation.

Earth observation is the second leg, and it is what makes Hisdesat something other than a capacity reseller. Hisdesat owns and operates Paz, a synthetic aperture radar satellite launched in 2018 into polar orbit, which returns very high resolution imagery day, night and through cloud for military intelligence, mapping, disaster response and civil agencies. Airbus and Hisdesat have worked together on a Paz-2 follow on. The third service is maritime domain awareness. Hisdesat distributes space based AIS data on vessel movements, drawing on a constellation of around sixty satellites through its arrangement with the exactEarth and Spire assets, which gives coast guards and navies a picture of shipping well beyond coastal receiver range.