In the heart of Europe, a landlocked nation is making waves across the orbital frontier. Luxembourg, long known as a global financial hub, has successfully pivoted its gaze upward, transforming into a “New Space” powerhouse.
At the centre of this transformation is the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA), which has spent the last decade cultivating an ecosystem where commercial ambition meets planetary stewardship.
Among the vanguard of this movement is RSS-Hydro, an R&D-heavy powerhouse that has become a symbol of how satellite Earth observation (EO) can be more than just “eyes in the sky”— it is becoming the backbone of global climate resilience.
A Digital Twin for cities on a changing planet
Luxembourg’s commitment to space isn’t just about exploration; it’s about application. The largest single catastrophic flood event in the Grand Duchy took place in July 2021 and caused over $150 million in damage. This served as a stark reminder of the need for better predictive, adaptive technology that can be used to mitigate, prepare, and protect in one service. RSS-Hydro answered the call by pioneering Digital Twins – hyper-realistic numerical models of towns and communes that simulate how water behaves during extreme weather and how communities can better protect themselves and prepare before the next event.
By blending high-resolution remote sensing and hydro-meteorological data from national data programmes as well as from the European Commission Copernicus programme with proprietary algorithms, RSS-Hydro developed its “living” flood modelling service SafeCity, which won the company the 12th edition of Luxembourg’s national Fit4Start Startup Accelerator. SafeCity allows local authorities to “see” a disaster and take proactive measures before it happens. This isn’t just theoretical; it’s actionable intelligence or “Tech in Action”.
The FloodSENS breakthrough: Piercing the clouds
One of the historical “Achilles’ heels” of Earth observation for disaster management has been cloud cover. During a major storm, optical satellites often see only white mist, precisely when emergency responders need to see the ground.
Through the ESA InCubed programme, supported by the LSA, RSS-Hydro began developing FloodSENS. As part of its hybrid code algorithm, FloodSENS uses a neural network-based machine learning model to reconstruct flooded areas under partial cloud cover from electro-optical satellite imagery. By training on a diverse set of global biomes – from the wetlands of Bangladesh to the urban centres along the Danube – FloodSENS provides decision-makers with a clear picture of the situation when every minute counts. To better understand and estimate where flood waters accumulate on Earth’s surface, FloodSENS’ ML model also uses topographic data and hydrographic layers as input. Additionally, whenever available, the FloodSENS algorithm now includes code to interpret radar images of floods and is moving towards a truly multi-sensor, multi-mission algorithm. This ensures that FloodSENS can generate time-critical information of a flood disaster, regardless of time of day or weather conditions.
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“The goal is to now move from observation to prediction,” said the RSS-Hydro technical team. “We are creating situational awareness for everyone – from the farmer planning crops to the humanitarian aid worker in a flood-stricken region of Somalia.”
The power of a collaborative ecosystem: MeluXina, LIST and Big Techs
RSS-Hydro’s success is a testament to the “tight and united” nature of Luxembourg space ambitions. Innovation here doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it happens on supercomputers, within partnerships and is founded on world-class R&D projects.
In other words, the collaborative synergy within Luxembourg’s New Space ecosystem is best exemplified by the “Computational Trinity” of national infrastructure, research expertise, and global technical leadership. There is MeluXina, the nation’s EuroHPC supercomputer, which provides raw muscle when required for RSS-Hydro’s most demanding workloads. By leveraging MeluXina’s GPU-AI accelerators, RSS-Hydro can increase the processing speed needed for its most demanding flood intelligence computations. This high-performance environment is bolstered by a deep partnership with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), where shared R&D efforts in remote sensing and modelling enhance the quality of freely available satellite data. This public-private cohesion ensures that cutting-edge academic research is rapidly translated into commercial-grade tools for global disaster resilience.
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Beyond national borders, RSS-Hydro scales its impact through strategic alliances with the world’s “Big Tech” titans. The company utilises NVIDIA accelerated GPU computing and NVIDIA Omniverse to transform complex geospatial data into immersive 3D “Digital Twins,” enabling decision-makers to visualise flood impacts on critical infrastructure in real time. In some recent tech use cases, the company has shown that such sophisticated modelling can be hosted on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), which provides the secure, high-capacity “bare metal” instances required for global scaling while maintaining strict data sovereignty. By integrating these high-end tools with Google’s massive historical archives and Flood Hub predictive AI modelling, as well as with Microsoft Azure’s cloud-computing tools, RSS-Hydro, with the support of the Luxembourg Space Agency, is not just observing the planet – they are building a unified, high-tech shield against the escalating challenges of increasing climate risks.
Orbital computing: The new frontier for Luxembourg as a “living lab”
As we enter 2026, the collaboration between RSS-Hydro, LSA and ESA has reached a new orbital height: Orbital computing. In partnership with space cloud infrastructure provider D-Orbit and satellite provider EnduroSat, RSS-Hydro is testing algorithms that process data directly on satellites.
By analysing imagery in orbit and only sending the critical results back to Earth, they are slashing response times from days or hours to minutes. This “intelligence at the edge” is a cornerstone of the RSS-Hydro’s strategy to position the company, as well as Luxembourg, as a leader in high-performance space applications.
With the recent launch of NAOS (National Advanced Optical System) – Luxembourg’s first national Earth-observation satellite – the Grand Duchy now possesses its own independent high-resolution imaging capability. NAOS is a high-resolution Earth observation satellite developed by OHB Italia for the Luxembourg Directorate of Defence as part of the Luxembourg Earth Observation System. For companies like RSS-Hydro, this represents a massive leap forward within Luxembourg’s space ecosystem.
The “New Space” era in Luxembourg is defined by a shift toward sustainability. Whether it is RSS-Hydro tracking wildfires and floods or redefining the EO intelligence market, the message is the same: Space technology is essential for life on Earth.
Under the leadership of LSA and the Ministry of Economy and of the Defence sector, Luxembourg is no longer just a participant in the space race; it is part of reshaping it. Through regulatory foresight, targeted funding, and a continuous focus on climate resilience, the Grand Duchy is proving that even a small country can have a massive impact in space.
Please Note: This is a Commercial Profile
This article will feature in our upcoming space Special Focus Publication.