With a multitude of opportunities for start-ups, established companies and investors, commercial Earth observation is a vibrant sector with fast-moving innovations in technology, datasets and downstream applications. ESA is a key driving force for the development of European Earth observation and provides impetus through its many programmes and initiatives.To set the scene ahead of ESA’s Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum next week, here is some need-to-know background information on the evolution and state of play of the Earth observation industry.

Thanks TerraWatch Space Aravind Ravichandran for sharing the stage with us at #EOSummit. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn and engage with so many in the earth observation world. We're shari...