Hydrosat Unveils Nyktòs thermal imaging program for NATO customers

Hydrosat unveiled Nyktòs on November 2, 2026, in a Luxembourg-dated press release. The company described Nyktòs as a high-resolution mid-wave infrared program for taskable day-and-night thermal imaging meant for tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and sovereign customers. The announcement also appeared in a Payload report on the same day. Hydrosat positions Nyktòs as part of a product family alongside Osiris rather than as a replacement, and says it serves NATO and allied government missions.

Nyktòs is designed to complement Hydrosat’s Osiris constellation. Osiris provides lower-resolution always-on wide-swath imagery. Customers can spot ground changes using that imagery. They do not need to task satellites first, and customers can then task Nyktòs for closer inspection of those changes.

Hydrosat announced Osiris on September 16, 2026. The system uses three longwave infrared bands. Native resolution is 25 meters, swath widths run from 160 kilometers to 340 kilometers, and each satellite carries a nine-band visible and near-infrared sensor at 10-meter resolution. The first two Osiris satellites will launch in 2027.

Hydrosat’s Osiris system follows two commercial thermal imaging satellites named VanZyl-1 and VanZyl-2. The fleet collected more than 500M sqkm. Daily capture exceeds 10M sqkm. The VanZyl satellites began Hydrosat’s commercial thermal imaging data collection.

Thermal Earth observation payloads can collect data 24/7, while optical imagery cannot. Military customers can monitor conflict zones. They can do so under cover of darkness. Payload says demand for thermal EO data is growing among European government customers, and the outlet notes that thermal payloads have a round-the-clock collection advantage over optical EO imagery.

Scott Soenen is Hydrosat’s Chief Technology Officer, and he said broad-area thermal monitoring gives context, and it helps identify changes. High-resolution MWIR allows closer investigation of those changes. The coordinated tipping-and-cueing approach can combine historical, optical, and radar data. It helps governments and emergency services, along with infrastructure operators and security analysts, assess activity.

The European expansion supports sovereign missions for NATO and allied customers. The applications cover national security and critical infrastructure. They also cover crisis response. Capabilities are tailored to national requirements, and sovereign missions refer to national security and government customers seeking control over their own data and tasking.

For sovereign missions, Hydrosat can configure the balance, and the balance sits between national and commercial capabilities. The company does this around each customer’s requirements, including tasking, control, security, and data access. A dedicated mission could provide tailored arrangements. Commercial capacity increases observation opportunities, and surrounding coverage expands as events develop.

Hydrosat plans to open a facility that will manufacture Nyktòs payloads in-house. Fossel said it could run next year, with payloads as early as 2028, and no site is selected. The facility will support European manufacturing and supplier relationships. Sovereignty requirements apply to defense and government customers across the region.

Hydrosat is unveiling Nyktòs as part of a bid for a Greek government contract, and CEO Pieter Fossel discussed the bid. He said the capability serves customers worldwide. It is not only for Europe. The Greek government bid is one customer pursuit as Hydrosat looks beyond Europe, and Fossel discussed the bid in a Payload interview.

Fossel declined to state Nyktòs’s expected resolution. He told Payload the program would be competitive with other thermal payload operators, including SatVu. SatVu offers imagery with 3.5-meter resolution. Fossel made the comment in a Payload interview, and SatVu is a thermal payload operator.

Fossel said Nyktòs targets defense and intelligence applications. He added it will also be valuable for industrial monitoring and similar uses. Industrial monitoring is one non-defense use Fossel cited. This statement appeared in a Payload interview where Fossel also discussed the Greek government bid and broader European manufacturing plans.

Hydrosat says pairing Osiris change detection with Nyktòs closer inspection can help it win imagery market share. The European build-out meets sovereign security demand. That demand comes from NATO and allied governments.