From Idea to Working Hardware: Kosmok Completes Baseline Incubation at ESA BIC Poland

When we entered ESA BIC Poland in late 2024, we had a vision and a lot of CAD files. Now, with the baseline incubation complete, we have working prototypes, a growing team, a laboratory of our own, and a seat at the table where Europe's in-orbit servicing standards are being written - and we're just getting started.

The ESA Business Incubation Centre Poland has been our launchpad - quite literally. Over the course of the baseline incubation programme, we took CIRI, our Common In-space Refuelling Interface, from concept sketches to validated hardware at Technology Readiness Level 4. That means a real, physical prototype that's been assembled, tested, and proven to work in lab conditions. For a startup that didn't exist before October 2023, that's a milestone worth celebrating.

And we're not done - with recent award of ESA BIC Incubation Boost and our ESA Phi Lab Poland ADONIS projects, we're taking our hardware through environmental testing and expanding our product lineup. More on that below.

What we built

CIRI is designed to be the universal connector for in-orbit servicing - the piece of hardware that lets a servicer satellite dock with a client, lock on, and transfer fuel, data, or power. Think of it as a standardized charging port, but for spacecraft.

The system is split into two halves with very different jobs. The Actuator (CIRI.A) is the active side that lives on the servicer - it's mechanically complex, featuring a pantograph probe for soft capture and a clamping collar that can exert up to 2 kN of force to rigidize the connection. The Fixture (CIRI.F) is the passive side installed on the client satellite - deliberately simple and lightweight, because the whole point is to make it easy for any satellite operator to adopt.

One of the key innovations we developed during incubation is a secondary plane mechanism inside the Actuator. This allows sensitive components like hydraulic couplings and alignment pins to retract behind the docking plane during approach — protecting them from damage during the most dynamic phase of docking and enabling compatibility with both robotic arm berthing and direct satellite-to-satellite docking. It's a bit like retractable headlights on a sports car - they're tucked away when you don't need them, and deployed only when conditions are right.

We also built the CIRI Controller - the electronic brain that drives the whole mechanism - as a modular, three-board stack designed from the ground up with radiation-tolerant components for orbital use.

What we learned

Incubation wasn't just about building hardware in isolation. Our early prototypes opened doors to real conversations with potential customers - in-orbit servicing operators, satellite manufacturers, and mission integrators. Those conversations reshaped our product strategy in ways we didn't fully anticipate.

We learned that optical navigation markers - visual landmarks that help a servicer satellite find and approach its target - are in high demand across the industry, not just for refuelling but also for active debris removal and inspection missions. We also learned that the industry needs a one-stop-shop approach: customers don't just want a docking port, they want the full kit - interface, markers, navigation software - so they can make their satellite serviceable without cobbling together components from five different suppliers. And they want to know it can be relied upon - fitting untested prototypes on satellites is a no-go.

This insights directly led us to expand our product offering beyond CIRI into navigation markers and machine vision algorithms, which are now core to our development roadmap and the focus of our ESA Phi-Lab and Incubation Boost projects, and to our focus on the next milestone of the journey - an in-orbit demo.

What we built beyond hardware

Some of the most valuable outcomes of incubation aren't things you can hold in your hand.

We grew the team from a solo founder to a crew of seven, bringing in mechanical engineers, machine learning specialists, mechatronics experts, and a 3D simulation designer. We secured and equipped our first dedicated laboratory in Warsaw, complete with a custom 4-degree-of-freedom test stand for repeatable verification of CIRI's capture performance. We set up proper engineering infrastructure - version control, remote development access, automation pipelines - the kind of boring-but-essential foundation that lets a hardware startup actually scale.

And we established Kosmok's presence in the European space ecosystem. Throughout incubation, we've been actively participating in ESA's efforts to define common standards for in-orbit servicing interfaces through the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP) and the In-Space Proof of Concept (InSPoC) initiatives. That engagement led to Kosmok being highlighted as a Tier-1 supplier for ESA's Odyssey in-space propellant depot - an opportunity to present our technology to over 200 participants from across the space industry. For a two-year-old startup from Warsaw, that's not bad.

What's next: the Boost and beyond

Completing the baseline incubation is a major milestone, but it's not a finish line - it's a springboard. We've been awarded the ESA BIC Incubation Boost, which extends our journey within the programme to tackle the next critical challenge: proving that our hardware can survive the actual space environment.

The Boost will fund the development of a new direct-docking variant of CIRI (CIRI.AD), high-fidelity optical navigation markers, and a full environmental test campaign - thermal vacuum, vibration, shock, and radiation. If your product can come out the other side of that gauntlet still working, you've earned the right to call it space-grade.

In parallel, our ESA Phi-Lab Poland project (ADONIS) is developing deep learning navigation algorithms and testing CIRI in simulated microgravity at Poznan University of Technology. Between the Boost and ADONIS, we're attacking the problem from both sides - environmental survivability and operational performance - with the ultimate goal of getting our hardware ready for an in-orbit demonstration.

Thank you, ESA BIC Poland!

None of this would have been possible without the support of ESA BIC Poland. The programme gave us the funding to build our first prototypes, the mentorship network to sharpen our business thinking, and the credibility to be taken seriously in a traditionally conservative industry. We're grateful - and glad we get to keep going together.

The satellites of tomorrow shouldn't be limited by the fuel they carry at launch. We're building the infrastructure to make sure they aren't.