Mission-specific digital twins for Europe’s EPRIME in-orbit infrastructure

Vimotek is participating in EPRIME — European Platform for Robotic In-orbit Modular Experimentation, a Horizon Europe project developing a modular and scalable European platform for in-orbit services in Low Earth Orbit.

The project is coordinated by The Exploration Company and brings together European industry, SMEs and research organisations. EPRIME started in June 2026 and is planned to run until September 2028, with a total project cost of approximately €18.5 million and an EU contribution of €17.5 million.

A modular European platform for in-orbit services

EPRIME is designed to support a broad range of future in-orbit activities, including logistics, servicing, refuelling and technology demonstration.

According to the European Commission, the project will develop a flexible and modular architecture that can grow as new capabilities are introduced. Planned technologies include interfaces for logistics and servicing vehicles, advanced robotic systems for on-orbit assembly and servicing, and open standards intended to support interoperability with European space infrastructure.

The project also aims to validate technologies including multi-propellant refuelling, robotic manipulators and autonomous rendezvous and docking.

EPRIME forms part of the wider European effort around the ISOS Pilot Mission, aimed at developing capabilities for future European in-space servicing and infrastructure.

The HOST component

Within this wider context, EPRIME is developing the HOST — Hub for Operational Services and Testing component.

The ambition is to create a modular European platform that can support servicing, logistics, refuelling, robotic experimentation and the integration of new payloads and applications in orbit.

This kind of infrastructure depends not only on the platform itself, but on the ability to prepare and validate the spacecraft encounters that take place around it: approaches, rendezvous, docking, servicing and robotic operations all require mission logic and system behaviour to be understood before they become operational decisions.

Vimotek’s contribution

Vimotek contributes to EPRIME with a mission-specific digital twin environment for modelling, validation, rehearsal and operational preparation.

The work builds on Orbittwin, Vimotek’s digital twin platform for spacecraft encounters. The environment can be used to represent spacecraft, sensors, mission concepts and encounter scenarios, allowing teams to evaluate mission logic, rehearse proximity operations and analyse alternatives before and during operations.

For EPRIME, this is particularly relevant to scenarios involving complex proximity operations, robotics and modular infrastructure.

The objective is to help make the critical interactions around future in-orbit infrastructure more predictable and better understood before they occur.

Building European capability for operations in orbit

The European Commission positions EPRIME as part of a broader effort to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty, industrial competitiveness and independent ability to operate in space.

For Vimotek, the project brings Orbittwin into a mission context where digital twins can support the preparation and validation of increasingly complex spacecraft encounters around servicing and orbital infrastructure.

Vimotek’s participation is also publicly recorded by the European Commission, with the company listed as a Swedish SME participant in the EPRIME consortium.