Zaitra

Zaitra is a Czech space-software and space-hardware company based in Brno, specializing in on-board data processing solutions for optical and hyperspectral Earth Observation satellites. The company combines computer science and space engineering to move satellite operations from ground-based, human-in-the-loop processing toward on-board autonomy — filtering cloud-polluted imagery, compressing multispectral data, and detecting objects of interest directly on the spacecraft before downlink.

Zaitra was founded in 2020 by Marek Marušin, Rado Pitoňák, and Martin Javorka after a successful hackathon. The founders were soon accepted into the Copernicus Accelerator program and received business incubation support from the European Space Agency's Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC Czech Republic), which led to numerous partnerships. The team contributed control software to Biomission19, a microgravity-experiment mission on the International Space Station, and provided on-board data processing for the SLAVIA CubeSat mission analyzing meteorite spectral composition.

In 2022, with support from ESA BIC CZ and the South Moravian Innovation Centre (JIC), Zaitra deployed its first AI-based on-board solution on the VZLUSAT-2 demonstration mission, proving it could run AI-based on-board data processing in orbit. The company's product line has since grown to include the SKAIDOCK data processing unit, SKAISEN cloud/object detection software, SKAIPACK image compression suite, and an FPGA IP core for Simera Sense xScape imagers.

In October 2024, Zaitra closed a €1.7 million pre-seed funding round led by Sunfish Partners and Czech Founders VC, with participation from angel investor Honza Široký, to scale satellite autonomy technology. Zaitra continues to work on institutional and commercial missions, including the Czech defense mission SATurnin-1, the TROLL hyperspectral CubeSat, and the upcoming CORVUS space-debris monitoring mission.