We bring space-grade operational discipline to the companies powering Europe's critical infrastructure. Built in mission control. Applied to energy grids, autonomous fleets, telecom networks, and industrial operations.
The same operational engineering that keeps satellite fleets running — reliability analysis, autonomous monitoring, anomaly detection, failure mode engineering — applies directly to the terrestrial systems powering the energy transition, autonomous mobility, and industrial automation.
These industries are running mission-critical distributed systems with startup-level operational maturity. They have the pain but not the expertise. We bridge that gap.
Your fleet is a constellation. Operate it like one.
ESA missions, orbital mechanics, distributed ground systems, FMECA, real-time fleet monitoring, anomaly detection, and mission assurance across international operations.
Energy aggregators coordinating thousands of DERs. Autonomous fleets requiring real-time orchestration. Private 5G networks where downtime stops the factory. IIoT platforms running on production floors.
Systematic failure analysis for distributed systems. Identify what breaks, why, and what happens when it does. Adapted from aerospace methodology for energy, mobility, and telecom systems.
MIL-STD-1629A · ECSS · RCMDesign the transition from human-in-the-loop to human-on-the-loop operations. Anomaly detection, automated remediation, escalation protocols. For scaling from 10 assets to 10,000.
Operational maturity · Autonomy levelsBuild the instrumentation, dashboards, and alerting that lets a small team operate a large distributed fleet. Telemetry correlation, health scoring, predictive indicators.
Mission control patternsProactively test how systems behave under failure. Design graceful degradation, failover strategies, and recovery procedures. From hoping it works to knowing it survives.
Fault injection · Game daysBuild the human side: runbooks, on-call structures, incident response, post-mortems, operational reviews. Structured operational discipline for fast-growing teams.
SRE culture · Runbooks · ReviewsAdopt AI/ML tooling for predictive maintenance, demand forecasting, and anomaly detection — without losing operational control. Define the human-AI collaboration model for safety-critical contexts.
MLOps · Human-on-the-loopDistributed nodes. Centralised monitoring. Autonomous operations. The same pattern repeats across every sector where small teams run mission-critical infrastructure at scale.
Virtual power plants coordinating thousands of distributed energy resources in real-time. Renewable fleet operators where uptime equals revenue. Grid-edge intelligence platforms managing bidirectional power flows. Energy aggregators providing grid services with startup-level ops teams.
"You're coordinating thousands of distributed energy assets in real-time. That's a constellation."
Explore use cases →Delivery robot fleets, autonomous shuttles, and connected mobility platforms. Every vehicle is a node requiring real-time monitoring, anomaly detection, and fail-safe orchestration. Mixed human/autonomous fleet coordination is distributed systems engineering.
"Every vehicle is a node. Fleet orchestration is distributed systems engineering."
Explore use cases →Private 5G/LTE networks serving factories, ports, and campuses where downtime means production stops. Network automation startups building the autonomous network operations tooling that operators depend on. Edge computing platforms pushing intelligence to the network periphery.
"If your network goes down, the factory stops. You need mission-critical reliability."
Explore use cases →Predictive maintenance platforms, smart sensor providers, and IIoT system integrators running always-on infrastructure on factory floors. Edge-to-cloud distributed systems where a single production line failure costs €100K+/hour. The European Mittelstand and PYME backbone going digital.
"Edge-to-cloud distributed systems running on factory floors follow the same patterns as satellite ground systems."
Explore use cases →Six pillars, twenty dimensions, one unified diagnostic. The MCRF assesses operational maturity across every capability a distributed operation needs to be reliable. Built from aerospace systems engineering, adapted for terrestrial critical infrastructure.
Can you deliver what you promise?
Are you ready when it matters?
Can you see what's happening?
Do you know what can break?
Can you respond systematically?
Do you improve after every failure?
The MCRF draws from ECSS standards, FMECA methodology, ISO 55000 asset management, reliability-centred maintenance (RCM), and operational experience managing satellite constellations. These principles have been adapted for organisations where the concepts are equally valid but implementation must be proportional to scale.
Mission Critical is founded by Daniel Polo — a systems engineer who spent years operating satellite constellations before recognising that the same operational engineering challenges are now hitting terrestrial industries at scale.
The companies powering Europe's energy transition, autonomous mobility revolution, and industrial digitalisation face the exact same problems we solved in space: distributed assets, remote monitoring, failure mode analysis, and the need to operate reliably with small teams.
ESA missions, real-time fleet monitoring, distributed ground systems, orbital mechanics
Aerospace-grade failure analysis methodology applied to operational systems
Designing monitoring, anomaly detection, and autonomous operations for fleet-scale systems
Spain, United Kingdom, Poland, Singapore — operating across time zones and regulatory environments
Building operational software systems — not just consulting about them
Start with an audit. Go deeper when you're ready. Every engagement builds on the last — no wasted work, no repeated discoveries.
A structured operational assessment that tells you exactly where you stand — and what to fix first.
Everything in the Audit, plus the complete operational architecture design and implementation roadmap.
Hands-on operational engineering embedded with your team. We don't just design — we build it with you.
All engagements are scoped to your specific operational context. Prices may vary for complex multi-site deployments.
Not sure which tier? Start with the Audit — it informs everything else.
No sales pitch. No slide decks. Just an honest 30-minute conversation about what breaks in your operations and whether we can help fix it.
You fill in the form. Tell us a bit about your company and what's keeping you up at night operationally.
We review and respond within 24h. If there's a fit, we propose a time. If not, we'll tell you honestly.
30-minute video call. We'll discuss your operational challenges, identify quick wins, and determine if a formal engagement makes sense.
No spam. No mailing list. Your info is used only to prepare for our call.
We'll review your details and get back to you within 24 hours with a proposed time. Talk soon.