Prisma is a Swedish-led satellite project with the objective to develop and qualify new technology necessary for future science missions in space. Many of the future projects comprise formation flying and rendezvous, i.e. several spacecraft that can communicate and interact with each other with high precision and that requires exceptional accuracy in measuring and controlling the inter-satellite orientation.

Several new Swedish and foreign technologies are already under development and will in different ways give new opportunities or render future space projects. Space missions are still expensive and entail high risks, therefore new technologies must be qualified in space before they are considered reliable. Sweden now grabs the initiative and develops a small scale flying test laboratory, Prisma – the rendezvous robots.

For future science missions, Prisma is a seven-league stride. This specially refers to observation missions where the scientific community wants to build large antennas or apertures by means of small entities instead of one large. Such formation flying requires high precision and makes great demands on geometry, sensors, actuators and guidance, navigation and control techniques. In this context, the Prisma project is Europe's first necessary step to demonstrate new technology - both hardware and software. The technology of Prisma is developed mainly in Sweden, Germany, Denmark and France.

• Prisma consists of two spacecraft, one main spacecraft and one target spacecraft with a total mass of >200 kg.
   
• Prisma contains several new technologies within autonomous formation flying and rendezvous, small rocket engines and MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems).
   
• Prisma is scheduled to be launched on a Dnepr launcher in June 2009.
   
• The total development budget for Prisma is just under 230 million SEK (24 million Euros).
   
• Prisma is a Swedish-led project and the main financer is the Swedish National Space Board, supported by the space agencies of Germany (DLR) and France (CNES).
   
• The Swedish Space Corporation is the prime contractor and is also responsible for the project management, satellite design, development of the guidance, navigation and control system, the onboard computer, onboard software, the ground system and software, Assembly, Integration and Verification, launch procurement and operations once the satellites are in orbit. Swedish subcontractors are Omnisys (power system), ECAPS (green propulsion system) and Saab Space (manufacturing of structure and some electronics).