CASE STUDY

Latitude Adopts Ada and SPARK for
Light Launcher Software in New Space Industry

French company leverages AdaCore’s tools, training, and mentorshipservices to produce flight software for small satellite launchers
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Executive Summary
In the competitive New Space industry, ingenuity,reliability, and cost-effectiveness are paramount factors.
When Latitude embarked on creating their cutting-edge
small satellite launcher, Zephyr, they recognized theimportance of selecting the right programming languageand development tools to support their efforts. Afterevaluating a number of candidates, Latitude settled
on Ada and its formally verifiable SPARK subset. Adaand SPARK were judged to have the best support forsound software engineering practice, thus reducing life
cycle costs, while meeting real-time embedded systems
performance and predictability requirements. Based on
their successful experience, Latitude plans to expand its
use of Ada and SPARK on future projects and sees thesetechnologies as key enablers.

Choosing Ada: Safety, Reliability, andQualification
Headquartered in Reims, France, Latitude’s mission is tolaunch small satellites (up to 100 kilograms in Low EarthOrbit) for the European space market. To fulfill this mission
the company is developing from the ground up a new launcher
called Zephyr. Software is a vital element in this endeavor andthe company’s core project involves developing and verifying
the launcher flight code. The company was founded in 2019with an engineering approach that combines a rich industrial
heritage with advanced aerospace ingenuity. Their core
project revolves around the flight
software for the launchers, and akey decision – affecting the effort
We write everything
required in developing, verifying,in Ada, from ourand maintaining the code - was thechoice of programming language, its
own device drivers
supporting tools, and the tool vendor.
to the bare-metal

programming of ourbusiness logic onmicrocontrollers.

Among the various language
technologies that Latitude
investigated, Ada stood out asoffering the best balance for thecompany’s needs. Perceived benefits- Clément Rousseau,
included improved code quality,
embedded software engineer,
better safety support, and reasonable
Latitudequalification cost. “We were drawn
to Ada for its potential to simplifycertification, even though it wasn’t a strict requirement when
we began,” said Remo Smadja, Embedded software engineer
at Latitude. “We expect our software to undergo certificationin the future, most probably with some of the ECSS (European
Cooperation for Space Standardization) standards.”

Customer:

Latitude, an innovative
French aerospace startup,
is revolutionizing the small
satellite launch sector. With
their ambitious Zephyr lightlauncher, they aim to cater toEurope’s burgeoning smallsatmarket.

Challenge:

Latitude’s main challenge wasto develop reliable and costeffective flight software for
Zephyr, ensuring safety andprecision in the demanding
realm of space flight.

Solution:

After careful consideration,
Latitude chose the Ada
programming language
and its SPARK subset for
their development. These
tools were selected for theirrobust support in engineering
practices, crucial for reducing
lifecycle costs and ensuringperformance in embeddedsystems.

Result:Latitude’s adoption of Ada
and SPARK has led to thesuccessful development ofhigh-quality, reliable flight
software. This choice has
positioned them well for future
certification and has been
instrumental in advancing their
Zephyr light launcher project.

Ada and SPARK have been instrumental in helping Latitude
meet its goals. “Ada’s high-level features combined withits systems programming support have been incredibly

Find out how Ada, SPARK and AdaCore can help you with your projects.

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as straightforward as possible.” By eliminating theneed for a complex operating system, Ravenscar
has streamlined task analysis and boosted theteam’s confidence in mitigating concurrencyrelated issues.
AdaCore’s GNAT Pro and GNAT Studio form thecore of Latitude’s development environment,
additionally, the SPARK language and the SPARK
Pro tool suite are used for critical code sections.

AdaCore’s Support: Navigating theTransition to Ada

We’ve made significant use of records
and representation clauses, which allow
us to capture the low-level register
representation of microcontrollers.
This flexibility is remarkable.
- Remo Smadja,
Embedded software engineer at Latitude

beneficial,” said Mr. Smadja. “We’ve madesignificant use of records and representation
clauses, which allow us to capture the low-levelregister representation of microcontrollers. This
flexibility is remarkable.”
Latitude’s decision to write its entire softwarein Ada reflects its trust in the language’s safety,reliability, and efficiency. “We write everythingin Ada, from our own device drivers to thebare-metal programming of our business logic
on microcontrollers,” said Clément Rousseau,embedded software engineer at Latitude.
Latitude’s current software strategy prioritizes
simplicity and efficiency, and leverages GNAT
Pro’s included real-time tasking run-time for safe
concurrency. The team found particular benefits
in using the Ravenscar profile, a subset of Ada’s
concurrency features supported by the certifiable
light-tasking runtime profile. “The Ravenscar
profile fits our needs perfectly at this point,” said
Mr. Rousseau. “Our strategy is to keep everything

Latitude’s software developers, althoughexperienced in C, C++, and Java, were notformally trained to Ada at the outset of theproject. Understanding Ada’s rich set of featuresand knowing how to use them effectively weretherefore critical skills that the team needed toacquire. To meet this goal, Latitude decided inlate 2021 to invest in the training and mentoring
services that AdaCore offers. AdaCore conductedclasses that included hands-on workshops, which
provided customized guidance on how to best
use Ada’s safe coding practices. After rapidly
becoming proficient in Ada, the team readily madethe transition to SPARK for critical code sections.
The mentorship was instrumental during
Latitude’s software development. Initiated while
the code architecture was still being designed,
AdaCore’s consultation helped the team employ
Ada’s best practices in refining the code structure.
Mentorship discussions covered topics ranging
from design patterns to code analysis techniquessuch as stack checks. Latitude found the GNAT
Pro compiler especially useful; it performs many
checks that would have required the use of
separate analysis tools in the case of deploying
other languages.

Future Outlook: Conquering the“New Space Industry”
Looking ahead, Latitude remains keenly focusedon the development of Zephyr’s flight software. Inaddition, the company plans to continue leveraging
Ada and SPARK for future projects. In the rapidlychanging landscape of European space startups,
companies are always looking to stand out fromthe crowd. For software, that means implementing
innovative functionality through code that is safe,
secure, reliable, efficient, and easily maintainable
as requirements evolve. Latitude believes inmodern programming language technology, backed
by AdaCore’s effective professional support, tohelp them meet their goals.

Find out how Ada, SPARK and AdaCore can help you with your projects.

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