Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has shipped two small satellites, CARBONITE-2 and LEO-1, to India in preparation for a late December launch on ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Sriharikota launch site.

The LEO-1 satellite with SSTL engineers. Photo is courtesy of SSTL/Kathryn Graham.

LEO-1 will be one of two Telesat Phase 1 satellites planned for launch this year that will allow Telesat to start testing key performance parameters of its next generation global LEO constellation. The satellite has a launch mass of 168 kg. and will be launched into an initial Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO).  After launch SSTL will complete commissioning of the spacecraft and will perform orbit-raising manoeuvres to achieve the final planned orbit. Command of the spacecraft will then be handed over to Telesat for in-orbit operations using the Ka-band payload.
 
CARBONITE-2, is a technology demonstration mission owned and operated by SSTL that will demonstrate a low cost video-from-orbit space solution using COTS technologies.  The 100 kg. spacecraft flies a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) telescope and HD video, both of which have been adapted for a space environment and integrated into a custom built framework.  The imaging system is designed to deliver 1 meter GSD images and color HD video clips with a swath width of 5km.
 

The CARBONITE-2 smallsat with SSTL engineers. Photo is courtesy of SSTL/Beaucroft Photography.

On November 21, 2017, British company Earth-i signed a contract with SSTL to supply 5 CARBONITE series satellites for a new full-color video imaging constellation planned for launch in 2019.
 
CARBONITE-2 is a follow-on mission to CARBONITE-1, launched in 2015. The CARBONITE series of platforms are designed for rapid re-visit constellations providing high resolution images, 3-D imaging and video from space.

SSTL is a leading supplier of LEO missions to commercial operators: previous missions include Beijing-1, the 5 satellite RapidEye constellation, Deimos-1, exactView-1, KazEOSAT-2 and the 3 satellite TripleSat constellation.