D-Orbit has signed a multiple launch and deployment contract with Astrocast — according to the agreement, D-Orbit will launch 20 of Astrocast’s satellites aboard ION Satellite Carrier, D-Orbit’s orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) designed to precisely deploy satellites and perform technology demonstrations of third-party payloads in orbit.
The satellites, which will join Astrocast’s constellation of satellites for the Internet of things (IoT), will be delivered to space over a period of three years, through multiple missions.
The first launch, scheduled no sooner than November 2022 aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9, will deploy a batch of four, 3U satellites on a 500 to 600 kilometer SSO. Two following batches of spacecraft, which include six 6U satellites and ten 6U satellites, will be released in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Astrocast’s existing, low latency, smallsat IoT network offers customers bidirectional communication between their devices and the company’s global network. As they continue to scale, with these launches Astrocast is investing in their network to carry on providing organizations with a high-quality and reliable SatIoT experience. This investment prepares Astrocast for the future and builds further robustness, reliability and resilience into customers’ network.
“We are proud to continue this long-term collaboration with Astrocast, a leading European IoT company. Missions like these are establishing the ION Satellite Carrier as an essential technology to enable innovative space applications that have the potential to revolutionize how we do business here on Earth.” said Renato Panesi, D-Orbit’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)
“We are delighted to work with D-Orbit to extend the Astrocast constellation over the next three years. Our relationship dates back several years and we are pleased with the flexibility and different launch options that D-Orbit has provided us. It is important for European space companies to work together to find solutions that increase the competitiveness of European space, and we believe that working with D-Orbit enables this for Astrocast. We are looking forward to the launch on Falcon-9 and potential future missions on European rockets,” said Fabien Jordan, CEO and Co-Founder, Astrocast
