D-Orbit, a leader in the space logistics and orbital transportation industry, has announced the successful launch of another ION Satellite Carrier (ION), its proprietary orbital transportation vehicle. ION lifted off on June 30, 2021, at 9:31 pm CEST, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), Florida. On the same day, 60 minutes after liftoff, the vehicle was successfully deployed into a 500 km Sun synchronous orbit (SSO).
ION SCV 003 will deploy six satellites into distinct orbits and perform the in-orbit demonstration of 12 hosted payloads1. The mission serves clients from 14 different nationalities and brings the total number of payloads launched by D-Orbit up to 63.
“This is our third mission in less than nine months, and our incoming fourth mission is already fully booked,” said Luca Rossettini, D-Orbit’s CEO. “The pace at which we’re moving is a true testament to the economic benefits delivered to satellite operators and space companies leveraging space logistics’ services. I’m proud of what we have accomplished so far, thanks to the extraordinary skills and dedication of our team, and excited to witness our contribution to the new space sector as our company grows, and our technology keeps pushing the envelope of what is possible.”
ION Satellite Carrier is a space cargo vehicle designed, manufactured, and operated by D-Orbit. ION is able to accommodate multiple satellites, transport them into space, perform orbital maneuvers, and release them precisely into independent orbital slots. ION’s unique integrated capabilities also enable the spacecraft to perform in-orbit demonstration (IOD) services for third-party hosted payloads.
The mission is about to enter the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) during which mission controllers will perform a series of health check procedures in preparation for the operational phase, which will start with the deployment of the satellites. ION will deliver each satellite into a distinct orbit following a highly customized plan that defines the moment of release, and the direction and speed of ejection of each spacecraft.
After the conclusion of the deployment phase, WILD RIDE will proceed with the in-orbit demonstration of LaserCube, an optical communication device from the Italian-based company Stellar Project, and the testing of Nebula, an on-demand, on-orbit cloud computing and data storage service at the core of D-Orbit’s upcoming advanced services. The first iteration of Nebula, which features an intelligent automation SpaceCloud iX5-100 radiation tolerant computing module by specialist Unibap, will demonstrate a range of innovative applications for advanced geospatial Earth Observation (EO) and Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) applications using sophisticated, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) algorithms for extremely low-latency decision support. The experiments will be conducted in collaboration with commercial partners like the video compression techniques industry specialist V-Nova, and the AI research accelerator Frontier Development Lab, a public / private research lab run by Trillium Technologies in partnership with the University of Oxford and supported by ESA.
