US: NanoRacks has announced that the Company has signed its first customer contract for small satellite rideshare on the India Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Spire, a long-time customer of NanoRacks, has signed to fly four of their Lemur 3U CubeSats, targeting a March 2019 flight.
Spire’s CubeSats offer data and analytics for parts of the world where collecting data is notoriously difficult, tracking ships, planes, and weather in remote regions which often go unmonitored. To date, of the 80+ satellites Spire has launched, 37 have been deployed into orbit via NanoRacks from both the International Space Station and the Cygnus Spacecraft.
“The extension of NanoRacks to launching with PSLV is an opportunity to work with a familiar and trusted partner,” said Jenny Barna, Spire’s Launch Director. “Tracking of ships, planes, and weather on a global basis relies on having many satellites in a varied set of orbits. To efficiently reach some orbits, you have to launch from a location on the planet that lends itself to that goal.”
For this PSLV opportunity, NanoRacks is working with Berlin-based Astro- und Feinwerktechnik Adlershof GmbH (Astrofein) to manufacture and supply deployers, and is coordinating this launch opportunity with Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
“We pride ourselves on being launch-agnostic here at NanoRacks,” says Senior Vice President for Business Development Richard Pournelle. “Spire has proven to be both a great partner and customer, being the first to explore and prove our Cygnus deployment opportunities, and now our offerings on PSLV. Our focus is always on the customer, so if the customer needs a certain orbit, we are here to provide that opportunity to them. We’re much more than just an International Space Station company.”
Polar orbit opportunities come in addition to NanoRacks’ market leadership in low-Earth orbit, which includes small satellite deployments from the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) and Kaber Deployer on the International Space Station, as well as the External NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (E-NRCSD), mounted on the exterior of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft.
NanoRacks has deployed over 220 small satellites into low-Earth orbit to date, sparking accelerated growth for numerous startup companies, providing educational opportunities, and driving the market for commercial access to space.
