Launch & Deployment

Space Transportation (re)Invented

These services are a turnkey solution that streamlines any phase of a satellite’s life cycle, providing satellite operators with support in any stage of spacecraft design, development, and operations without the need for direct investments in skills and facilities.

Launch and Deployment

Rideshare

Rideshare is a launch and deployment service that relies on third-party compatible launchers equipped with proprietary dispensers to release satellites into a standard parking orbit. The service is ideal for missions where a precise deployment is not critical for mission success.

Precision Deployment

Precision Deployment is a launch and deployment service that relies on ION Satellite Carrier, a proprietary orbital transfer vehicle operated by D-Orbit. A satellite is boarded into ION, which transports it across orbits into its final operational slot. This service is essential for missions operating in highly customized orbits that are not served by rideshare launches.

Precise Deployment and Phasing for Constellations

Precise Deployment and Phasing for Constellations is an advanced launch and deployment service designed for satellite constellation operators to phase a batch of spacecraft quickly and safely along one or more orbital planes. The service is enabled by ION Satellite Carrier, D-Orbit’s proprietary orbital transfer vehicle, which carries the satellites along the constellation’s orbital plane and releases each spacecraft in its designated orbital slot. This strategy reduces significantly the time required to phase a batch of satellites along an orbital plane, bringing forward the revenue-generating phase of the mission and enabling optimal use of the spacecraft’s life.

Add-On Services

Insurance

We offer a turnkey insurance package covering the whole life cycle of a small satellite, from engineering to the end-of-mission. The insurance covers every one of the satellite’s payloads, providing you with a parachute in case of partial failure. A partnership with the most important insurance players in the market enables us to provide competitive conditions.

Mission Analysis and Design

We provide support during the mission analysis and design phase of a multi-satellite mission to identify and exploit the optimal use of mission budgets enabled by ION Satellite Carrier’s deployment strategies.

Mission Control Operations

We can take care of developing onboard software for hosted payloads to process incoming commands, perform mission operations, process raw data, and downlink information.

Shipping and Transportation

We offer specialized transportation services from the manufacturing site to our integration facility. We are prepared for all transportation needs, ensuring the integrity of the equipment.

ION Satellite Carrier

ION Satellite Carrier is the enabling technology behind our deployment and IOD services.

ION is a satellite platform with a configurable payload bay that can be equipped with a combination of proprietary or third-party launch dispensers, CubeSat-sized payloads, microsatellites, and instruments like lenses and antennas to be tested in orbit.

Thanks to its propulsion module, ION Satellite Carrier can travel across orbits characterized by different attitude, and local time of ascending node (LTAN) through the course of a mission, and deploy each hosted satellite in a custom orbit. ION can also perform operations on hosted payloads in their optimal operating position.

Multiple ION Satellite Carrier missions launched throughout the year provide operators with several launch windows to choose from.

Advanced Services

The second life of ION

ION Hosted Payload Service

ION Hosted Payload Service is a service that enables space hardware developers to quickly get a payload to orbit for testing or operations.
The payloads are hosted inside ION Satellite Carrier, D-Orbit’s proprietary orbital transfer vehicle, which is launched multiple times a year. An innovative plug-and-play mechanical, electrical, and data interface greatly simplifies integration and testing. This advanced degree of standardization allows D-Orbit to easily re-arrange the launch schedule to accommodate last-minute changes and enables operators to repeat a given experiment over different missions.
During the experiment, ION changes its attitude to provide optimal exposure to the sun, darkness, Earth, and horizon. The hosting spacecraft provides resources like power, uplink, downlink, memory, and more. The availability of multiple launch options in LEO, SSO, and GEO every year provides the ability to switch launches in case of delay.

D-Orbit Cloud Platform

D-Orbit Cloud Platform is a state-of-the-art innovative space cloud-based technology that will revolutionize the speed that data is shared between space and ground.

Data Computing

In-orbit space computing through AI. Our Cloud Platform makes it possible to personalize your data experience with personalized apps and integrate multiple data sources.

Immediate Results

Through the D-Orbit Cloud Platform it's possible to know when something is happening and respond close to real-time without the need for ground processing.

Data Storage

Our service allows users to store data securely and provides immediate access to relevant data, saving time, and resources, and increasing productivity.

Practical applications include: 

  • Civil security and public protection: Object detection (illegal shipping, piracy, smuggling, etc.); crowd location and detection; atmosphere and pollution alert. 
  • Disaster monitoring and response: Real-time detection (wildfires, floods, landslides, avalanches, traffic accidents, tsunamis); real-time alerts (directly to ground and via network to authorities); real-time response support; cross-task other satellites (e.g. targeted observation for a passing commercial SAR)
  • Climate and weather monitoring: Detection of dangerous weather events; prioritization of data inputs into model ensembles to obtain earlier and better forecasts. 

Satellite as a-Service (SaaS)

The Satellite as a Service model allows customers to leverage the capabilities of satellite technology without having to invest in and operate their own satellite infrastructure. Through this model, customers can simply purchase operations on ION to access services that range from basic connectivity to more advanced operations that leverage satellite data.

This model makes satellite-based services more accessible to a wide range of customers, including small businesses and organizations that may not have the resources to invest in their own satellite infrastructure.

IRIDE

A great example of the Satellite as a Service model is IRIDE, a space-based observation program initiated by the Italian government. D-Orbit will provide one SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite, called NOX, and will manage its flight operations segment on behalf of the end user.

The satellite constellation will use various detection techniques and technologies, including microwave and optical imaging in different frequencies, and will provide data for applications in commercial startups, SMEs, and industry.

You can learn more about IRIDE and NOX here.​

In Orbit Servicing

The Future of Space Logistics

The services we are preparing to offer will include:

  • Transportation of satellites, space infrastructures, goods, supplies, feedstock, and more.
  • Lifetime extension of older spacecraft through extension modules that take over propulsion and attitude determination and control.
  • In-orbit assembly of spacecraft and space infrastructures.
  • In-orbit refurbishment of existing vehicles by upgrading and replacing outdated and malfunctioning components.
  • In-orbit manufacturing of spacecraft parts from feedstock and basic components coming from Earth and/or from in-orbit recycling.
  • Re-supply of propellant and other consumables.
  • Recycling of parts and materials already in space, from old spacecraft or space debris, into usable feedstock for the manufacturing of new parts and equipment.
  • Relocation of a space asset or infrastructure to a different orbit.
  • Orbital inspection of space objects, asset or infrastructure.
  • End-of-life removal or relocation of a cooperative space asset or infrastructure.
  • Removal or relocation of debris and other uncooperative space asset or infrastructure.
  • Storage of feedstock, fuel, supplies and goods in general in space.



Mission Control Software

Cloud-Based MCS Suite

The app provides telemetry, trajectory updates, telecommand, and downstream through graphical and command line controls. A 2D/3D orbit visualization tool provides satellite tracking based on two-line orbital elements (TLE) propagation.

Telecommands can be generated, time-tagged, and uploaded via manual and database-retrievable telecommand stacks. Automatic warnings provide notification of predefined anomalies through emails and messaging. The system logs all commands, enabling historical analysis and creation of procedures to automate common tasks.

The interface can be adapted to the specific needs of each satellite operator, providing a versatile and modular suite of tools to support even the most complex and demanding missions. The app is accessible from any location through a variety of computer platforms, including mobile.

Thanks to a highly modular software architecture, Aurora can be tailored around the needs of the most common smallsat mission architectures. The app supports the CubeSat space protocol (CSP), which can be customized further. A high-performance cloud infrastructure, with extremely high reliability and availability, features AES256 encryption with 2FA token user authentication to ensure a state-of-the art cyber security protection. A worldwide network of ground stations, in partnership with Leaf Space and Amazon AWS Ground Station, ensures global coverage tailored to the needs and budget of any space mission.

  • Always up to dateAurora's cloud architecture enables operators to significantly reduce mission costs by eliminating all the expenses connected to software design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance.
  • Custom User InterfaceThe user interface can be customized to the needs and preferences of individual mission operators. 
  • Flexible IT infrastructureA web interface enables the use of cost effective commodity hardware to create the desired IT infrastructure. Operators can control satellites from any location through a variety of computer platforms, including mobile. 
  • Maximum FlexibilityAurora's software architecture is modular, and it can be tailored to support the most common CubeSat mission architectures.
  • On-Demand Global CoverageA worldwide network of ground stations, in partnership with LeafSpace and Amazon AWS Ground Station, ensures a global coverage that can be tailored to the needs and the budget of any space mission.
  • Mission Control as a ServiceOperators can completely outsource the control of the mission to D-Orbit and focus on data processing. 
  • State-of-the-art securityThe software is installed in a private cloud instance with AES256 encryption 2FA token user authentication, to ensure a state-of-the-art cyber security protection. Deployment on a private local server is also possible. 

Systems and Components

Solutions for Traditional and New Space Markets