D-Orbit sends to ION vehicles aloft on SpaceX Transporter-15

SAN FRANCISCO – Italy’s D-Orbit sent satellites and hosted payloads into orbit Nov. 26 aboard two ION orbital transfer vehicles launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-15 rideshare.

Italy’s first optical intersatellite link (OISL) mission was onboard the IONs alongside payloads from Spire, Spaceium, Pale Blue, Finland’s Aalto University, Planetek and StardustMe.

“With these two missions, we cross the 200-payload milestone, carrying technologies that reflect the diversity and dynamism of today’s space sector,” Matteo Andreas Lorenzoni, D-Orbit vice president for commercial strategy, said in a statement.

For the Italian OISL mission, D-Orbit is working with Italian space technology startup Stellar Project and the European Space Agency to demonstrate optical connections between two compact terminals.

D-Orbit’s ION vehicles were launched Nov. 28 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The two ION satellite carrier vehicles, called Stellar Stephanus and Galactic Georgius, were destined for a 510-kilometer altitude sun-synchronous orbit.

On-Orbit App Store

The ION missions were focused on satellite communications, Earth observation and technology demonstration. Planetek, D-Orbit and AIKO, for example, sent aloft the third AI-eXpress satellite. The AI-eXpress mission, co-funded by ESA InCubed, provides on-orbit software services and data processing for a space-based App store.

In addition, Aalto University’s Foresail-1 prime cubesat will monitor Earth’s radiation environment and demonstrate deorbiting technologies. Foresail-1 payloads include the University of Turku’s Particle Telescope to measures precipitating electrons and solar energetic neutral atoms and the Plasma Brake, a propellant-free deorbiting payload built by the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

With four internet-of-things satellites flying on Transporter-15, Spire and Lacuna Space intend “to deliver low-cost, reliable global connections to sensors and mobile equipment in remote locations,” according to the news release. Since the satellites are part of Spire’s multipurpose constellation, they also are equipped with radio occultation and Automatic Identification System payloads.

Another ION passenger was MS-1, Spaceium’s in-orbit demonstration of robotic actuators for in-orbit fuel transfer. The Spaceium payload includes flight computers, motor drivers and a thermal-control system.

Japanese startup Pale Blue will conduct an in-orbit demonstration of its compact gridded ion engine, preloaded with water propellant, on the ION mission.

One of ION’s hosted payloads, supplied by New Zealand’s StardustMe, includes one-gram capsules of cremated human remains.