Alba Orbital | |
Type: | Limited company |
Industry: | Satellite Manufacture |
Predecessors: | --> |
Successors: | --> |
Founded: | 5 October 2012 |
Founders: | --> |
Hq Location City: | Glasgow |
Hq Location Country: | United Kingdom |
Key People: | Tom Walkinshaw |
Products: | Pocketqube Platforms and Components |
Assets: | £90,954 |
Owners: | --> |
Alba Orbital is a Scottish company that specializes in building PocketQube satellites and Albapod satellite deployment systems. Alba Orbital is the developer and manufacturer of the Unicorn-1[1] and Unicorn-2[2] satellite platforms.
Alba Orbital specializes in designing and building PocketQube satellites. The company has developed two satellite platforms. The Unicorn-1 platform is a 1P (5cm x 5cm x 5cm) PocketQube satellite, while its larger counterpart, Unicorn-2, is a 2P satellite (5cm x 5cm x 10cm).[3]
Alba Orbital is a launch broker and has purchased capacity with several space companies, including SpaceX and Rocket Lab, to launch PocketQube satellites into orbit.[4] The company also hold contracts with the European Space Agency for ARTES.[5] These launches harbor clusters[6] containing space for PocketQubes that are sold to teams wanting to launch pods. Every Alba Orbital flight uses Albapod deployers to release the clusters. These deployers come in two sizes: 6P and 96P. As of December 2023, Alba Orbital has successfully launched seven missions into low Earth orbit, while one mission failed before deployment on the first flight of Orbiter SN1.
Mission Name | Date | Launch Vehicle | Payloads | Customers | Outcome | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alba Cluster 2 | 6 December 2019 | Electron | ATL-1 | BME | rowspan=5 | |
FossaSat-1 | FOSSA Systems | |||||
NOOR 1A, 1B (Unicorn-2B, 2C) | Stara Space | |||||
SMOG-P | BME | |||||
TRSI-1 | ACME AtronOmatic | |||||
Alba Cluster 3 | 13 January 2022 | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Delfi-PQ | TU Delft | rowspan=10 | |
EASAT-2 | AMSAT EA | |||||
Grizu-263a | ZBEU | |||||
HADES | AMSAT EA | |||||
MDQube-SAT 1 | Innova Space | |||||
Alba Cluster 4 | PION-BR1 | PION Labs | ||||
SATLLA 2A, 2B | Ariel University | |||||
Tartan Artibeus-1 (Unicorn-2TA1) | CMU | |||||
Unicorn-1 | Alba Orbital | |||||
Unicorn-2A, 2D, 2E | Alba Orbital | |||||
Alba Cluster X | 2 May 2022 | Electron | MyRadar-1 | ACME AtronOmatic | rowspan=3 | |
TRSI 2, 3 | ACME AtronOmatic | |||||
Unicorn-2F | Alba Orbital | |||||
Alba Cluster (?) | 3 January 2023 | Falcon 9 Block 5 / Orbiter | Unicorn-2G | Alba Orbital | rowspan="2" [7] | |
Unicorn-2H | Alba Orbital | |||||
Alba Cluster 6 | 12 June 2023 | Falcon 9 Block 5 / ION SCV | Istanbul | Hello Space | rowspan=6 | |
MRC-100 | BME | |||||
ROM-2 | ICHSB | |||||
Satlla-2I | Ariel University | |||||
Unicorn-2I | Alba Orbital | |||||
URESAT-1 | AMSAT-EA | |||||
Alba Cluster 7 | 11 November 2023 | Falcon 9 Block 5 / ION SCV | Hydra-1 / HADES-D | Hydra Space / AMSAT EA | rowspan=5 | rowspan=6 |
ROM-3 | FRR | |||||
SpaceANT-D | SpaceIn | |||||
Tartan Artibeus-2 | CMU | |||||
Unicorn-2J, 2K | Alba Orbital | |||||
Alba Cluster 8 | 1 December 2023 | Falcon 9 Block 5 / ION SCV | MDQubesat-1 | Innova Space | rowspan=2 | |
Unicorn-2L, 2M, 2N | Alba Orbital | |||||
In 2021, Alba Orbital participated in the startup accelerator program Y Combinator, located in Silicon Valley, United States. They raised US$3.4 million after completing the program.[8]