Astrocast is a Swiss satellite communications company based in Lausanne. It aims to establish a global satellite network for IoT applications.
Astrocast was founded in 2014[1] by EPFL alumni, and employed 70 people in 2021.[2] It launched its first five satellites in December 2018 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket,[3] and another five in June 2021.[4] It aims to operate a full network of 100 satellites by 2024. Astrocast's nanosatellites are CubeSats, cubes 10cm (00inches) large.
Astrocast is backed by venture capital firm Adit Ventures, Airbus SE's venture arm and the European Space Agency.[5] In June 2022, Astrocast announced that it was acquiring Hiber, an Amsterdam-based IoT space tech company.[6]
As of July 2024 the company has launched two test satellites and four batches of operational satellites, for a total of 19 spacecraft currently in orbit around the Earth.
| Flight No. | Mission | COSPAR ID | Launch date | Launch vehicle | Orbit altitude | Inclination | Number deployed | Deorbited | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test satellites | |||||||||
| 1 | Astrocast 0.1 Kiwi | 2018-099AS | 3 December 2018 | Falcon 9 Block 5 | 548 km x 562 km | 97.6° | 1 | 0 | |
| 2 | Astrocast 0.2 Hawaii | 2019-018F | 1 April 2019 | PSLV-QL | 1 | 1 | |||
| Operational satellites | |||||||||
| 3 | Astrocast 0101-0105 | 2021-006 | 24 January 2021 | Falcon 9 Block 5 | 521 km x 533 km | 97.4° | 5 | 0 | |
| 4 | Astrocast 0201-0205 | 2021-059 | 30 June 2021 | Falcon 9 Block 5 | 510 km x 530 km | 97.6° | 5 | 0 | |
| 5 | Astrocast 0301-0304 | 2022-158 | 26 November 2022 | PSLV-XL | 504 km x 517 km | 97.4° | 4 | 0 | |
| 6 | Astrocast 0401-0404 | 2023-001 | 3 January 2023 | Falcon 9 Block 5 | 540 km x 550 km | 97.6° | 4 | 0 | |