ION Satellite Carrier explained

ION Satellite Carrier

Manufacturer:

D-Orbit

Country:

Italy

Website:

https://www.dorbit.space/launch-deployment

Spacecraft Type:

Satellite dispenser

Design Life:

> 3 years

Capacities:

Kilos:

160 kg

Status:

Active

Planned:

Launched:

Operational:

Maidenlaunch:

3 September 2020

Lastlaunch:

1 December 2023

Stagedata:

Flown With:

Falcon 9 Block 5
Vega

ION Satellite Carrier (formerly ION CubeSat Carrier) is a satellite platform developed, manufactured, and operated by Italian company D-Orbit. The platform features a customizable 64U satellite dispenser capable of hosting a combination of CubeSats that fits the volume. Throughout a mission, ION Satellite Carrier can release the hosted satellites individually, changing orbital parameter between one deployment and the next.^[1] Each of the miniature CubeSats weighs a few kilograms.

The organization also developed a D3 (D-Orbit Decommissioning Device) system, which has obtained funding from the European Commission and the European Space Agency, to safely dispose of satellites at the end of their lives and avoid adding to the problems created by the approximately 130 million pieces of space debris. According to D-Orbit, a space circular economy is feasible, and space recycling will soon be a new sector. This will involve using local resources such as dead satellites to create spaceships in space.^[2] ^[3]

The inaugural mission, named Origin, was launched on Vega flight VV16 from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on September 3, 2020.^[4] The vehicle, named ION SCV Lucas, carried 12 SuperDove satellites from Planet Labs. On September 25, ION SCV Lucas released successfully the first SuperDove satellite of the batch; the last satellite was deployed on October 28. As of December 2023, ION SCV has successfully completed 13 missions, 1 as a payload of a Vega rocket and 12 as a payload of a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket.

D-Orbit is a successful alumnus of the European Space Agency's incubator, ESA BIC Portugal, and the two firms collaborated on Project Sunrise, an active debris removal project, in 2019.^[5]

Mission overview

The carrier deployed CubeSats one by one using a spring release mechanism once positioned in a Sun-synchronous orbit at 500 km. The 60 cm cubic dispenser allows for several combinations of 1U, 2U, 3U, 3U+, 6U, 6U+, 12U and 12U+ Cubesats along the vertical axis. After completion of the up to one month long deployment phase, ION CubeSat Carrier will initiate a validation phase of its payloads directly integrated on the platform.^[6]

Missions

Past missions

Mission Name	Spacecraft	Date	Launch Vehicle	Payload	Customers	Outcome
Origin	ION SCV-001 Lucas	3 September 2020	Vega	Flock-4v × 12	Planet Labs
Pulse	ION SCV-002 Laurentius	24 January 2021	Falcon 9 Block 5	Flock-4s × 8	Planet Labs	rowspan=4
				SpaceBEE × 12	Swarm Technologies
				ARGO (hosted)	EICAS Automazione
				DRAGO (hosted)	IAC
Wild Ride	ION SCV-003 Dauntless David	30 June 2021	Falcon 9 Block 5	Ghalib	Marshall Intech	rowspan=9
				NAPA-2	RTAF
				NEPTUNO	Elecnor Deimos
				QMR-KWT	Orbital Space
				SPARTAN	EnduroSat
				W-Cube	Reaktor Space
				LaserCube (hosted)	Italian Stellar Project
				Nebula (hosted)	D-Orbit UK
				Worldfloods (hosted)	Frontier Development Lab
Dashing Through the Stars	ION SCV-004 Elysian Eleonora	13 January 2022	Falcon 9 Block 5	DODONA	USC	rowspan=6
				LabSat	SatRevolution
				STORK 1, 2	SatRevolution
				SW1FT	SatRevolution
				VZLUSat-2	VZLU
				cloud platform (hosted)	D-Orbit / Unibap / VTT
Spacelust	ION SCV-005 Almighty Alexius	1 April 2022	Falcon 9 Block 5	KSF2 × 4	Kleos Space	rowspan=4
				PlantSat	University of Chile
				SUCHAI 2, 3	University of Chile
				UP-box (hosted)	Upmosphere
Infinite Blue	ION SCV-006 Thrilling Thomas	25 May 2022	Falcon 9 Block 5	Guardian 1	Aistech Space	rowspan=4
				SBUDNIC	BUSE / CNR
				Crypto-1 (hosted)	Cryptosat
				GEN-01 (hosted)	Genergo
Second Star to the Right	ION SCV-007 Glorious Gratia	3 January 2023	Falcon 9 Block 5	Astrocast × 4	Astrocast SA	rowspan=10
				FUTURA-SM1	NPC Spacemind
				FUTURA-SM3	NPC Spacemind
				Kelpie 1	ACC Clyde Space / Orbcomm
				Sharja-Sat-1	SAASST / ITU
	ION SCV-008 Fierce Franciscus			TAUSAT2	Tel Aviv University
				Cryptosat-2 (hosted)	Cryptosat
				DRAGO-2 (hosted)	IAC
				Genergo-2 (hosted)	Genergo
				? (hosted)	(undisclosed)
Starfield	ION SCV-009 Eclectic Elena	31 January 2023	Falcon 9 Block 5	Satellite simulator	EBAD	rowspan="4"
				ADEO-N3 (hosted)	HPF
				Bunny (hosted)	EPFL
				SD-1 (hosted)	StardustMe
Guardian	ION SCV-010 Masterful Matthaeus	15 April 2023	Falcon 9 Block 5	ELO-3	Eutelsat	rowspan=6
				EPICHyper-1	AAC Clyde Space / Wyvern
				Kepler-20, 21	Kepler Communications
				VCUB1	Visiona
				MicroCMG (hosted)	Veoware
				SCORPIO (hosted)	Elettronica Group
Above the Sky	ION SCV-011 Savvy Simon	12 June 2023	Falcon 9 Block 5	EPICHyper-2	AAC Clyde Space / Wyvern	rowspan=9
				Kelpie-2	AAC Clyde Space / Orbcomm
				Outpost Mission 1	Outpost Space
				SpeiSat	Dicastery for Communication / ASI
				ELO-4	Eutelsat
				AlbaPod × 2 (hosted)	Alba Orbital
				NaviLEOTM (hosted)	SpacePNT
				ODIN-DU1 (hosted)	ODIN Space
				UKRI SWIMMR-1 (hosted)	UKRI
Cosmic Wander	ION SCV-013 Ultimate Hugo	11 November 2023	Falcon 9 Block 5	Crypto3	Cryptosat
				EPICHyper-3	AAC Clyde Space / Wyvern
				Intuition-1	AAC Clyde Space / KP Labs
				Lemur-2 NANAZ	Spire Global
				OSW Cazorla	Odyssey SpaceWorks
				PiCo-IoT × 9	Apogeo Space
				Ymir-1	AAC Clyde Space / Saab AB / Orbcomm
				AlbaPod × 2 (hosted)	Alba Orbital
				Antelope (hosted)	KP Labs
				Gen-03 (hosted)	Genergo
				Radiosat&Beamasat (hosted)	PICOSATS
Beyond	ION SCV-015 Daring Diego	1 December 2023	Falcon 9 Block 5	ALISIO-1	IAC
				LOGSATS	Patriot Infovention
				NanoFF A, B	TU Berlin
				AlbaPod (hosted)	Alba Orbital
				MI:1 (hosted)	TRL11
				Pono 1 (hosted)	Privateer
				RECS (hosted)	Polimi
				Z01 SuperTorquer (hosted)	Zenno Astronautics