Italian space logistics company D-Orbit is to launch twenty nanosatellites from Swiss IoT firm Astrocast.

The satellites will be aboard Ion Satellite Carrier, D-Orbit’s versatile and cost-effective orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) designed to deploy satellites and perform technology demonstrations of third-party payloads in orbit.

The satellites, which will join Astrocast’s constellation of satellites for the IoT, will be delivered to space over a period of three years, through multiple missions.

The first launch, scheduled no sooner than November 2022 aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9, will deploy a batch of four 3U satellites on a 500 to 600km Sun synchronous orbit (SSO).

“We are proud to continue this long-term collaboration with Astrocast,” said Renato Panesi, D-Orbit’s chief commercial officer. “Missions like these are establishing the Ion Satellite Carrier as an essential technology to enable innovative space applications that have the potential to revolutionise how we do business here on Earth.”

Two following batches of spacecraft, which include six 6U satellites and ten 6U satellites, will be released in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

Astrocast’s existing low latency nanosatellite IoT network provides bidirectional communication between devices and the company’s global network. As they continue to scale, with these launches Astrocast is investing in its network to carry on providing organisations with a reliable sat-IoT experience.

“We are delighted to work with D-Orbit to extend the Astrocast constellation over the next three years,” said Fabien Jordan, CEO of Astrocast. “Our relationship dates back several years and we are pleased with the flexibility and different launch options that D-Orbit has provided us. It is important for European space companies to work together to increase the competitiveness of European space, and we believe that working with D-Orbit enables this for Astrocast. We are looking forward to the launch on Falcon-9 and potential future missions on European rockets.”

Founded in 2011, before the dawn of the New Space market, D-Orbit was the first company addressing the logistics needs of the space market. The Ion Satellite Carrier, for example, is a space vehicle that can transport satellites in orbit and release them individually into distinct orbital slots, reducing the time from launch to operations by up to 85% and the launch costs of an entire satellite constellation by up to 40%. Ion can also accommodate multiple third-party payloads such as technologies developed by start-ups, experiments from research entities, and instruments from traditional space companies requiring a test in orbit.

D-Orbit has offices in Italy, Portugal, UK and USA.

Astrocast operates a global nanosatellite IoT network, offering services in industries such as agriculture, livestock, maritime, environment and utilities. The Astrocast network enables companies to monitor, track and communicate with remote assets from anywhere in the world. It relies on L-band spectrum through an alliance with Thuraya. Founded in 2014, Astrocast develops and tests all its products in-house, from the satellites to the modules.