The news follows its successful launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, onboard SpaceX's Falcon 9, now ALISIO-1 has been deployed from the D-Orbit ION vehicle and is now in its final orbit.
The space mission is filled with technologies developed under the UK Space Agency-funded ESA Pioneer Programme.
ALISIO-1, which stands for Advanced Land-Imaging Satellite for Infrared Observations, is a 6U satellite developed for the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, which aims to revolutionise Earth monitoring capabilities and enhancing optical communications from space.
“The Pioneer partnership is instrumental in developing space missions in an affordable, efficient and reliable manner for customers. We have been able to digitalise many parts of the mission lifecycle process from design to test recording as well as operations,” said Florian Deconinck, vice president for growth at Open Cosmos.
“This is fundamental to growing our business capability for satellite constellations, increasing our delivery speed while maintaining our impeccable 100% reliability in orbit. Our innovation combined with ESA’s expertise and guidance illustrates how NewSpace and legacy space can join forces to help address some of the biggest challenges.”
The primary payload aboard ALISIO-1, is DRAGO-2 a compact uncooled and camera operating in the Short-Wave Infrared range, providing a unique vantage point invisible to the human eye.
This tool will generate precise observations of the Canary Islands, as well as other global regions, supporting various applications including wildfire monitoring, volcano activity monitoring, oil spill detection, desertification control and crop humidity, to name a few.
“The successful launch of the ALISIO-1 mission, as part of the ESA Pioneer Partnership Project SAPION, demonstrates the high value and effectiveness of the Pioneer programme,” added Stephane Lascar, head of telecommunications satellite programmes at ESA.
“Through this programme ESA supports European New Space industry to develop, grow and demonstrate in orbit their space business solutions and become Space Mission Providers."
The ALISIO-1 satellite will also host an optical communications terminal for Space-Earth communications. This technology uses laser beams that can transmit data through space, offering delivering advantages over traditional radio frequency communication methods such as enhanced data transfer and heightened security due to the narrow beam nature of laser signals.
The satellite also validated a suite of technologies where every test is recorded digitally from the moment the satellite is created.
“The successful launch marks another major milestone for Open Cosmos, as the company continues to grow and expand its operations in the UK,” added Henny Sands, head of telecoms at UK Space Agency.
“The infrared camera on the ALISIO-1 satellite will monitor a range of environments and the innovative optical communications terminal will demonstrate a more secure and reliable way of transmitting valuable data from space, back to Earth. It’s a great example of how advanced communications technologies can support satellite Earth observations and other applications, with the backing of the UK and European space agencies."
