Astrocast 0.1, 0.2 (Kiwi, Hawaii)

Astrocast [Astrocast SA]

The Astrocast 0.1 and 0.2 satellites are a precursor and In-Orbit-Demonstration mission for Astrocast SA's constellation and is planned to be launched in Q2 2018. The mission is composed of two identical satellites launched with two different launch vehicles. The goal of the mission is to demonstrate all the satellite functionalities and multi satellite operations.

Astrocast is a network of Nanosatellites providing global L-band machine-to-machine (M2M) services. The satellites are orbiting in a low earth polar orbit. This allows the creation of a global network covering the entire globe, including the poles. Thanks to a dedicated frequency band, the constellation can scale without fear of noise generated by other devices. Astrocast estimates it can build, launch and operate a 64-cubesat constellation for less than $50 million to provide low-data-rate communications. The constellation will consist of eight operational satellites per orbital plane, and eight different orbital planes in sun-synchronous polar orbits.

After integration of the NanoLink terminal, the ground based assets can reliably and securely send any kind of sensor data to the constellation of nanosatellites that will acknowledge the reception. Astrocast enables transmission of 1KB/day from any region on the earth.

A geographically distributed network of ground stations collects the data gathered by the satellites. The data are then uploaded to a cloud storage for access by the customer.

The two precursor satellites will serve as demonstrators not only for the space segment, but to characterize the radio frequency link between the objects on the ground for the demonstration and the satellites. Both feature a nanosat propulsion system provided by GOMSpace.

• Astrocast 0.1 was launched on Spaceflight Industry's SSO-A multi-satellite launch on a Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) rocket.
• Astrocast 0.2 followed in April 2019 on an Indian PSLV-QL.
• Five operational satellites are to be launched in the 1st quarter of 2020.
• Five more satellites are to follow soon after.
• Ten more operational satellites will be launched later in late 2020 on a Vega multi-satellite launch.