The ION-SCV (In Orbit Now - Satellite Carrier Vehicle), developed by Italian company D-Orbit, is a free flying CubeSat deployer and technology demonstrator, will be launched on Vega in 2019 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe?s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The CubeSat carrier will host several CubeSats to be deployed once in orbit.
Positioned in a sun-synchronous orbit at 500 km, ION-SCV will deploy the hosted CubeSats one by one along the orbit in precise orbital slots, according to customer?s specifications. After the CubeSat deployment phase, which may last up to one month, ION CubeSat Carrier will initiate the in-orbit validation phase of payloads directly integrated on the platform.
The first mission, ION-SCV 1, was launched on the first Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) on a Vega launch vehicle in September 2020, carrying 12 Dove cubesats for Planet (Flock-4v 15, ..., 26). After the deployment, it is to perform some IOD/IOV of dedicated payloads, culminating in the demonstration mission of an onboard propulsive module that will be used commercially starting on the next mission scheduled in December 2020.
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