ION is a versatile and cost-effective OTV designed to precisely deploy satellites and perform orbital demonstrations of third-party payloads hosted onboard.
D-Orbit, the space logistics and orbital transportation company, launched Second Star to the Right, the seventh commercial mission of ION Satellite Carrier (ION), D-Orbits proprietary orbital transfer vehicle (OTV), and the first mission carrying to space two IONs on a single launch.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), Florida. The two IONs were successfully deployed 01h 24m and 01h 26m after lift-off into a 525-kilometre Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).
Renato Panesi, Ph.D., D-Orbits Chief Commercial Officer, said: “We are proud of this new milestone. In just two years, we have established a reliable orbital space transportation service and in 2023, with our fleet constantly growing, were going to be able to offer new, advanced services, including in-orbit data storage and computing, extended hosted payload capabilities, and enhanced orbital manoeuvres.”
With the launch successfully completed, D-Orbits mission control team is executing the missions launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), performing a series of health check procedures in preparation for the operational phase.
ION is a versatile and cost-effective OTV designed to precisely deploy satellites and perform orbital demonstrations of third-party payloads hosted onboard.
During the mission, ION SCV007 and SCV008 will deploy the following satellites FUTURA-1 and FUTURA-3, four five-kg CubeSats by Astrocast, SHARJA-SAT-1 and TAUSAT2, and Kelpie 1.
This mission will also include the in-orbit demonstration of third-party hosted payloads DRAGO-2, Genergo-2, and Cryptosat-2.
