August 10, 2017

The first LEO communication CubeSat at the end of 2017

German Orbital Systems GmbH (Berlin, Germany)  works on the development of small satellites??™ constellation for communication in LEO orbit, the constellation will consist of 3U CubeSats. This project is implemented in partnership with iSky Technology.

The first satellite, called "D-Star ONE", will demonstrate the main bus components. It will future four communication modules with D-Star capability, two of which be fully dedicated to the amateur radio community. Subsequent satellites will have enhanced capabilities and communication protocols to address larger potential customer groups beyond the amateur radio community. D-Star ONE will become the first private German satellite, i.e. designed and built on own company funds.

German Orbital Systems is developing the satellite??™s concept, its subsystems and software. iSky Technology is carrying out mission analysis, environmental analysis and planning a launch program. Design changes will be introduced with each subsequent satellite - the result of this long-term evolutionary design approach will be the most capable communication CubeSats ever built.

"We believe that CubeSats will become a real alternative to the traditional orbital communication infrastructure"

German Orbital Systems CEO Walter Ballheimer said:

"CubeSats are much cheaper and can be launched to LEO as piggyback payloads. This project will allow us to develop highly capable systems which could be used for commercial and governmental purposes."

He also announced to begin raising an undisclosed amount from the German venture investors to speed up the development of the constellation, as well as to seek support from the German Aerospace Center DLR.

The launch of D-Star One is scheduled for the end of 2017 by Soyuz-2 / Fregat launcher from Vostochny launch site.

German Orbital Systems GmbH

German Orbital Systems GmbH is a Berlin-based space company. It was founded in 2014 by former scientific staff of the Technical University of Berlin and is the first German company focused on the CubeSat market. The product portfolio includes subsystems and turn-key satellite missions, which consist of the ground-, space- and launch segments. Since 2016, GOS has been responsible for the separation sequence as a part of ECM Space Technologies GmbH CubeSat dispensers.

iSky Technology s.r.o.

Sky Technology is a Czech space company established in 2016. The company is actively developing in the segment of strategic mission planning, space market analysis, and turn-key space solutions. iSky Technology develops conceptual solutions for businesses in the space industry: from mission design to launch, software development and satellite operation on orbit. iSky Technology specializes in smallsat constellation projects and operates successfully in the North American, European, Russian and the CIS markets.