Created: 2021-09-30
Updated: 2025-09-06
Company - D-Orbit
Product/Service - ION, GEA
- Classification
- In-Space Transportation
- Category
- Space Tug
In-Orbit Computing
Transport Service (Earth-LEO)
Orbital Transportation
In-Space Logistics
On-Orbit Servicing
- Fields
- In-Space Transportation
In-Space Satellite Servicing
On-Orbit Servicing
- Status
- Active
- First launch
- 2020
ION SATELLITE CARRIER is a platform able to modify its own orientation, altitude, and local time of ascending node (LTAN) to quickly deploy CubeSats and microsatellites into precise and independent orbital slots, allowing customers to start their missions faster and in optimal operational conditions.
INORBIT NOW
SPACE TRANSPORTATION. (RE)INVENTED.
InOrbit NOW is a family of end-to-end solutions for CubeSats and microsatellites. It includes launch and deployment services, IOD/IOV missions, and a set of add-on services
Nebula
Gea spacecraft
D-Orbit sets course to expand beyond space transportation services, 2025-04-15.
- A new tug, named Gea is also in the works which will be ten times larger than Ion.
- The craft will introduce in-orbit services such as life extension or the relocation of assets, while still delivering payloads to GEO or even into lunar orbit.
- Last year D-Orbit signed a €120 million contract with ESA to develop this new carrier platform — the largest of its kind for commercial missions in Europe.
- Gea will be able to capture and dock with another spacecraft in GEO, and transport payloads from geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to GEO or lunar orbit.
- The latter is not yet a big market commercially but the company has identified an institutional demand for it and is positioning itself to be able to deliver that service by the end of 2026.
RISE
D-Orbit, Eutelsat Partner on GEO In-Orbit Servicing Mission, 2025-03-12.
- Italian space logistics firm D-Orbit is working with satcom provider Eutelsat on an ESA-funded geostationary satellite servicing mission set to launch in 2028, the companies announced yesterday.
- In the mission, called RISE, a servicing vehicle built by D-Orbit will attach to one of Eutelsat’s geostationary satellites to hone the tech for in-orbit repair, relocation, attitude control, and end-of-life disposal.
- The RISE mission received €119M ($130M) from ESA last year, with D-Orbit raising an additional €150M ($163.9M) to develop the servicing vehicle.
D-Orbit sets course to expand beyond space transportation services, 2025-04-15.
- The company now plans to extend into on-orbit servicing and refueling missions, end-of-mission disposal, and cross-orbit transportation, including to lunar orbits.
- The team has flown 17 missions since its inaugural launch in September 2020, delivering more than 180 payloads for customers.
- Founded in 2011, the company is 14 years old and has offices in Italy, Portugal, and the UK, while a new US team will focus on bus design and manufacturing.
- D-Orbit describes itself as a space logistics company, and the initial business model was one of debris mitigation, hence the company name.
- Customers are increasingly showing interest in running the hosted payloads as an operational mission, rather than building their own satellite.
Notes
News, Research, Projects and Patents
| Title | Type | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call for Ideas for On-Orbit Cloud Computing Application Demonstrations | Request for Information | 2022-09-01 | |
| D-Orbit signs €2,2 million space debris removal contract with ESA | News | 2021-09-09 |