Launched from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana using a Soyuz rocket, the CubeSat deployment platform is a key to the commercial offering from Open Cosmos. The first mission comprises an array of CubeSats with a total capacity of 12 units (12U). It will weigh about 30 kg. at liftoff, and the CubeSats will be injected into Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude over 500 km.

Open Cosmos delivers effective satellite-based solutions with the goal of enabling companies to use space technologies for tackling global challenge. It specializes in the development and implementation of missions for small, low-cost satellites (up to 50 kg.), with short lead times (typically less than a year). One of the primary advantages of Open Cosmos is that it gives customers access to a wide range of launchers and orbits.

The first Open Cosmos payload will be an auxiliary passenger on the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG 1) satellite mission, along with the CHEOPS satellite for the European Space Agency ESA as well as the ANGELS and EyeSat’s French CNES space agency missions. Launch is scheduled for the last quarter of 2019.

Following the contract signature, Rafael Jordá Siquier, Chief Executive Officer of Open Cosmos, said, “Customers always ask us how they can get their payloads into orbit quickly and surely. Our partnership with Arianespace to launch a 12U (units) deployment platform will get them into their targeted orbit less than ten months after signing the contract. This mission will use one of the world’s most reliable and highest performance launchers, with a proven track record – and that’s exactly the kind of agility that the space industry needs right now.”

Stéphane Israël, Chief Executive Officer of Arianespace, added, “This contract clearly reflects Arianespace’s unwavering commitment to new players like Open Cosmos, which drive the dynamic small satellite market. It also reflects our ability to offer available, flexible and competitive solutions for all market segments, thanks to our family of launch vehicles.”

About Arianespace

Arianespace uses space to make life better on Earth by providing launch services for all types of satellites into all orbits. It has orbited more than 590 satellites since 1980, using its family of three launchers, Ariane, Soyuz and Vega, from launch sites in French Guiana (South America) and Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Arianespace is headquartered in Evry, near Paris, and has a technical facility at the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, plus local offices in Washington, D.C., Tokyo and Singapore.

Arianespace is a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, which holds 74% of its share capital, with the balance held by 15 other shareholders from the European launcher industry.