Astrocast

Swiss satellite communications company

Astrocast is a Swiss satellite communications company based in Lausanne. It aims to establish a global satellite network for IoT applications.

## History

[edit]

Astrocast was founded in 2014[1] by EPFL alumni, and employed 70 people in 2021.[2] It launched its first five satellites in December 2018 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket,[3] and another five in June 2021.[4] It aims to operate a full network of 100 satellites by 2024.[2] Astrocast's nanosatellites are CubeSats, cubes 10 cm (3.9 in) large.[3]

Astrocast is backed by venture capital firm Adit Ventures, Airbus SE's venture arm and the European Space Agency.[5] In June 2022, Astrocast announced that it was acquiring Hiber, an Amsterdam-based IoT space tech company.[6]

## Satellites launched

[edit]

As of July 2024 the company has launched two test satellites and four batches of operational satellites, for a total of 19 spacecraft currently in orbit around the Earth.

Flight No.  | Mission  | COSPAR ID | Launch date  | Launch vehicle  | Orbit altitude  | Inclination  | Number
deployed  | Deorbited

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

Test satellites
1  | Astrocast 0.1 Kiwi | 2018-099AS  | 3 December 2018  | Falcon 9 Block 5 | 548 km x 562 km  | 97.6°  | 1  | 0
2  | Astrocast 0.2 Hawaii | 2019-018F  | 1 April 2019  | PSLV-QL |  |  | 1  | 1
Operational satellites
3  | Astrocast 0101-0105  | 2021-006  | 24 January 2021  | Falcon 9 Block 5 | 521 km x 533 km  | 97.4°  | 5  | 0
4  | Astrocast 0201-0205  | 2021-059  | 30 June 2021  | Falcon 9 Block 5 | 510 km x 530 km  | 97.6°  | 5  | 0
5  | Astrocast 0301-0304  | 2022-158  | 26 November 2022  | PSLV-XL | 504 km x 517 km  | 97.4°  | 4  | 0
6  | Astrocast 0401-0404  | 2023-001  | 3 January 2023  | Falcon 9 Block 5 | 540 km x 550 km  | 97.6°  | 4  | 0

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Astrocast SA". Company register of the canton of Vaud. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
2. ^ a b Grundlehner, Werner (24 June 2021). "Ein Schweizer Raumfahrtunternehmen fliegt an die Börse". NZZ.
3. ^ a b Malewar, Amit (2018-12-04). "Astrocast successfully launches its first satellite". Tech Explorist. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
4. ^ "SpaceX launches Transporter-2 Falcon 9 rideshare mission". SpaceFlight Insider. 2021-06-30. Retrieved 2021-07-04.
5. ^ Caleb Henry (September 4, 2019). "Astrocast raises $9.2 million, grows target IoT constellation size to 80 satellites". Space News. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
6. ^ "Hiber, an Amsterdam-based IoT space tech startup, will be acquired by Astrocast". Insider Apps. Retrieved 2022-06-07.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website

This corporation or company article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template