On its 23rd mission and the first one aboard New Space India Ltd (NSIL)’s PSLV, Exolaunch has deployed for Aliena, a leading Singapore-based space-tech company aiming at providing state-of-the-art electric propulsion engines for smallsats, the ORB-12 Strider satellite. This mission lifted-off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India on July 30, 2023 at 6:30 IST.

ORB-12 Strider is a 12U-class satellite built by the UK-based OrbAstro to host a variety of payloads for in-orbit demonstration, with the cutting-edge Aliena-Aurora (AA) propulsion system acting as its primary payload. The AA Multi-modal all-electric AOCS propulsion system was developed by Aliena jointly with Finland-based Aurora Propulsion Technologies. The system resulting from this collaboration allies the strengths of both companies’ technologies in a streamlined, compact propulsion architecture capable of enabling formation flying for satellites in the most demanding mission parameters.

Aliena chose Exolaunch as a provider of turnkey mission management and deployment services as well as of its industry-leading cubesat deployment technology - EXOpod Nova. Having proven its reliability and ruggedness through more than 220 successful releases across 17 missions in both LEO and GEO, Exolaunch’s EXOpod Nova deployer offers the market’s highest mass and lateral volume allowances, enabling satellite manufacturers to push the boundaries of what can be achieved with the CubeSat form factor. The integration of the ORB-12 Strider satellite with its EXOpod Nova deployer was executed by Exolaunch’s team directly at the SHAR launch site.

This was the second Exolaunch mission within the last two weeks, closely following the Rocket Lab’s ‘Baby Come Back’ launch, on which the Exolaunch CarboNIX microsatellite separation system successfully deployed Telesat’s LEO3 satellite. The flawless deployment of ORB-12 Strider marks another milestone in Exolaunch’s fastest launch cadence to date and takes its place as our 23rd executed mission overall.