Astrocast SA is a Swiss company operating a nanosatellite IoT network, providing end-to-end, direct-to-orbit services. They offer communication modules and enterprise-class services, enabling companies to monitor and communicate with remote assets globally. Astrocast's partners include Airbus, the European Space Agency (ESA), and Thuraya, and they focus on industries like maritime, agriculture, and environmental monitoring. Their services include satellite IoT, L-band spectrum, and CubeSat technology.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
Astrocast estimates it will need $50,000,000 to deploy its L-band constellation and is starting a Series B funding round toward that goal.
Astrocast and Airbus developed a low-cost communications module and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chipset that will be ready for sale in the second half of 2020.
Astrocast scheduled another 10 satellites to launch at the end of 2020 on an Arianespace Vega rocket.
Astrocast is preparing to launch a constellation of 80 satellites by 2023 or 2024.
Astrocast raised an additional 9 million Swiss francs in a Series A financing round announced 2019-09-04, bringing its total fundraising since 2014 to 16.6 million Swiss francs.
Each Astrocast satellite will be equipped with a cold gas thruster and an electric propulsion thruster for station keeping, deorbiting, and collision avoidance maneuvers.
Astrocast originally planned a constellation of 64 operational satellites before increasing the design to 80 operational satellites to improve coverage around the equator.
Airbus Defence and Space has supported Astrocast in developing data protocols.
Astrocast raised $9,200,000 on 2019-09-04 as it seeks to deploy its own satellite constellation.
Astrocast has two of a planned 64 satellites in orbit, with one launching on the same December Falcon 9 mission as Hiber and another launching 2019-03-31 on a PSLV rocket.
Helios Wire and Astrocast launched their first satellites on the 2018-12-03 mission.
The 10 Astrocast cubesats will be deployed into sun-synchronous orbits at an altitude between 450 and 600 km.
Astrocast is finalizing the design of its operational satellites, which will differ slightly from two demonstration satellites scheduled to launch on Spaceflight’s SSO-A dedicated rideshare Falcon 9 mission late 2018.
Astrocast and D-Orbit signed a launch agreement on 2018-08-07.
Kjell Karlsen, Astrocast CFO, wore a VR headset at the D-Orbit booth before Astrocast and D-Orbit signed a launch agreement on 2018-08-07.
A contract signed during the AIAA/Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites on 2018-08-07 covers the launch of 10 Astrocast cubesats as secondary payloads on a Vega rocket in late 2019 or early 2020.
D-Orbit won a deal to launch 10 Astrocast cubesats on a future Vega mission.
D-Orbit CCO Renato Panesi and Astrocast CEO Fabien Jorda popped a bottle of champagne after signing a launch agreement on 2018-08-07 at the SmallSat conference.
A satellite using GomSpace Sweden’s cold gas propulsion system launched on 2018-02-02 in the GOMX-4B mission and, together with its twin GOMX-4A, demonstrated the orbit control that Astrocast is planning.
GomSpace Sweden will deliver the propulsion systems for Astrocast in 2018-10-01 and 2019-01-01.