The National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), coordinated by the Astrophysical Observatory of Arcetri, has been a founding member of the Mauve program since 2024, ensuring Italy access to priority data and a central role in defining the scientific program and subsequent analysis.
Blue Skies Space announced the successful launch of its first satellite, Mauve, on November 28, 2025, at 19:44 Italian time from Vandenberg base in the United States aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-15 mission.
The launch of Mauve marks the official beginning of a three-year mission to study stars and their influence on the habitability of possible exoplanets orbiting them.
Mauve will observe stars in ultraviolet light wavelengths that cannot be studied from Earth, providing a deeper understanding of stellar behavior and the impact of their flares on the environment of orbiting exoplanets.
Mauve is a nanosatellite weighing under 20 kg equipped with a 13 cm telescope to observe stars in the ultraviolet and visible light bands (200–700 nm), measuring stellar energy phenomena and transients over long periods.
Mauve is the first European private satellite aimed solely at scientific purposes, developed by Blue Skies Space (UK/Italy) in collaboration with C3S LLC and ISISPACE.
SEOPS integrated two Hungarian-developed satellites, WISDOM and Mauve, on Transporter 15.
Giovanna Tinetti, the scientific leader and co-founder of Blue Skies Space, stated that Mauve will open a new window on stellar activity that has largely remained hidden.