January 10, 2018

D-Star ONE – Second Birth!

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Today is a big day for German Orbital Systems GmbH (GOS) and iSky Technology s.r.o. (iSky). The 10th of January 2018 will go down in the history of the GOS and iSky companies as the day of the D-Star ONE satellite revival!

On November 28, 2017 we lost our satellite in the result of a failed launch of the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos??™ Meteor-M ?2-1 meteorological mission. We were shocked by this loss, but braced up and began working hard together with our partners from iSky Technology.

Our teams were actively working together during the Christmas and New Year holidays, and we are happy to announce that today we have completed the assembly and final checks of the D-Star ONE v.1.1 Phoenix satellite.

We called this project Phoenix, because since ancient times the phoenix has been a symbol of rebirth and renewal. On November 28, 2017 our satellite burned in the dense layers of the atmosphere, so that in 44 days it could rise from the ashes! It was an extremely challenging task to assemble a fully identical flight spare from the parts we had in a such short period of time and to maintain the same quality level. One thing that paid off during this extremely busy month apart from the self-sacrifice of our team was that we consequently changed our project management approach from traditional to agile in 2017. While the benefits were not that visible during D-Star ONE 1.0, agile project management made D-Star ONE 1.1 Phoenix reality.

The D-Star ONE project is highly important for the whole GOS and iSky teams. We also express our deep gratitude to our main launch provider, ECM Space Technologies GmbH. We were offered several launch options with different launch vehicles scheduled for the beginning of 2018. After long deliberation we again chose the Soyuz-2/Fregat launch system for the launch from the Vostochny launch site on February 1, 2018!

Accidents were always a part of the space industry, no launch system in the world is protected from them, even the legendary Soyuz. We are confident in the reliability of the Russian launch system, as well as in the experience and competence of Russian space engineers. We believe it is important for us to go to the Vostochny launch site again and this time return with a victory!

On GOS and iSky websites, we will write about the progress of the launch campaign at the Vostochny launch site and keep you updated with the latest news of the D-Star ONE v.1.1 Phoenix project.

German Orbital Systems GmbH

German Orbital Systems GmbH is a Berlin-based space company. It was founded in 2014 by former scientific staff of the Technical University of Berlin and is the first German company focused on the CubeSat market. The product portfolio includes subsystems and turn-key satellite missions, which consist of the ground-, space- and launch segments. Since 2016, GOS has been responsible for the separation sequence as a part of ECM Space Technologies GmbH CubeSat dispensers.

iSky Technology s.r.o.

Sky Technology is a Czech space company established in 2016. The company is actively developing in the segment of strategic mission planning, space market analysis, and turn-key space solutions. iSky Technology develops conceptual solutions for businesses in the space industry: from mission design to launch, software development and satellite operation on orbit. iSky Technology specializes in smallsat constellation projects and operates successfully in the North American, European, Russian and the CIS markets.

ECM Space Technologies GmbH

ECM Space Technology GmbH is a German company, spin-off from the department of aeronautics of the Technical University of Berlin. It was founded in 2010 to provide products and technologies for small satellites, launch systems and launch services. Since 2010 ECM has performed numerous successful launches of German satellites and was appointed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) as an authorized partner for small satellite launch solutions. Today ECM is one of the world??™s leading launch providers for small satellites, especially of the CubeSat format.tellites, especially of the CubeSat format.

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