Rocket Lab’s Mission Control in Auckland. Image provided by Fleet.
South Australian IoT startup Fleet Space Technologies will launch two nanosatellites with Rocket Lab in New Zealand on November 11, with further launches to follow with Antrix and SpaceX.
Fleet’s Proxima nanosats will launch from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex-1 facility on the Māhia penisula, and will be the first of a vast constellation of IoT satellites planned by Fleet.
The company says that the Proxima program was started following completion of the Centauri program, when two units were shipped to their respective launchers, but the team were able to complete the Proxima satellites in a fraction of the time due to applying learnings from Centauri, and the collaboration with Rocket Lab.
Fleet’s Proxima I and II nanosatellites. Image provided by Fleet.
Fleet’s Proxima satellites will join payloads from Spire Global, GeoOptics, and the Irvine CubeSat Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Program (ICSP) in Rocket Lab’s upcoming mission, titled It’s Business Time. They will be launched and housed in Rocket Lab’s Maxwell dispenser, which was designed and constructed in-house.
The company says it is busy preparing its Mission Control in Adelaide to be ready to handle four satellites making their first orbits within days of each other, and will work to commission Centauri and Proxima through November and December.
Stay up to date by getting stories like this delivered to your mailbox.
Sign up to receive our free weekly Spatial Source newsletter.
