Deal to launch Greek ‘pocket satellites’ – Possibly with Elon Musk’s rockets

In 2023 and 2024, another six Greek picotassatellites (“pocket satellites” of 200-300 grams) are expected to be launched into space, possibly on a Space-X rocket by Elon Musk, within the framework of the agreement signed by the Greek non-profit organization Libre Space Foundation (LSF) with the Spanish company “UARX Space”.

As LSF vice-president Eleftherios Kosmas informed APE-MBE, the agreement concerns two different missions into space, in each of which it is planned to launch three Greek satellites in their respective deployment system (deployer), possibly (but not definitely) on a “Falcon” rocket of “SpaceX”, Musk’s company.

These satellites will be used as part of the ESA (European Space Agency) funded SIDLOC project, which aims to detect and identify objects in space. Why is such a project necessary? As APE-MPE has written, it is necessary because “overcrowding” has begun to prevail in Space: over 6,000 satellites are in orbit around the Earth, of which 60% are estimated to be inactive – space junk – and approximately 40% operational, according to the World Economic Forum (October 2020). Within the next decade, an estimated 990 satellites will be launched annually, which means that by 2028 more than 15,000 could be in orbit.

In the crowd that gradually builds up, with sometimes hundreds of simultaneous launches, it is not uncommon for the individual or organization that “launched” a satellite to lose track of it – even temporarily – and not be able to immediately locate it, control it and give him an order for maneuvers. The technology with a Greek signature, developed by LSF, in a joint venture with the Technology and Research Foundation (ΙΤΕ), aspires to provide a solution to this important problem, within the framework of the three-year SIDLOC project, funded by ESA and the ARTES program.

But who is UARX Space?, with which the agreement was signed? The Spanish company operates with claims in the space missions and multi-mission services in Space. It will therefore work with the LSF to send “up there” the innovative Libre Space Foundation-built Piso-Satellite Release System, which will house the three-plus-three Piso-satellites. “UARX Space is one of the emerging launch service companies in Europe” said Manthos Papamattheiou, president of LSF and added: “We are very happy with the signing of these cooperation agreements, as well as the support we will receive from such experienced team of UARX”.

Home of small satellites

UARX Space, based in Nigrán, Galicia, Spain, is active in the field of organizing and overseeing missions in Space, providing exclusive launch services for small satellites, not only in LEO (low Earth orbit), but also in Moon and even further away. The founders of UARX Space, Yanina Halak and Andres Villa, are both graduates of “California Polytechnic”, a university that has become known worldwide as “the home of small satellites” as it is heavily involved in the development and manufacture of microsatellites.

THE Libre Space Foundation is a non-profit organization, founded in Greece in 2015. Its mission is to promote and develop open technologies for Space (technologies that are free and free for everyone to use). The Agency’s projects include the maintenance and development of the world’s largest network of open-source satellite ground stations, as well as the design and construction of the first open-source microsatellite, and the first open-source pico-satellite launch system.

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