D-Orbit

D-Orbit, an Italy-based company, specializes in satellite deployment, in-space transportation, and in-orbit servicing through its ION Satellite Carrier. The ION reduces satellite deployment time by up to 85% and costs by 40%. By December 2024, D-Orbit had completed 13 missions, deploying 110 satellites and 44 hosted payloads. It was the world’s first B Corp-certified space company.

D-Orbit delivers services covering satellite deployment, in-orbit maintenance, mission control, and advanced space solutions. Deployment options include Rideshare, which uses third-party launchers for standard orbits; Precision Deployment, which uses the ION Satellite Carrier to tailor orbital placements; and Constellation Deployment, which phases satellites into optimal positions. D-Orbit's Aurora cloud platform supports real-time telemetry monitoring, trajectory updates, telecommands, and 3D visualization, enabling operators to manage satellites efficiently or delegate control to D-Orbit to streamline operations.

In-orbit services encompass transportation, lifetime extension, assembly, refurbishment, debris removal, and inspection. Advanced offerings include the ION Hosted Payload Service for technology testing, in-orbit data computing via D-Orbit Cloud, and a SaaS model. The IRIDE constellation project, financed by Italy’s National Plan for Recovery and Resilience and supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Italian Space Agency (ASI), aims to provide Earth observation data for public services like marine monitoring, air quality, and climate analysis. Launches were planned from 2025 to 2026.

The company also offers satellite hardware and software, such as the AOCS Suite for satellite control, the D-Sense module for positioning, and systems like D-Raise for propulsion and D3 for satellite disposal.

Key customers and partnerships

D-Orbit's customer base includes ESA, ASI, Planet Labs, Spaceflight, Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense (EBAD), the University of Southern California, Brown University, and TelePIX from South Korea.

Early partnerships by the company included SpaceX for deploying ION Satellite Carrier missions and collaborations with Leaf Space and AWS Ground Station to enhance the Aurora platform's global mission control. Significant partnerships also included Starfish Space for orbital rendezvous, HyImpulse Technologies for EU-based satellite launch and deployment services, MetaSensing for supporting ESA's IRIDE Earth observation project, and SkyServe STORM for utilizing Edge computing in space-based data processing.

In October 2024, ESA awarded D-Orbit a contract to develop a spacecraft-servicing vehicle for geostationary satellites and in November 2024, D-Orbit partnered with Morpheus Space to demonstrate the GO-2 electric propulsion system aboard its orbital transfer vehicle.