ION Satellite Carrier (formerly ION CubeSat Carrier) is a satellite platform developed, manufactured, and operated by Italian company D-Orbit. The platform features a customizable 64U satellite dispenser capable of hosting a combination of CubeSats that fits the volume. Throughout a mission, ION Satellite Carrier can release the hosted satellites individually, changing orbital parameter between one deployment and the next. Each of the miniature CubeSats weighs a few kilograms.

The organization also developed a D3 (D-Orbit Decommissioning Device) system, which has obtained funding from the European Commission and the European Space Agency, to safely dispose of satellites at the end of their lives and avoid adding to the problems created by the approximately 130 million pieces of space debris. According to D-Orbit, a space circular economy is feasible, and space recycling will soon be a new sector. This will involve using local resources such as dead satellites to create spaceships in space.

The inaugural mission, named Origin, was launched on Vega flight VV16 from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on September 3, 2020. The vehicle, named ION SCV Lucas, carried 12 SuperDove satellites from Planet Labs. On September 25, ION SCV Lucas released successfully the first SuperDove satellite of the batch; the last satellite was deployed on October 28. As of December 2023, ION SCV has successfully completed 13 missions, 1 as a payload of a Vega rocket and 12 as a payload of a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket.

D-Orbit is a successful alumnus of the European Space Agency's incubator, ESA BIC Portugal, and the two firms collaborated on Project Sunrise, an active debris removal project, in 2019.

Mission overview The carrier deployed CubeSats one by one using a spring release mechanism once positioned in a Sun-synchronous orbit at 500 km. The 60 cm cubic dispenser allows for several combinations of 1U, 2U, 3U, 3U+, 6U, 6U+, 12U and 12U+ Cubesats along the vertical axis. After completion of the up to one month long deployment phase, ION CubeSat Carrier will initiate a validation phase of its payloads directly integrated on the platform.

Missions

Past missions Mission Name Spacecraft Date Launch Vehicle Payload Customers Outcome Origin ION SCV-001 Lucas 3 September 2020 Vega Flock-4v × 12 Planet Labs PulseION SCV-002 Laurentius24 January 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 Flock-4s × 8 Planet Labs rowspan=4 SpaceBEE × 12 Swarm Technologies ARGO (hosted) EICAS Automazione DRAGO (hosted) IACWild RideION SCV-003 Dauntless David30 June 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 Ghalib Marshall Intech rowspan=9 NAPA-2 RTAF NEPTUNO Elecnor Deimos QMR-KWT Orbital Space SPARTAN EnduroSat W-Cube Reaktor Space LaserCube (hosted) Italian Stellar Project Nebula (hosted) D-Orbit UK Worldfloods (hosted) Frontier Development LabDashing Through the StarsION SCV-004 Elysian Eleonora13 January 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 DODONA USC rowspan=6 LabSat SatRevolution STORK 1, 2 SatRevolution SW1FT SatRevolution VZLUSat-2 VZLU cloud platform (hosted) D-Orbit / Unibap / VTTSpacelustION SCV-005 Almighty Alexius1 April 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 KSF2 × 4 Kleos Space rowspan=4 PlantSat University of Chile SUCHAI 2, 3 University of Chile UP-box (hosted) UpmosphereInfinite BlueION SCV-006 Thrilling Thomas25 May 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 Guardian 1 Aistech Space rowspan=4 SBUDNIC BUSE / CNR Crypto-1 (hosted) Cryptosat GEN-01 (hosted) GenergoSecond Star to the RightION SCV-007 Glorious Gratia3 January 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 Astrocast × 4 Astrocast SA rowspan=10 FUTURA-SM1 NPC Spacemind FUTURA-SM3 NPC Spacemind Kelpie 1 ACC Clyde Space / Orbcomm Sharja-Sat-1 SAASST / ITUION SCV-008 Fierce Franciscus TAUSAT2 Tel Aviv University Cryptosat-2 (hosted) Cryptosat DRAGO-2 (hosted) IAC Genergo-2 (hosted) Genergo ? (hosted) (undisclosed)StarfieldION SCV-009 Eclectic Elena31 January 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 Satellite simulator EBAD rowspan="4" ADEO-N3 (hosted) HPF Bunny (hosted) EPFL SD-1 (hosted) StardustMeGuardianION SCV-010 Masterful Matthaeus15 April 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 ELO-3 Eutelsat rowspan=6 EPICHyper-1 AAC Clyde Space / Wyvern Kepler-20, 21 Kepler Communications VCUB1 Visiona MicroCMG (hosted) Veoware SCORPIO (hosted) Elettronica GroupAbove the SkyION SCV-011 Savvy Simon12 June 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 EPICHyper-2 AAC Clyde Space / Wyvern rowspan=9 Kelpie-2 AAC Clyde Space / Orbcomm Outpost Mission 1 Outpost Space SpeiSat Dicastery for Communication / ASI ELO-4 Eutelsat AlbaPod × 2 (hosted) Alba Orbital NaviLEOTM (hosted) SpacePNT ODIN-DU1 (hosted) ODIN Space UKRI SWIMMR-1 (hosted) UKRICosmic WanderION SCV-013 Ultimate Hugo11 November 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 Crypto3 Cryptosat rowspan=11 EPICHyper-3 AAC Clyde Space / Wyvern Intuition-1 AAC Clyde Space / KP Labs Lemur-2 NANAZ Spire Global OSW Cazorla Odyssey SpaceWorks PiCo-IoT × 9 Apogeo Space Ymir-1 AAC Clyde Space / Saab AB / Orbcomm AlbaPod × 2 (hosted) Alba Orbital Antelope (hosted) KP Labs Gen-03 (hosted) Genergo Radiosat&Beamasat (hosted) PICOSATSBeyondION SCV-015 Daring Diego1 December 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 ALISIO-1 IAC rowspan=8 LOGSATS Patriot Infovention NanoFF A, B TU Berlin AlbaPod (hosted) Alba Orbital MI:1 (hosted) TRL11 Pono 1 (hosted) Privateer RECS (hosted) Polimi Z01 SuperTorquer (hosted) Zenno AstronauticsCelestial BlissION SCV-012 Magnificent Monica16 August 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 Lemur-2 × 4 Spire Global rowspan=4 Sedna-1 AAC SpaceQuest Poseidon M1.5 Miles Space TetraPLEX (hosted) TelePIXAscendION SCV-014 Eminent Emmanuel14 January 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 Data DOT × 4 Space Dots rowspan=4 SWIMMR UK Research and Innovation AlbaPod PocketQube (hosted) Alba Orbital Poseidon M1.5 Miles Space Endelss Sky ION SCV-016 Amazing Antonius LOGSATS-2 EOS Orbit rowspan=6 PoSAT-2 LusoSpace Mission Impossible: 2 (hosted) TRL11 Hitchhiker 1 SpaceLocker K2 Space Component Mission (hosted) K2 Space AI-eXpress (AIXp) Planetek Wish Upon a Star ION SCV-017 Marvelous Mathias15 March 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 LOGSATS-2 EOS Orbit rowspan=6 HERMES-SP × 6 Italian Space Agency DARK (hosted) Arkadia Space GO-2 Propulsion System (hosted) Morpheus Space Clustergate-1 DPhi Space Shooting Star Memorial Beyond Burials Space Bound ION SCV Charismatic Carlus23 June 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 Lemur Spire rowspan=4 PBI (hosted) Pale Blue Rogue Thrusters (hosted) Magdrive Early Test Payload (hosted) Constellation Global Skytrail ION SCV Passionate Paula23 June 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 DNAV (Deep Space Navigation) (payload) telePIX rowspan=3 AI-eXpress (AIX) (hosted) Planetek Italia ROQuET - Reconfigurable lower Orbit Quantum Computer for Earth observation Technology (hosted) University of Vienna CNR Milano DLR Ride With Me ION SCV Galactic Georgius 28 November 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 LEMUR-2-HOTSPUR-TOM Spire rowspan=5 Lacuna-5 and Lacuna-6 Spire LaserCube Compact ISL 1000 (hosted) Stellar Project D-Orbit MS-1 / Mission Nicoló (hosted) Spaceium PBI (hosted) Pale Blue We Need More Space ION SCV Stellar Stephanus 1 December 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 LEMUR-2-STARLIGHT and LEMUR-2-TARTIFLETTE Spire rowspan=6 Lacuna-3 and Lacuna-4 Spire Foresail-1 prime (hosted) Aalto University AI-eXpress 1 Plus (AIX-1+)(hosted) Planetek ItaliaD-OrbitAIKO LaserCube Compact ISL 1000 (hosted) Stellar ProjectD-Orbit StardustMe SD-3 (hosted) Stardust Me Wayfinder ION SCV Astounding Alexandra 30 March 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 Lusíada x 4 (Camões, Bessa, Saramago, Pessoa) LusoSpace rowspan=3 QubitCore (hosted) Qubitrium Camera SpaceMast (hosted) DLR

Planned missions Mission Name Spacecraft Date Launch Vehicle Payload Customers Outcome

See also NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer Vigoride SHERPA Orbiter

References

External links InOrbit NOW D-Orbit