Can You Fit A Satellite In Your Pocket?

Yes. ESA, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, TU delft all figured it out.

ESA, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, TU delft all figured out that they can build and launch a satellite for less. The goal of these smart originations? Miniaturization. But how small? What if I told you that you could hold a satellite in your hand? How about a functional satellite that is the size of a Rubik’s Cube? Sound crazy? It’s not. Here is how.

ESA, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, TU delft all have something in common. They are working with Alba Orbital.

Miniaturization of satellites is the target business of Alba Orbital.

There has been a trend in the satellite industry to move to smaller, more compact satellites. Smaller can translate into substantive savings during both development and launch. WestEastpace recently caught up with the founder of Alba Orbital to talk with him about the journey to orbit. Alba doesn’t build just any smallsats, they build really small ones called PocketQubes. Most recently, Alba Orbital launched numerous PocketQubes into orbit on December 6th.

The Recent launch

The December 6th launch occurred with a live audience, and the audience saw Rocket Lab successfully launch its 10th rocket. The rocket lifted off in a…