Launch Scheduled For Mid-2020 Aboard A PSLV Rocket

Spaceflight has been awarded the contract to provide launch services for INPE, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, the research unit of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications. The contract award is the culmination of a multi-year, highly competitive government procurement process among global launch providers. Throughout the process, Spaceflight was supported in Brazil by a local representative of the Akaer Group.

Melissa Wuerl, vice president of business development at Spaceflight, received the award from INPE Director Ricardo Galvão in a ceremony, with the presence of the Brazilian Space Agency President, José Raimundo Braga Coelho, in São José dos Campos, São Paulo Brazil.

INPE’s Amazonia-1 satellite is the first Earth observation satellite to be completely designed, integrated, tested and operated by Brazil. Its goal is to autonomously observe the national territory of Brazil, in particular the Amazon region. Amazonia-1 is also the first satellite based on Brazilian Multi Mission Platform (MMP), a general purpose service bus for 1,100 pound class satellites.

Representing the largest spacecraft Spaceflight has launched to date, Amazonia-1 weighs approximately 1,540 pounds and is 5.5 feet in diameter and 8.5 feet tall. It will be the primary spacecraft on the PSLV mission, with the excess capacity filled by Spaceflight’s smallsat rideshare customers. Targeting mid-2020, Amazonia-1 will be deployed to a mean altitude 470-mile sun-synchronous orbit, while the additional secondary rideshare spacecraft will be deployed at a lower altitude.

Spaceflight will provide a combination of launch and end-to-end mission management services, as well as hardware for INPE. “We excel at complex launch missions like this, and it’s an honor to be selected to take INPE’s first Amazonia satellite to space,” said Wuerl. “Our goal continues to be to provide the most rideshare options for customers to get their spacecraft into orbit—which ultimately benefits everyone on board.”

The awarding of the Amazonia-1 launch comes on the heels of Spaceflight’s historic dedicated rideshare launch of 64 smallsats on its SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 earlier this month. With the success of SSO-A, Spaceflight has now launched more than 210 satellites since its founding in 2011. In addition, the company is contracted to launch nearly 100 satellites in 2019 from a variety of launch vehicles including Falcon 9, PSLV, Antares, Electron and Vega.

Ricardo Galvão from INPE added, “This contract represents a tremendous milestone for INPE and we’re very pleased to be working with the team at Spaceflight on our very first fully Brazilian mission.”

(Image provided with Spaceflight news release)

FMI: www.spaceflight.com