Terran Orbital subsidiary Tyvak International has received a $4.7 million contract to develop a nanosatellite for the European Space Agency’s mission operations on the Space Rider uncrewed robotic laboratory.
Under the deal, the company will partner with the Polytechnic University of Turin, the University of Padova and StellarProject to build the spacecraft, which will be deployed from the robotic lab.
Terran Orbital said the satellite will conduct proximity and in-orbit servicing operations to support Space Rider’s mission of testing new technologies for pharmaceutics, biomedicine, biology and physical science advancements.
The Tyvak-built satellite will be onboarded with ESA’s Space Rider flight missions for the experimental phase in orbit and redeployed in future space servicing operations.
The effort supports the space agency’s objective of efficiently unloading and refurbishing Space Rider’s payloads upon its return to Earth at the end of every mission, Terran Orbital said.
In a statement, Terran Orbital Chairman and CEO Marc Bell said the ESA prime contract will deploy space capabilities that protect strategic orbital assets and provide increased benefits to mission partners.
