SpEye Free Flyer Spacecraft - Nanosats Database

Spacecraft name	SpEye Free Flyer (Space Eye)
Spacecraft type	CubeSat
Units or mass	6U
Status	not launched, expected in 2026
Launcher	not launched
Organisation	TSD Space
Institution	Company
Entity	Commercial
Country	Italy
Manufacturer	AIVT by ?
Operator	?
Partners	TSD Space, D-Orbit, Planetek Italia, T4i, Politecnico di Milano, Università di Napoli
Oneliner	Validation of on-orbit inspection and formation-flying techniques for nano-satellite applications.
Description	Signing of the contract for the phase A study. The mission headed by TSD-Space involves an all-Italian team, including D-Orbit, T4i Technology for Propulsion and Innovation, Planetek Italia, Politecnico di Milano, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II. Validation of on-orbit inspection and formation-flying techniques for nano-satellite applications. The project foresees two satellites, a Carrier Satellite and a Free Flyer, a nano-satellite (6U CubeSat) carried and released by the Carrier Satellite itself. The mission has the goal to demonstrate the Free Flyer capability to carry out the on-orbit inspection and mapping of the Carrier Satellite as a Target, thus to verify the formation-flying and autonomous rendez-vous. For the purpose, the Free Flyer will be able to gather Target images through a multispectral and multipurpose vision system for autonomous navigation and inspection. New technologies will be validated as a Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) processing unit able to integrate GNSS and electro-optical observations, an Inertial Navigation System (INS) for a robust and accurate absolute and relative navigation, as well as a propulsion system allowing formation-flying and proximity operations.
Notes	Phase A study as of October 2023.
Sources	[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Photo sources	[1]
COTS subsystems	THRUSTER - T4i
Subsystems sources	[1]
Keywords	Propulsion, Formation flying

Last modified: 2023-10-21