Mission

Into the Quiet Dark

MISSION NAME

Into the Quiet Dark

CARRIER NAME

SCV Alluring Alexander

LAUNCH DATE

October 2026

LAUNCH SITE

Vandenberg

LAUNCHER

SpaceX

ROCKET

Falcon 9

MISSION STATUS

Ongoing

PASSENGERS

SATELLITES ONBOARD

HOSTED PAYLOADS

MISSION BOOKLET

Mission Updates

2. 1.

UPDATE 2

October 14th, 2026

Beginning of Commercial phase: deployment of MOI-1A

ION SCV Alluring Alexander officially began the commercial phase of Into the Quiet Dark by deploying in orbit MOI-1A, by the Indian company TakeMe2Space. The 6U CubeSat, manifested onboard with the support of Impulso Space, is designed for in-orbit computing and is the first commercial satellite of the company’s OrbitLab constellation.

MOI-1A combines a multispectral imager with a 9 m ground sampling distance and a 117 TOPS AI accelerator capable of processing imagery directly in space, and will enable customers to upload large AI models and run inference directly onboard, helping make Earth observation more accessible and cost-effective.

Deployment of of MOI-1A, by TakeMe2Space, Into the Quet Dark mission. Video Credit: D-Orbit

UPDATE 1

October 1st, 2026

Launch

D-Orbit’s 26th commercial ION Satellite Carrier mission, Into the Quiet Dark, was successfully launched on October 1, 2026 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 participating in the Transporter-18 rideshare mission. The rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 11:32 a.m. PT (8:32 p.m. CEST). Approximately 1 hour and 2 minutes later, ION SCV Alluring Alexander was deployed into its target Sun-Synchronous Orbit at an altitude of about 510 km.

Launched together with two more ION Satellite Carrier vehicles supporting the The Sky Isn’t the Limit and The Infinite missions, Alluring Alexander will perform five satellite deployments and two hosted payload demonstrations.

D-Orbit’s mission operations team is currently conducting the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP), paving the way for upcoming deployment and payload operations.

Roadmap

PHASE 1 - COMMISSIONING

As soon as ION SCV Alluring Alexander reaches orbit, our spacecraft operations engineers will establish a bidirectional communication channel and start the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), neutralizing the rotation imparted by the launch vehicle during separation, correcting the attitude, testing the satellites' subsystems, and preparing for the next phases.

PHASE 2 - COMMERCIAL PHASE, SATELLITE DEPLOYMENTS AND HOSTED PAYLOAD DEMONSTRATIONS

Once concluded the commissioning phase, ION SCV Alluring Alexander will start the commercial phase of the mission, which will consist in the deployment of the hosted satellites and the in-orbit demonstration of the third-party payloads hosted onboard. For this mission, ION will deploy five satellites and perform two in-orbit demonstrations of hosted payloads.

PHASE 3 - DECOMMISSIONING

At the end of the mission, the platform will join the fleet of IONs already in orbit and operated by the company. At the end of its life, the spacecraft will be decommissioned in compliance with the Space Debris Mitigation guidelines. The pressure vessels will be depleted from leftover fuel and oxidizer, the battery charging system will be deactivated, and the batteries will be completely discharged. The spacecraft, now inert, will enter a decommissioning trajectory that will bring it to burn up upon atmospheric re-entry within a few years.