Mission

Spacelust

Mission Name

Spacelust

Carrier Name

ION SCV005 Almighty Alexius

Launch Date

April 2022

Launch Site

Cape Canaveral

Launcher

SpaceX

Rocket

Falcon 9

Mission Status

Completed

Spacelust, April 2022
Spacelust Mission Booklet

Mission Updates

6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

UPDATE 6

May 12th, 2022

Mission complete

On May the 9th 2022, ION SCV005 Almighty Alexius successfully deployed KSF2a and KSF2b, the last two satellites of Kleos’ Patrol Mission. With the release of the two spacecraft, onboard through a contract with Spaceflight, ION SCV005 Almighty Alexius concludes Spacelust mission.

KSF2a and KSF2b were deployed after the execution of a series of orbital maneuvers, including a change in the orbit inclination and RAAN shift. Such maneuvers had never been demonstrated by an OTV before.

UPDATE 5

April 11th, 2022

2 out of 4 satellites from Kleos deployed

ION SCV005 Almighty Alexius successfully deployed into orbit the first two (KSF2-C and KSF2-D) of four Kleos’ Patrol mission satellites, onboard ION through a contract with Spaceflight Inc.

The Patrol Mission will join the already in-orbit Kleos’ low earth orbit constellation, to expose illegal activity on land and sea by detecting and geolocating radio frequency transmissions, for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) of governments and commercial entities.

UPDATE 4

April 12th, 2022

PlantSat CubeSat deployed

ION SCV005 Almighty Alexius, successfully deployed PlantSat into its operational orbit.

The 3U CubeSat, developed by SPEL at the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Mathematics (FCFM) - University of Chile in collaboration with the University of Santiago de Chile, will study the growth of a plant in low Earth orbit in an environment that will replicate the conditions on the surface of Mars.

UPDATE 3

April 08th, 2022

LEOP completed

The ‘Phase 1 - Launch and Early Orbit Phase’ of ION’s Spacelust mission has been successfully completed ahead of schedule.

The operations team has neutralized the rotation imparted by the launch vehicle during separation, corrected the attitude, and tested the satellite’s subsystems.

We are now about to start the Commercial Phase, Orbital Transportation with the release of the satellites of our customers in the desired orbits.

UPDATE 2

April 2nd, 2022

Beginning of LEOP and commissioning phase

After acquiring the signal from our ION SCV Almighty Alexius a few hours after launch, our operations team has started all actions and procedures required by the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) and Commissioning phase.

UPDATE 1

April 1, 2022

Launch

Spacelust, the fifth mission of the ION Satellite Carrier (ION), launched on April 1, at 12:24 PM EDT from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), Florida, aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-4 mission.

The Spacelust mission includes satellites from Kleos Space S.A. (ASX:KSS, Frankfurt:KS1, Kleos) via Spaceflight Inc., satellites developed at the Space Exploration Laboratory (SPEL) and a hosted payload from Upmosphere.

ION was successfully deployed at 1:50 PM EDT into a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).

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Roadmap

PHASE 1 - COMMISSIONING

As soon as ION SCV005 Almighty Alexius reaches orbit, our spacecraft operations engineers establish a bidirectional communication channel. We then start the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), neutralizing the rotation imparted by the launch vehicle during separation, correcting the attitude, testing the satellite’s subsystems, and preparing for the next phases.

PHASE 2 - COMMERCIAL PHASE, ORBITAL TRANSPORTATION

Once concluded the commissioning phase, ION SCV005 Almighty Alexius starts the commercial phase of the mission with the deployment of the hosted satellites into a 500km sun-synchronous orbit.

PHASE 3 - HOSTED PAYLOADS PHASE

Onboard Spacelust there is also a hosted payload is from Upmosphere, an Italian start-up specializing in emotional payloads. The company offers customers a chance to launch smaller personal items that will travel around the Earth for several years aboard ION; the payload for this mission consists of a wooden UP-box containing mementos from four different clients.

PHASE 4 - DECOMMISSIONING

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

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