Roadmap
PHASE 1 - COMMISSIONING
As soon as ION SCV Empowering Ekaterina 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, HOSTED PAYLOAD DEMONSTRATION
Once concluded the commissioning phase, ION SCV Empowering Ekaterina will start the commercial phase of the mission, which will consist in the in-orbit demonstration of the third-party payloads hosted onboard. For this mission, ION will perform four 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.
