Alba Orbital is a Scottish company which builds
PocketQube satellites. Alba Orbital is the developer and manufacturer of the Unicorn-1 and Unicorn-2 satellite platforms.
The company holds contracts with the
European Space Agency.
Overview
Alba Orbital builds and designs
picosatellites, which are a kind of
small satellite
A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...
that are under 1kg in mass. Picosatellites are modular, with each 1P of volume equal to 5cm x 5cm x 5cm and with the ability for modular units to be combined to get larger volumes. Its Unicorn-1 platform is a 1P picosatellite while its larger Unicorn-2 platform is a 2P satellite that is 5cm x 5cm x 10cm.
Launches
Alba Orbital is a launch broker, and has purchased capacity with several space companies, including
SpaceX and
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab is a public American aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider, with a New Zealand subsidiary. The company operates lightweight Electron orbital rockets, which provide dedicated launches for small satellites. Rocket Lab also ...
, in order to send PocketQube satellites into space.
These launches harbor clusters containing space for PocketQubes that are sold to teams wanting to send a pod along. All Alba Orbital launches use Albapod deployers in order to release the clusters. These deployers come in two sizes: 6P and 96P. As of January 2023, Alba Orbital successfully launched four missions into Low Earth orbit, while one mission failed before deployment on the first flight of
Orbiter SN1.
Funding
In 2021, Alba Orbital participated in the
startup accelerator program
Y Combinator
Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, St ...
, located in
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
in the United States. They raised US$3.4 million after completing the program.
See also
*
PocketQube – The satellite format Alba Orbital specialize in building
References
External links
Company website
{{Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom
Aerospace companies of the United Kingdom
Aerospace companies of Scotland
Space programme of the United Kingdom
Spacecraft manufacturers
Space technology
Manufacturing companies of Scotland
Technology companies established in 2012
Companies based in Glasgow