Alba Orbital

Alba Orbital is a Scottish company which builds PocketQube satellites. Alba Orbital is the developer and manufacturer of the Unicorn-1[1] and Unicorn-2[2] satellite platforms.

Alba Orbital
TypeLimited company
IndustrySatellite Manufacture
Founded5 October 2012
Headquarters
Glasgow
,
United Kingdom
Key people
Tom Walkinshaw
ProductsPocketqube Platforms and Components
Total assets£90,954
Websitewww.albaorbital.com

The company holds contracts with the European Space Agency.[3]

Overview

Alba Orbital builds and designs picosatellites, which are small satellites 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.[4]

Launches

Alba Orbital is a launch broker, and has purchased capacity with several space companies, including SpaceX and Rocket Lab, in order to send PocketQube satellites into space.[5] These launches harbor clusters[6] containing space for PocketQubes that are sold to teams wanting to send a pod along. Albapod deployers are used to release the clusters on every Alba Orbital flight. These deployers come in two sizes: 6P and 96P.[7] 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.

Mission Name Date Launch Vehicle Payload Customers Outcome
Alba Cluster 2 6 December 2019 Electron Hungary ATL-1 BME Success
Spain FossaSat-1 FOSSA Systems
United States NOOR 1A, 1B (Unicorn-2B, 2C) Stara Space
Hungary SMOG-P BME
United States TRSI-1 ACME AtronOmatic
Alba Cluster 3 13 January 2022 Falcon 9 Block 5 Netherlands Delfi-PQ TU Delft Success
Spain EASAT-2 AMSAT EA
Turkey Grizu-263a ZBEU
Spain HADES AMSAT EA
Argentina MDQube-SAT 1 Innova Space
Alba Cluster 4 Brazil PION-BR1 PION Labs
Israel SATLLA 2A, 2B Ariel University
United States Tartan Artibeus-1 (Unicorn-2TA1) CMU
United Kingdom Unicorn-1 Alba Orbital
United Kingdom Unicorn-2A, 2D, 2E Alba Orbital
Alba Cluster X 2 May 2022 Electron United States MyRadar-1 ACME AtronOmatic Success
United States TRSI 2, 3 ACME AtronOmatic
United Kingdom Unicorn-2F Alba Orbital
Alba Cluster (?) 3 January 2023 Falcon 9 Block 5 / Orbiter United Kingdom Unicorn-2G Alba Orbital Failure[8]
United Kingdom Unicorn-2H Alba Orbital

Funding

In 2021, Alba Orbital participated in the startup accelerator program Y Combinator, located in Silicon Valley in the United States. They raised US$3.4 million after completing the program.[9]

See also
  • PocketQube – The satellite format Alba Orbital specialize in building

References
  1. "Unicorn 1". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  2. "Unicorn 2A, 2D, 2E". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  3. ESA. "ESA ARTES Contractors".
  4. Wired. "Alba Orbital: pushing the limits of space development". Wired UK.
  5. "Alba Cluster 3/4 info". Alba Orbital. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  6. "Scottish satellite firm plans second PocketQube launch mission". The National.
  7. Satnews Daily. "Alba Orbital Prepares a Pod for PocketQube Launch".
  8. "Orbiter SN1 Mission Update". Launcher. 16 February 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  9. "Scots firm behind pocket-size satellites takes aim at world record after Silicon Valley funding". 26 August 2021.
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