Alba Orbital has announced the end of the mission and re-entry of Unicorn-2C (NOOR 1B), Alba’s first Unicorn spacecraft to make orbit.
The spacecraft successfully deployed its quadruple deployable solar panel and the customer operator confirmed reception of spacecraft signal. This is a great first step in space, moving the system to TRL-9.
The Unicorn-2C smallsat. Photo is courtesy of Alba Orbital.
While this was an experimental mission, the company is proud to reach this milestone and looks forward to upgrading Unicorn-2.0 to our Unicorn-2.1 architecture for new customers.
Achievements of the mission
- First smallsat to successfully deploy quadruple deployable solar panels
- First PocketQube to deploy a solar panel
- First operational 3p PocketQube in history
- Validation of Unicorn subsystems: Structure, Thermal, Backplane (OBC/EPS), Alba Radio, Unicorn OS (Software),
- System moves from TRL-8 to TRL-9.
- First full spacecraft delivered in-orbit to a commercial customer
- FCC licensed, demonstrating route to license PocketQube in the US.
- Contract kickoff to in-orbit deployment in under 1 year
Missions stats
Time on Orbit: 123 days (4 months, 1 day)
TLEs: 288
Average TLEs per day: 2.34
TLEs average update rate: 10 hrs 15 minutes
Injection Orbit Albapod: 403 x 348km, 97 degrees incl.
Learn more about using Unicorn-2 at this direct infolink…