ORX-1 constellation · 48 satellites · 525 km orbit

Earth,refreshedevery 90 minutes.

We build and operate a constellation of small Earth observation satellites. You get an image of any place on the planet within an hour of ordering it, not a week.

Request data access Look inside the satellite

Resolution: 30 cm per pixel
Revisit: every 90 minutes
Orbit: 525 km, sun-synchronous
Delivery: under 60 minutes

ORX-07 · altitude 525.2 km
Next pass over Gdańsk in 14 min
Laser link · 10 Gb/s
Images since midnight · 18,412
Cloud cover over Europe · 38%
Svalbard · contact acquired

01Anatomy

24 kilograms of engineering. Every part has one job.

Scroll and the satellite comes apart. ORX-1 is the size of a carry-on case, yet it holds a telescope, a computer that judges its own images, and a thruster that will bring it down after five years.

Mass: 24 kg
Size: 12U · 23 × 23 × 34 cm
Mission: 5 years
Deorbit: within a year of mission end

Telescope
18 cm aperture · 30 cm per pixel
A Korsch telescope with a silicon carbide mirror. It images in 8 bands, from visible light to near infrared, across a 12 km swath.
Power
4 wings · 86 W · 120 Wh
Gallium arsenide solar wings unfold right after separation from the rocket. Lithium-ion batteries carry the satellite through the 35 minutes of every orbit spent in Earth’s shadow.
Attitude control
3 reaction wheels · 0.01° pointing
Two star trackers read the attitude from the stars, and three reaction wheels turn the satellite without using propellant. From 525 km the telescope hits a target the size of a football pitch.
Onboard computer
On-orbit analysis · 4 TOPS
An onboard neural network drops frames hidden by cloud and crops what matters. Less data comes down, so it arrives sooner.
Communications
10 Gb/s laser · X-band · UHF
A laser terminal sends images to ground stations and to neighbouring satellites. X-band is the backup link, and commands travel over UHF.
Propulsion
Hall thruster · krypton · 180 m/s ΔV
An electric Hall thruster running on krypton holds the orbit and dodges space debris. When the mission ends it lowers the orbit so the satellite burns up in the atmosphere.

02Coverage

Every place on Earth, 16 times a day.

48 satellites fly in six orbital planes, and 14 ground stations from Svalbard to Antarctica receive their images. Spin the globe or pick a station from the list.

satellites in orbit: 48
orbital planes: 6
ground stations: 14
passes a day over every place: 16

Ground stations

Drag to spin it. With a keyboard: arrow keys.Swipe sideways to spin it.

Selected station

Svalbard Norway

Coordinates: 78.23° N, 15.39° E
Bands: X · S · laser
Passes a day: 16 passes
Next pass: in 23 min

03Applications

What you can see from 525 km.

The same satellites work for farmers, emergency services, scientists and cities. The frames below come from NASA missions, because our constellation is fictional.

Photo: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems · ASTER
Agriculture
Soil moisture and crop health for every single field. Farmers know which irrigation circle to switch off before they see it from the tractor.
8bands, from visible light to infrared
Photo: NASA · ISS Expedition 71
Wildfires
A fire shows up in infrared before the smoke reaches the nearest village. Crews get a new map of the fire front every hour and a half.
90 minbetween fire maps
Photo: NASA · Landsat 7
Ice and climate
Glaciers retreat by tens of metres a year. We compare the same places day after day and measure how much ice is gone.
30 cmsmallest visible change
Photo: NASA · Aqua MODIS
Seas and oceans
Algal blooms, oil slicks and ships with their transponders off. You can’t watch an ocean from a boat, but you can from orbit.
361 mln km²of ocean covered every day
Photo: NASA · ISS Expedition 69
Cities and energy
New districts, roads and power lines. At night the satellite sees city lights, so after a blackout you know at once which districts are dark.
24 hof observation, night included