The company hopes it’s approach will ‘disrupt’ the telecoms industry by delivering affordable satellite communications services to remote locations.
The satellites are currently undergoing eight-weeks of functionality and performance tests to check subsystems and communications payloads are fully operational. Following this, the pilot constellation will go live.
Sky and Space Global’s CEO, Mr. Meir Moalem said: “We will now begin the next phase, which is In-Orbit testing. This marks the start of an exciting new era for SAS and for satellite technology and we now expect to be revenue generating within a few months.
“We look forward to continuing to work towards delivering a full constellation of up to 200 nano-satellites in orbit in order to achieve full coverage of the equatorial belt by 2020.”
The nano-satellites cost an estimated $500,000 per unit with launch costs of $200,00 to $250,000 per satellite. The satellites are placed in low Earth orbit at an altitude of 500–800km.
The satellites will have a design life of five to seven years. Sky and Space Global intends to replace 25% of the constellation each year, replacing 50 satellites with newer, more capable, versions.
Sky and Space Global has already pre-sold its nano-satellite communications bandwidth, having secured commercial contracts through its first wholesale operator, Sat-Space Africa and Globalsat Group in Latin America.
The ISRO is the space agency of the Government of India and was formed in 1969, superseding the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) established in 1962.
