Scottish satellite builder and mission management company Alba Orbital announced 2 October that it had begun the process of moving into a new manufacturing facility.
Alba Orbital was founded in 2012 with two aims: to maximize the value of PocketQube satellites and to offer an Earth observation data service. To date, the company has launched 31 satellites and begun to offer an early access programme for its NightLight service, which offers “dependable high-resolution night-time imagery.” The company also offers ground station services, picosatellite deployers, and a launch broker service.
The company’s new satellite manufacturing facility features 500 square metres of factory floor space and, once fully operational, will be capable of producing hundreds of satellites per year.
“It’s a huge step for us to ramp up our production rates of PocketQube spacecraft and ultimately significantly reduce the revisit time for our EO constellation,” Alba Orbital founder and CEO Tom Walkinshaw told European Spaceflight.
In a LinkedIn post from Walkinshaw last week, the founder and CEO explained that Alba had already averaged a completed, in-house built, and shipped satellite every three days for the preceding 15 days. This with a team of around twenty people.
With its increased satellite manufacturing capability, Alba Orbital aims to eventually be able to image every square metre of Earth every 15 minutes.
