ELSE on track to launch demonstration nanosatellites in 2017

In a recent article published by Via Satellite, Fabien Jordan, ELSE CEO announced that USD 4 million had been raised in funding, putting his company on track to launch two demonstration nanosatellites in the fourth quarter of 2017, the first in its 64-nanosatellite Machine-to-Machine (M2M) constellation, Astrocast. The company with offices in Lausanne and Portland is still looking to raise the last $1 million in its seed funding round in order to take it to launch, as well as another $6 million in Series A funding in 2017. 

The constellation is set to enter commercial service in late 2018 when ELSE will place the first eight satellites into orbit. ELSE will launch the satellites in groupings of eight, with the second launch planned for 2019, and aims to drive the launch cadence up to two launches a year in 2020 and 2021. With the plan to have all 64 nanosats in orbit by 2021, the company is hoping to service the mobility market. In the meantime, however, it will focus on introducing M2M to the Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) market.

With the launch of its demonstration nanosatellites, 2017 is set to be a very important year for ELSE.  Fabien Jordan declared to Via Satellite: “2017 is a very important year for us,” adding “We have to finalize the development of not only the space segment but the ground segment and the M2M protocol, and we will begin testing. We want to get the first satellites off the ground by the end of next year, maybe in the beginning of 2018, and this year it is very important to complete our funding rounds.”

Founded in 2014, the Vaud-based start-up ELSE specialises in electronics for the space field, with a focus on miniaturized systems. team has developed products or provided engineering work for more than 10 ESA missions, 7 nanosatellite missions, the Swiss watch industry and the Swiss transportation industry. The vision of the start-up is to build up a global, low-cost M2M service using a constellation of nanosatellites.

(ES)