Craft Prospect completes Phase 1 of OPS-SAT VOLT

(Glasgow, UK) Craft Prospect Ltd (CPL) announced Wednesday the success of the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for Ops-Sat VOLT (Versatile Optical Laboratory for Telecommunications), a groundbreaking CubeSat mission which the company is leading with support from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and involving a majority of UK and Scottish partners across the supply chain.

The close-out of the PDR ends the first phase of Ops-Sat VOLT, a €19Mn mission with a payload designed by CPL comprised of three main components: a classical and quantum optical laser communication unit, an intelligent hyperspectral imager and processing chain for climate studies, and an experimenter platform enabling interested parties to perform in-orbit experiments.

The mission is part of ESA’s ARTES Scylight programme for optical communications and follows the award-winning ‘Ops-Sat-1’ satellite from ESOC. It aims to test and evaluate secure, assured, real-time operational techniques and technologies with a focus on groundbreaking optical and quantum direct-to-earth communication.

The success of the PDR reflects the work performed by CPL as mission lead and payload provider. It is also an endorsement of the collaboration between all eight partners involved on the mission to date, supported by ESA and UKSA.

Speaking at a Space and Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) event in Glasgow, Craft Prospect Managing Director Steve Greenland said:

“We are proud to announce that we have successfully completed our first major design review and secured the authority to continue through to the next phase of the mission, where we will build, test, launch and operate the VOLT satellite. This is great news for us, our partners in Scotland and across Europe and the wider ESA Ops-Sat experimenter community, who will all benefit from the imaging, onboard intelligence and optical communication capabilities this mission delivers.”

All eight partners will now focus on the Delta Preliminary Design Review, which will see new partners joining the OPS-SAT VOLT mission.