Discussion
🇨🇭🚀 Swiss space startup #PAVE has secured the mythical and uniquely positioned Chavalon site in the Alps as an engine testing location. The 4.5t engine will be propelling the Lyoba kickstage to reach GEO orbits much faster and cheaper than with current propulsion methods.
Cosmos 2612 & the Luch-Olymp drift near French-Italian military satellite Athena-Fidus show assets in space are vulnerable.
Europe needs "body guard" satellites to inspect adversarial spacecrafts and respond to hostile acts.
That's exactly what IBEX, a highly manoeuvrable platform, is meant to solve.
Engineered in 🇨🇭 by PAVE Space, it is designed to be compatible with most of Europe's launchers, so that putting it in orbit never depends on someone else's permission.
https://pave.space/logs/ibex-pave-space-s-answer-to-threats-in-orbit/
RE: https://mastodon.social/@europeanspaceflight/116289476734935833
Congrats to the incredible PAVE team for the fundraise, unlocking the development towards new horizons! 🚀
It started as an @EPFL association, the Gruyère Space Program, who developed the first European hopper, taking off and landing vertically.
Now they are taking it to the next level by accelerating the deployment of their customers payloads to GEO with the Lyoba kickstage!
Ad Astra PAVE!