ispace cooperating with Swedish Space Corporation for Mission 3

ispace has announced that its US subsidiary – ispace technologies US – has signed a cooperation agreement with the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC).

The former is a space transportation specialist and the latter a provider of communications ground stations headquartered in Solna, near Stockholm.

They will be working together for the operation of the APEX 1.0 lunar lander, for iSpace’s Mission 3, which is scheduled to launch in 2026.

For the lander’s operation, the SSC will play a key role in providing the essential comms link, using its network of ground stations around the world. Specifically, SSC Connect will enable spacecraft control and real-time data reception from low Earth orbit (LEO) to lunar orbit, for all commanding, telemetry and ranging data.

Schrödinger Basin

ispace-US, as part of Team Draper, has been selected by Nasa to transport multiple scientific payloads – including the Farside Seismic Suite, the Lunar Interior Temperature
and Materials Suite, and the Lunar Surface EM Experiment – to the Schrödinger Basin, on the far side of the Moon near its South Pole. While traveling in space toward the Moon, the lander will communicate directly with the Mission Control Center on Earth, via the SSC network, but after landing on the Moon, it will then communicate with ispace-US using two relay satellites.

“We are excited about this journey with ispace-US. This agreement underscores SSC’s long tradition and commitment to the lunar exploration market, as well as our continued investments to support the technological requirements of today’s modern lunar exploration missions,” said Erwin Mercado , President of SSC.

“ispace-US’ Mission 3 will push the boundaries of space exploration and is of critical importance to SSC, the U.S. space market, and the world.”

SSC

The Swedish Space Corporation was created in 1972 by the Swedish government and now has 700 employees in offices around the world. It works with a range of space agencies, companies, and research institutions to support space exploration.

For the ispace Mission-3, SSC will be using four SSC Connect deep space ground station sites.

Note that the Esrange Space Centre in northern Sweden is scheduled to start launching satellites from 2025.

Images: Swedish Space Corporation – the SSC Santiago site, in Chile

See also: Leicester University, ispace work on lunar night survival technology