On 11 August, Virgin Orbit signed a contract for the provision of one of their air-launched, small-satellite launch vehicles, LauncherOne, to Italian aerospace manufacturer SITAEL S.p.A. The mission will be for SITAEL’s technology demonstration spacecraft µHETSAT, which is exhibiting their new in-house micro-satellite platform and low-power, Hall-effect electric thruster.
The µHETSAT has been conducted in collaboration with both the European Space Agency (ESA) and Italian Space Agency (ASI).