Image credit: Sener Aeroespacial

UARX Space and Sener have partnered to work on the first Spanish Orbital Transfer Vehicle. The agreement was signed in Madrid.

The collaboration is within the OSSIE orbital vehicles and will increase UARX OTV, reliability, and precision in orbital transportation missions. UARX joins forces with Sener, a navigation, guidance, and control systems leader in the space industry.

"We are beyond excited to announce our collaboration with Sener. One of the main challenges for an Orbital Transfer Vehicle is having the proper guidance and control system, and for UARX, having a one-of-its-kind GNC Subsystem as the "brain" of OSSIE makes our team incredibly proud of our achievements," said Yanina Hallak, CEO and Co-Founder at UARX.

The OSSIE (Orbit Solutions to Simplify Injection and Exploration) spacecraft has been a bold vision since its conception, and this strategic partnership between UARX and Sener marks a significant milestone in its development. Sener's vast experience and technical knowledge in navigation, guidance, and control systems will allow us to overcome complex technical challenges and guarantee safe and precise travel in orbit. UARX's extended experience in small satellites will help Sener to work with agile procedures.

With UARX and Sener's long-term collaboration, Spain has stepped forward to become a leading player in space logistics and in-space transportation, said Andrés Villa, CTO and Co-Founder at UARX. The OSSIE qualification flight will be launched in June 2025 and mark a historic milestone in the UARX Space roadmap.

Mariano Sánchez, Business Developer Manager at Sener, highlights: "The future space transportation systems, in areas such as launchers or in-orbit servicing, are strategic for Sener. We are glad to announce this long-term collaboration with UARX. Sener will contribute to this alliance as a leader in navigation and control systems and leveraging our technological expertise in space missions such as Euclid or Herschel-Plank, amongst many others. I have no doubt that our industry knowledge and work with institutions such as ESA, NASA, or JAXA, along with the agile dynamics of UARX's commercial approach, will result in a very positive partnership."

This partnership adds excellent value to UARX's strategy and growth plan. For the OSSIE spacecraft, UARX has previously partnered with top companies in the smallsat industry and European institutions such as DLR's Institute of Space Systems.

The OSSIE orbital transfer vehicle, scheduled for June 2025, has already accommodated customers from three continents, from pocketqubes to small satellites. On top of the payloads to be deployed, four IODs from companies and institutions will fly on board the transfer vehicle. The manifest is still open, and more payloads are welcome on board. OSSIE maneuvering plan is for payloads that need to achieve direct injection, orbital altitude, and inclination changes, as well as phasing for in-plane constellation distribution and LTAN/LTDN change. The qualification mission payload capacity is 250 kg.

About UARX

UARX Space is a Spanish company providing in-space logistics company, rideshare, and dedicated launch services for small satellites from LEO to deep space. UARX founders Yanina Hallak and Andrés Villa are California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) alumni, the worldwide known Home of the CubeSats. In addition, the UARX Space Team is formed by experienced aerospace professionals with a background in designing launch vehicles, geostationary satellites, scientific Earth observation missions, and payload instruments for deep Space. Their expertise includes critical on-board software, structural analysis, thermal analysis, project management, systems engineering, assembly, integration, and testing. UARX has a 1200m2 facility, which serves as its headquarters, located in Nigrán, Galicia, Spain.

About Sener

The Sener engineering and technology group, founded in 1956, employs more than 3,000 professionals on five continents. In Aerospace and Defence, Sener is a leading supplier of high-performance systems for the space, science, and defence sectors, with over 50 years of experience developing its own high-value-added technology products. In Space, it supplies electromechanical, navigation (CNG/AOCS), communications, and optical systems, and it is involved in the main programs of the ESA and NASA space agencies (including Euclid, Meteosat Third Generation, Solar Orbiter, JUICE, Proba-3, Hubble, Galileo, Rosetta, Gaia, Herschel and Planck, IXV, BepiColombo and Mars 2020) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). In the commercial space market, it is a world leader in supplying telemetry, tracking, and command (TTC) antennas, and it regularly supplies all types of antennas and passive and active RF devices to leading international communications satellite manufacturers, as well as to the so-called New Space programs.