Fleet Space Technologies, a leading Australian space exploration company, has announced the successful deployment of its next-generation Centauri-6 satellite on SpaceX’s Bandwagon-1 mission, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The addition of Centauri-6 to Fleet Space’s satellite constellation will play a vital role in servicing the global demand for its end-to-end mineral exploration solution, ExoSphere, while also building capacity to deliver advanced SATCOM capabilities with microsatellite architectures.Rapid global adoption of Fleet Space’s satellite-enabled mineral exploration solution, ExoSphere, has been the catalyst behind the company’s sustained innovation in space technologies and growth over the past year. Over 40 industry leading exploration companies – including Rio Tinto, Core Lithium, and Barrick Gold – have used the technology to complete over 300 surveys for a variety of critical minerals across five continents. In 2023, Fleet Space completed a AUS$50 million Series C funding round, doubled its valuation to AUS$350 million, and was named Australia’s fastest growing company.“Humanity’s expanding satellite infrastructure is rapidly unlocking new capabilities that can help to address some of the most pressing challenges facing our planet. At current rates of mineral discoveries and production, our net-zero goals and clean energy future are unattainable in the coming decades,” said Flavia Tata Nardini, Co-Founder and CEO of Fleet Space. “Leveraging the latest advances in space technology, AI, and geophysics, Fleet Space is demonstrating a path to accelerate mineral exploration in a more data-driven, scalable, and sustainable way. Centauri-6 is a portal into a future of efficient, mass-scale satellite manufacturing that can unlock previously unimaginable satellite-enabled solutions to hard problems on Earth.”Centauri-6 has been designed with multiple upgrades to optimise the resilience and durability of the satellite, while also enhancing the overall capacity of Fleet Space’s low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation to support the growing demand for its end-to-end mineral exploration technology, ExoSphere. Centauri-6 has greater uplink capacity and redundancy, enabling more resilient data transfer from Fleet Space’s satellite-enabled seismic sensors on the ground. The satellite has also been designed with an ion electric propulsion system powered by solar panels to provide thrust in the vacuum of space. Centauri-6’s design also leverages 3D-printed components, including the 3D-printed metal patch antenna Fleet Space pioneered on earlier Centauri satellites.
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