Third Planet Orbital

Third Planet Orbital has been established in the UK to address needs apparent in the global Space Industry. The business directly addresses what the UK government has identified as being of strategic importance, and contributes to regional development and socio-economic benefits (especially high tech employment and retention).

A trusted enabler for commercial space technology and missions. Supplying standardised buses that are understood, tested and verified, and the means to access those buses within a customer’s design phase (FlatSat digital provision): enabling shorter lead times, lower build costs and confidence that operationally platforms will perform as expected without imparting additional burden to missions. By extracting value from the methods used by the Classic Space industry (heritage methods) technology may be created, tested and verified to standards not normally realisable in the New Space domain.

• Awarded a grant on the Space Ecosystem Commercialisation Programme (SECP). The grant will be used to expand the TPOD (Third Planet Orbital Deployer) Capabilities. The principle activity of the project is the development of a SmallSat 16U size Deployer Design, incorporating the novel methods already evident in TPO’s existing 12UXL Deployer.