S3 is a revolutionnary swiss project with international partners which aims to send light satellites in the space  so quick as in 2017. And this with international partners, among which belgians.

The idea the founder of this new company, Pascal JAUSSI, is to create an easy way to launch light satellites and allow persons travels in the space as quick as in 2017.

When creating is project, Pascal JAUSSI, from Payerne, Switzerland, wanted to be in contact with lots of prestigious international partners like ESA, von Karmann Institute, Dassault Aviation, Meggit, Aerospacedesignlab, Spaceport malaysia, Elecnor and the belgian partners SONACA, Space Application Services and the Université Catholique de Louvain.

In 2014, there will be a mock up test flight. The spaceport will be inaugurated in 2015, the shuttle assembly will take place in 2016 and the first test flights of shuttle and satellite will take place in 2017.

Lots of international and swiss national authorities gathered some days ago for the official launch of the project. They came together to celebrate the birth of this new company which aims to develop and build suborbital shuttles in order to launch small satellites with a maximum weight of 250kg.

The objective is to be able to carry out the first test flights by 2017 – an ambitious timetable, but as the founder and CEO of S3, Pascal Jaussi, said: “Our launch programme benefits from the input of technologies previously developed and certified through original partnerships between major players in the aerospace sector such as the European Space Agency (ESA), Dassault Aviation, the Von Karman Institute and Sonaca”. These technological inputs from the Hermès and X-38 programs will allow S3 to save time that would otherwise be spent on research and development, enabling it to reach its 2017 target and reduce production costs at the same time, since the budget will be CHF 250 m. This sum would have been several billions if the work had had to start from nothing.

How will all this work ?

The Swiss Space Systems launch model uses an Airbus A300, an aircraft already certified for zero gravity flights, to take the shuttle up to 10,000m on its back; the shuttle will then be launched from there.

The shuttle will be developed by combining the internal architecture developed by the French company Dassault Aviation for Neuron, Rafale or Falcon with the external architecture developed by the Belgian companies Sonaca and Space Application Services. Discussions are at an advanced stage concerning the engine supplier. The shuttle-drone will take care of the next part of the ascent up to an altitude of 80km, the height at which the upper stage will be launched in order to put the satellites into orbit. Once this operation has been completed, the shuttle will return to earth by gliding towards its launch airport, where it will be taken care of by the maintenance teams who will prepare it for a new launch.

The system developed by S3 has many safety advantages, because the launch can be terminated and the shuttle returned to earth at any time during the process. With launch equipment that is regularly reused and a fuel consumption that is much lower than at present, Swiss Space Systems will be able to offer satellite launches for CHF 10 m, or approximately four times less than current market prices. In contrast to launchers requiring a great deal of ground infrastructure, the system proposed by S3 only needs an aerodrome capable of receiving the Airbus A300. All this will encourage the democratisation of space by offering satellite launches to countries or research institutes that cannot afford them at present. Agreements have already been signed for four launches.

A great project yet to be completed in 2017. Wonderful ! good luck to all the partners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baYMrHnNB44

 

 

www.s-3.ch

 

MDD