LONDON/DELFT, MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2025: ISISPACE, the Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) provider for Mauve, has completed the delivery of its advanced ADCS system. After successful integration and verification at the main facilities in Delft, The Netherlands, ISISPACE completed its delivery for Mauve, the first satellite from Blue Skies Space.
With this key milestone, all flight hardware is now available in Budapest, Hungary for satellite integration by C3S LLC, the spacecraft prime. In the coming months, Mauve will undergo a rigorous integration and test campaign to prepare for its scheduled launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-15 in October 2025.
The advanced ADCS suite builds on ISISPACE’s heritage solution of sensors and actuators to allow extremely fine control and pointing for deep space science satellites like Mauve. The ADCS suite includes a high-performance Micro-electromechanical Systems (MEMS) gyroscope to improve rate knowledge, a double star tracker configuration for improved pointing determination and availability, and larger wheels to control the satellite accurately.
Mauve is equipped with a 13 cm telescope that will observe hundreds of stars in the Ultraviolet and visible wavelengths. The data from Mauve will provide a greater understanding of stellar flares and their impact on the habitability of neighbouring exoplanets.
Ian Stotesbury, Lead Systems Engineer at Blue Skies Space, said: “The high-performance ADCS system is an essential part of enabling Mauve’s operations. ISISPACE has been working closely with Blue Skies Space and our partner, C3S, to integrate this system to enable the monitoring of stellar objects in deep space. We are also developing a payload in the loop capability to further build on the performance offered by this enhanced subsystem.”
Richard Meadows, R&D Team Lead at ISISPACE, stated: “The ISISPACE ADCS suite has extensive flight heritage in Earth observation and signal intelligence missions. For Mauve, we have introduced a second star tracker optical head and a high-performance gyroscope to improve performance even further. This enables the platform to achieve arcsec-level pointing stability and higher spacecraft availability. The result is a larger number of targets observed and the ability to robustly and reliably capture stellar flares. We are very excited to see our high-performance ADCS in action and to contribute to Mauve’s unique capabilities!”
