D-Orbit USA Team Includes Early Execs from SpaceX, Amazon, and OneWeb
D-Orbit, a leader in the space infrastructure, logistics and orbital transportation industry, announced today that it has formed D-Orbit USA, a joint venture with Mike Cassidy, Mark Krebs, Miles Gazic, Danny Field, and David Harrower to strengthen their presence in the US satellite bus market.
D-Orbit USA is the latest addition to the D-Orbit Group and is focused on satellite bus design, manufacturing, and sales. The team is composed of aerospace executives who bring extensive expertise, particularly in rigorous and comprehensive Qualification Test and Acceptance Test programs, honed through their experience at top aerospace organizations like SpaceX, Amazon’s Kuiper, and OneWeb. D-Orbit USA’s foundation is strengthened by D-Orbit’s successful flight heritage, demonstrated by ION’s 13 successful orbital missions, and by a team of over 300 professionals, including highly skilled engineering and quality teams dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of innovation and performance.
The founders of D-Orbit USA have a wealth of space engineering experience. Mark led attitude control, flight dynamics, and vehicle integration teams on both Starlink and Kuiper. Miles developed avionics, flight, and ground software for a wide variety of space programs including the first LEO spacecraft for Amazon Kuiper, SpaceX Starlink, Capella Space, and PlanetIQ. Danny was a lead engineer at OneWeb, Raytheon, and General Atomics, and designed all of the primary and secondary structures for the OneWeb Gen1 spacecraft. David has deep experience in LEO/MEO/GEO satellites and network applications from his work at Terran Orbital, Kymeta Corporation, VT iDirect, and Comtech. Mike was the CEO of Apollo Fusion which built over 77 electric propulsion systems for many of the top US prime aerospace satellite vendors.
“I am super excited about our stellar founding team coupled with our robust flight heritage from D-Orbit’s 13 successful on orbit missions. I believe this combination will allow us to respond very quickly to customer schedule needs and to offer very price competitive solutions,”
noted Mike Cassidy, CEO of D-Orbit USA.
D-Orbit chose to create this joint venture in the USA in response to forecasts for the space industry which suggest a significant growth from an estimated $546 billion at the end of 2023 to over $1 trillion by 2030.
Luca Rossettini, CEO of the D-Orbit Group, commented:
“The formation of D-Orbit USA marks a significant milestone in our strategic expansion into the US market. By combining the unparalleled expertise of our US-based team with D-Orbit’s proven flight heritage, we are poised to deliver innovative, reliable, and cost-effective solutions. This joint venture underscores our commitment to meeting the growing demands of the space industry and reinforces our position as a global leader in space infrastructure and logistics.”
D-Orbit is well positioned to accelerate its growth following its successful first closing of its Series C funding round this year, raising about $107 million. That funding round, which was one of the largest ever for a European Space Tech company, follows D-Orbit’s stellar 2023 which saw it deliver triple digit yearly revenue growth since 2021, with tens of millions of dollars in EU institutional contracts, and successfully complete an additional seven missions of its ION orbital transfer vehicle.
About D-Orbit USA
D-Orbit USA is based in Boulder, Colorado and is a JV with D-Orbit. The D-Orbit Group is based in Italy and is a market leader in the space logistics and transportation services industry with a track record of space-proven services, technologies, and successful missions.
Founded in 2011, D-Orbit is the first company addressing the logistics needs of the space market. ION Satellite Carrier, for example, is a space vehicle that can transport satellites in orbit and release them individually into distinct orbital slots, reducing launch costs of an entire satellite constellation by up to 40%.
Since 2020, D-Orbit has flown successfully in orbit 13 times; the company has raised over $100 million in funding in the last year alone.
The D-Orbit Group has offices in Italy, Portugal, the UK, and the US.
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