Spire extends access to space with DHV Technology solar panel partnership

SAN FRANCISCO, March 20, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Spire and DHV Technology have announced a joint partnership to offer Spire’s solar panels to the space industry. Spire’s double deployable panels will now be built and sold through DHV Technology to developers looking to improve satellite reliability and performance and boost overall mission success.

Demand for access to satellites continues to increase as businesses and Governments recognize opportunities to capture vital insights about the planet and use data from space to solve global challenges. Spire has proven expertise in the development and delivery of low-cost, high-quality satellite components. Its solar panels already enable the smooth day-to-day operation of its constellation of 58 satellites, and the partnership with DHV Technology is Spire’s latest step towards making this expertise available to the wider space industry.

“Panel failure is one of the single biggest causes of mission failure, which is why Spire’s double deployable solar panel design is built specifically with performance and redundancy in mind,” said Joel Spark, CTO at Spire. “Panel deployment is also critical to reducing orbital lifetime. We’re committed to shrinking the cost, barriers, and difficulty for collecting data about the Earth, from space, and in DHV Technology, we have a partner that shares our vision for better equipping the wider space industry to achieve this aim.”

Spire’s double deployable panels produce three times more power than a body-only panel design and feature single-fault-tolerant redundancy when it comes to panel deployment. The panels will be available for 3U Cubesats or satellites with larger busses.

“DHV Technology has flight heritage from June 2014 and has developed more than 40 projects since then, however we think that the consolidation of our company starts with this joint partnership, we are really excited to collaborate with Spire, a top reference company in LEO constellation. The Spire approach is consistent, robust and reliable, so we are proud to be aboard of Lemur Constellation and to offer the double deployable solar panel to the Small Satellite community”, said Miguel Vazquez, Managing Director and Co-Founder of DHV Technology.