UARX Space completes first flight of OSSIE-D with DHV power

UARX Space launched OSSIE-D, an orbital transfer vehicle—a spacecraft that moves payloads between orbits—aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Transporter-18 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base on October 1, 2026, at 18:32 UTC. In its Nov. 12, 2026 announcement from Nigrán, Spain, UARX said it deployed OSSIE-D, designed and manufactured entirely in Spain, completing the vehicle’s maiden flight.

The separation marked the debut in orbit of UARX’s SAU&RON deployment rings in 24-inch and 15-inch sizes. The company used its proprietary SAU&RON 24 system to release OSSIE-D, pairing the orbital transfer vehicle and deployment hardware from the same developer on one flight, which UARX calls a world first. The approach reflects UARX’s integrated development model, covering both the vehicle and the technology needed to deploy it into orbit.

OSSIE holds the distinction of being the first orbital transfer vehicle constructed entirely in Spain and is among just six similar vehicles in existence around the globe. Dawn Aerospace says OSSIE will be the first orbital transfer vehicle to fly a docking and fluid transfer port made by Dawn, calling UARX a leading company in orbital transport.

DHV Technology designed, qualified, and manufactured OSSIE-D’s complete electrical power subsystem, which includes solar arrays, a Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit, main battery modules, and a Solar Array Drive Assembly. Early telemetry confirmed the subsystem worked as expected in orbit, tracking performance from solar array power generation through PCDU distribution to battery storage. Dr. Vicente Díaz, DHV’s managing director and co-founder, called the in-orbit performance an important milestone for his team and the collaboration with UARX Space.

Dawn Aerospace’s structural-only Docking and Fluidic Transfer Port is aboard OSSIE-D as a hosted payload, supporting Dawn’s Loop Network, a scalable European in-orbit refueling architecture scheduled to launch before 2030. “OSSIE is evidence of European operators building responsibly while staying ahead of evolving regulation,” said Jeroen Wink, Dawn’s CRO and co-founder. Dawn will supply the SatDrive propulsion system for the spacecraft, and the docking interface will enable later inspection, servicing, or de-orbit work.

Dawn, founded in 2017, employs more than 120 staff across the Netherlands, France, New Zealand, and the United States, and its customer base is 70 percent European. The company’s SatDrive propulsion hardware is already flying on 38 satellites. Dawn’s Loop Network is backed by European Commission programs under evaluation and aligns with the EU Space Act, ESA’s Zero Debris Charter, and ISO 24113:2023.

The mission encountered difficulty immediately after launch when OSSIE-D lost communications because of a mistake in the setup of UARX’s ground station service interface. “The configuration was corrected, and from that point communication with OSSIE has been nominal,” said Andrés Villa Granata, UARX co-founder and CTO. UARX then transmitted a backup instruction two days after liftoff to activate fault detection, isolation, and recovery automation.

Villa Granata said the company made the choice to prioritize customer missions if OSSIE faced more serious problems, noting that the spacecraft was operating on battery power. Later telemetry showed the backup commands arrived correctly and all ordered deployments completed. UARX woke OSSIE-D’s sequencer from ultra-low-power mode, downloaded deployment telemetry, confirmed receipt of the commands, and verified that every commanded payload deployment completed correctly.

Customer contact has been confirmed for ten PocketQubes deployed from OSSIE-D as of October 15, 2026, while UARX says at least that many small satellites have left the vehicle. OSSIE-D is a 200-kilogram class orbital transfer vehicle, also called Orbit Solutions to Simplify Injection and Exploration, and UARX says more payloads remain on board and will be released later.

Germany’s AMSAT-Deutschland deployed three ERMINAZ-2 PocketQubes—tiny cube-shaped satellites—from OSSIE-D on October 2, 2026, using the Picobus Deployer provided by Libre Space Foundation; the sequence began at 1:48:09.950 p.m. CEST, earlier than planned. AMSAT-DL President Peter Gulzow said two are operating and under commissioning, while the third has unknown status because no signal has been acquired, and initial signals went unheard because nobody was monitoring the frequencies.

OSSIE-D separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage about one hour after liftoff on October 1, 2026, at an altitude of roughly 520 km. AMSAT-EA’s UNNE-1B and HADES-L were ejected from OSSIE-D on October 2, 2026, at 11:48 UTC. The AMSAT-EA team had warned that days or weeks of stabilization might be needed, but the PocketQubes left much earlier. Both join AMSAT-EA’s HADES-SA, launched in March, and HADES-D (SO-121), deployed in late 2023.

UNNE-1B, also called HADES-E2, is a 1.5P PocketQube built by students at Universidad Nebrija, sharing hardware with the original UNNE-1, whose launch aboard RFA One from the United Kingdom has faced repeated delays. Its software-defined radio repeater listens on 145.925 MHz and downlinks on 436.888 MHz, and it carries an educational game called Space Cowboy II that transmits one clue per week.

First packets from UNNE-1B arrived on October 4, 2026, and telemetry has been received steadily since then. HADES-L measures 10 by 5 by 5 centimeters, averages 175 milliwatts of power, and its transponder runs for only four minutes in every twelve.

The flight also carried hardware from Libre Space Foundation and Orion Space of Nepal, plus equipment from Argentina’s National Technological University and Haedo Regional Faculty, and cubesats from Argentina’s National University of La Plata and Ethereal Space. UARX said on Instagram before launch that its RAMI CubeSat deployment system integrated two three-unit cubesats from Ethereal Space. DIYSatellite of Argentina supplied dispensers and arranged customer flights.

UARX founders declined to discuss whether other spacecraft aboard the vehicle are functioning. Before launch, OSSIE-D was planned to release satellites seven and 30 days after liftoff, though some deployments happened earlier because customers such as AMSAT-Deutschland initiated their own sequences sooner than expected.

DHV Technology is using the mission to flight-test new electrical connection techniques, better solar panel unfolding and hinge designs, and advanced solar cell technologies, aiming to raise the technology readiness of several solutions. UARX developed 75 percent of OSSIE-D’s components in-house, according to the company’s November 12, 2026, announcement from Nigrán, Spain.

Dr. Andrés Villa, UARX’s CTO and co-founder, said “OSSIE-D represents a milestone for the Spanish aerospace industry,” adding that companies with complementary capabilities can make ambitious missions real. He credited DHV Technology’s expertise, reliable solutions, and team commitment for contributing to the mission’s energy capabilities.