Swiss startup PAVE Space readies IBEX bodyguard satellite demo

PAVE Space, a Swiss propulsion startup founded in 2024, announced plans to launch a demonstration mission of its IBEX spacecraft as early as February 2028.

IBEX is an agile, payload-agnostic platform built to carry up to 300 kilograms of payload and deliver 780 meters per second of delta-V (change in velocity) with 100 kilograms aboard. Its storable-propellant reaction-control system lets the craft wait on station for years while maneuvering within hours. PAVE designed and integrated the vehicle in Europe for flight on European launchers.

The light payload option supports up to 150 kilograms and a maximum payload volume of 0.8 cubic meters. IBEX offers a five-year orbital lifetime in low Earth or geostationary orbit, provides up to 600 watts at end of life, and uses an ITAR-free supply chain. It is compatible with Ariane 6, Vega C, Spectrum, Maia, Miura 5, Terran R, Firefly Alpha, and Neutron launchers.

PAVE plans a commercial IBEX flight later in 2028 and a first LYOBA mission in 2029. The company intends to combine IBEX and LYOBA to move payloads from low Earth orbit to geostationary orbit in under 24 hours.

Before IBEX, PAVE engineered and delivered its first orbital computer within four months. The device flew in Oct. 2026 aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare as a hosted payload on a D-Orbit ION vehicle. GRAZE has run 21 test campaigns so far, exercising navigation and an avionics redundancy design split across three parts.

PAVE has booked the IBEX demonstration flight on an undisclosed United States launcher and is signing an unrevealed defense prime as the customer. The flight will attempt to validate the full IBEX spacecraft for the first time.

European ministries of defense are increasingly turning to younger companies because startups have no choice but to move fast to make ambitions real, PAVE cofounder and CEO Julie Böhning said. “I think this is really why the MoDs are more and more turning to younger companies,” Böhning said.

IBEX began as an in-orbit demonstration for a kick stage, but ministries told Böhning it was exactly what they needed to protect assets in space. PAVE has been working on the IBEX product line for a year.

Böhning said near-term missions aim to position PAVE as a white-label, neutral, dual-use operator. She also said space will redefine the power of different countries, and that the more industrial space becomes, the more it needs defending.

Future IBEX missions would handle reconnaissance, co-orbital denial, jamming, and capturing or neutralizing a hostile spacecraft. Russia’s close maneuver against an ICEYE satellite operating over Ukraine helps explain the urgency behind Europe’s push for in-space security capabilities. Payload reported on Europe’s efforts to fund greater defensive and offensive capabilities in orbit.

Astroscale UK and OSMOS X received funding to develop and study in-space defense capabilities, respectively. Shield Space assembled a coalition to pitch the UK government on a commercially-led, space-based carrier strike platform and plans its own rendezvous and proximity operations demo in late 2027.

Cofounder and CTO Thomas Santini said Lodestar Space, which has offices in the US and UK, flew a demo payload on Momentus Vigoride starting in March and plans another geostationary mission in 2027. Santini said Lodestar aims to offer full bodyguard capability to defense customers starting in 2028.

Lodestar’s public site says it is building “the last piece of deterrence,” and a UKspace profile describes it as developing Mithril for in-orbit bodyguard satellites and allied space-asset protection.

The European Defence Fund’s BODYGUARD project aims to develop building blocks for autonomous space situational awareness onboard satellites to increase Europe’s independence and superiority in space. The consortium is coordinated by AGENIUM SPACE of France and includes entities from Greece, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Finland, Latvia, Denmark, and Sweden.

MDA Space announced MDA MIDNIGHT on April 13, 2026, as a maneuverable space control platform for defense organizations, with an initial mission to rendezvous with low Earth orbit assets.

Bodyguard satellites can provide inspection, warning, anomaly diagnosis, safe relocation, cooperative capture, disposal, refueling support, or evidence collection after suspicious orbital behavior. The Secure World Foundation’s 2026 report documented increased interest in bodyguard satellites and spaceplanes and covered counterspace capabilities developed by 13 countries. As of May 15, 2026, the market was still young, better described as an emerging service category than a mature commercial sector.

Secure World Foundation describes rendezvous and proximity operations as dual-purpose because the same actions can support servicing and safety or military and intelligence activity.

On February 7, 2026, Starfish Space received a $54.5 million U.S. Space Force contract for an additional Otter servicing vehicle tied to improved maneuver capability. True Anomaly’s Jackal autonomous orbital vehicle targets detection, tracking, imaging, and maneuver and is linked to the U.S. Space Force’s VICTUS HAZE mission, with Firefly’s Alpha rocket set to launch a Jackal.

Rocket Lab will design, build, launch, and operate its own spacecraft for VICTUS HAZE, a rendezvous and proximity operations demonstration for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command. Government demand for bodyguard satellites is ahead of commercial demand because defense customers value deterrence, evidence, allied coordination, and resilience. Big satellite constellations might choose redundancy, spare units, distributed designs, and software-defined networking instead of assigning a dedicated escort to each spacecraft.

Thirteen nations are actively developing weapons and systems to disable, degrade, or destroy satellites, according to the Secure World Foundation’s 2026 report. Japan’s Defense Ministry plans to launch its first prototype bodyguard satellite by 2029.

India plans to launch its first bodyguard satellite prototype in 2026 after a 2024 incident in which a neighboring nation’s satellite maneuvered within one kilometer of an Indian spacecraft. India is developing two designs: one with a robotic arm to intercept, grapple, and move threatening spacecraft, and one surveillance platform with cameras and sensors for close inspection and tracking.

France announced laser-armed patroller satellites in 2019 and joined a European Defence Fund project in 2024 to develop an autonomous space situational awareness bodyguard satellite. The U.S. Space Force budget has risen to $71.2 billion, a 77 percent increase from previous baseline funding.

Japan, France, India, and Germany have all indicated they plan to pursue or are already building bodyguard satellites, according to the Secure World Foundation’s annual report. France’s European Defence Fund bodyguard spacecraft is expected to take three years and $6.5 million to build and is designed to counteract with a robot or laser.

A Center for Strategic and International Studies report published April 6 identified 75 maneuvers by Chinese geosynchronous satellites between 2016 and 2025 consistent with potential military or intelligence operations. Russia placed Cosmos 2576 on the same orbital track as a U.S. reconnaissance satellite in 2024, a spacecraft U.S. officials assess as a probable counterspace weapon.