Satellite Services
Design the systems that deploy, stabilise, and return the payload safely — keeping it operational long enough to complete the mission.
Role
Satellite Services are responsible for everything that happens after launch: payload deployment, stability during flight, controlled descent, and safe recovery.
Team Brief — How You Work With Other Teams
Mission Instrumentation designs the sensors and data payload, but relies on you to keep them intact, stable, and operational.
You work closely with:
- Launch Services to understand deployment forces, vibration, and altitude
- Command & Control to ensure recovery systems are safe, appropriate, and authorised
- Mission Communications to explain how recovery performance affected the mission outcome
Your design choices directly affect data quality, recovery success, and whether the payload survives to fly again.
Capabilities Progression
- Level 1: Freefall Payload — structural integrity and data survival
- Level 2: Streamer / Tail Stabilisation — orientation control and reduced descent rate
- Level 3: Parachute Recovery — controlled descent and reliable recovery
- Level 4: Autorotation Recovery — passive rotational lift for stable descent
- Level 5: Glider Recovery — lift-based glide and guided landing
What Success Looks Like
- The payload deploys cleanly and remains stable in flight
- Descent is controlled and predictable
- The payload is recovered intact and operational
- Recovery performance can be measured and improved over time
When Satellite Services succeed, missions last longer, data quality improves, and the agency earns the confidence to attempt more ambitious flights.
