From Logistics to Launch: How Venture Orbital Systems Provide an All-in-One Service for Nanosatellite Creators

Venture Orbital Systems main launcher - ZephyrWe don’t see satellites as a product that needs to be launched. We see them as projects, projects that have a purpose, projects that have involved a lot of people, hard working and dedicated people. We see the humans behind satellitesStanislas Maximin, CEO @ Venture Orbital Systems.

In the last decade, the nanosatellite revolution has swept the aerospace industry, offering private enterprises, universities and even small nations affordable and viable access to outer space, a concept deemed implausible in the not too distant past.

France-based Venture Orbital Systems offer a simple, efficient and responsive launch service that is dedicated to meet the needs of nanosatellites & CubeSats operators. The company aims to be the one-stop-shop for an often neglected subset of nanosatellites & CubeSats creators, with payloads ranging between 1 to 50 kilograms. In addition to tailor-made services, the company’s launcher Zephyr has a 70 kg polar orbit capacity. The combination offers more frequent launch opportunities, whilst allowing operators to choose their desired launch window and orbit.

From logistics to launch and from providing insurance to relaying regulatory information,  the VOS team gives a more holistic package for those that have dreams of launching SmallSats. As Stanislas says: We are building our company for our clients, to accelerate our client’s development, and we are dedicated to helping them in their journey to space,” says Maximin.

Why Valispace?

Venture Orbital Systems recently added Boreal to their launch fleet, the ‘little brother’ of the main rocket launcher, Zephyr. Both rockets are built with fully 3D-printed engines and by a team with expertise in a lot of different systems. Because of the level of complexity that was being built into the VOS project, a more intelligent product management system was needed. 

The smaller launcher of Venture Orbital Systems - Boreal

Prior to using Valispace, the VOS team relied on spreadsheets for its engineering calculations. After researching several enterprise resource planning solutions and software for centralized technical data, the team piloted Valispace.

“We saw that we could have the same possibilities and the same capabilities that we have under Python and Excel. That, coupled with our vision, and the fact that one piece of data can impact every other data, and that we could compare things quite easily…we saw the value that you created in other companies, and also the value you could create in our company,” explains Maximin.

Rather than be restricted to a specific domain, creating information silos, the VOS team uses Valispace to access, update, and visualize objects for a real-time overview of the launcher and mission with ease.

“We can see these things much more quickly than before, so Valispace saves us a great amount of time,” explains Stanislas, “That’s what I want for my engineers because time is valuable. It’s extremely valuable. We have a lot of work to do, and every minute that is not spent on development, that is a minute lost.”

We can compare some things quite easily without my propulsion engineering having to ask my CTO, “What will be the impact on our architecture?”
Stanislas Maximin, Venture Orbital Systems CEO on ‘Why Valispace?’

About Valispace 

Valispace was founded with the objective of providing engineering hardware teams a real-time collaborative solution for the lifecycle of a project; from requirements engineering, through detailed design up to testing and documentation. The software has been deemed as a critical tool for rapid engineering design and prototyping, as well as project management, by our clients. To learn more about how Valispace can optimize your workflow contact us at contact-us@valispace.com, or visit valispace.com.

For more information on Venture Orbital Systems and for a complete overview of their services, take a look at their brilliant new website.

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