The ALTAIR team at GTD attended a 3-days meeting in Paris for the design of the concept and the setting of the way forward for the following year

At the beginning of December, the ALTAIR team at GTD participated in the first Preliminary Design Review of the ALTAIR consortium in Paris. Attended by representatives of the European Commission and external reviewers, the meeting consolidated the design of the ALTAIR concept and set the roadmap for the following year. ALTAIR is a research and development Horizon2020 program committed to developing a flexible, low-cost, and innovative airborne service using a UAV-rocket assembly for the launch of small commercial satellites. Through a high launch rate (8 days per campaign, 30 launches per year) and streamlined ground segment operations, this space launch system aims at injecting up to 150kg payload to low-Earth orbit. The meeting lasted for three days, during which the GTD team –together with the rest of the partners– presented the cost analysis and technical properties of each subsystem and of the concept as a whole. Both the European Commission reviewers and external experts provided valuable feedback to the consortium, which will be very valuable in the coming months. Upon returning to Barcelona, the ALTAIR team at GTD went to back to work, with more enthusiasm than ever to pave the way towards the first ALTAIR real test flight, which will take place in Spring 2018. Carrier and launcher side after release. Credit: ETH ZURICH.