This year the International Astronautical Congress, the world’s leading international meeting of space professionals and enthusiasts, was celebrated in Bremen from October 1st to October 5th. This year’s edition attracted a record-smashing 6000 assistants from extremely diverse backgrounds and nationalities. GTD is represented at this landmark event through its business development department and former ALTAIR engineers. ALTAIR, a launch service based on airborne concept targeting the 150kg payloads at 600 Km SSO orbit, is presented by consortium leader ONERA, focusing on GTD contribution on the avionics on board systems and ground systems. The avionics and on-board SW prototypes are designed and implemented aiming to be tested in real-flight experiments for TRL improvement and technology proof-of-concept. The design of ground systems hosting innovative launch services are based on 4.0 technologies with the objective of cost-effective and agile launch campaign. Regarding the design of future launch bases, synergies appeared during congress with the call for proposals to develop a brand-new spaceport in Portugal’s Azores Islands. Much could be seen in this year’s IAC 2018 Congress, in particular it is remarkable the impressive CST-100 Starliner from Boeing in collaboration with Airbus and the announcement of Lockheed Martin’s most massive Lunar lander yet designed.
