ORLANDO, Fla. — Spanish company Added Value Solutions (AVS) has won a contract for the initial phases of a European Space Agency science mission as the company seeks to enter the market for high-performance small satellites.
AVS announced Jan. 30 that it won a study contract for the initial phases of the ARRAKIHS mission, an ESA F-Class, or fast, astrophysics mission. The mission, whose full name is Analysis of Resolved Remnants of Accreted galaxies as a Key Instrument for Halo Surveys, will operate in low Earth orbit, studying galactic structures using a binocular telescope to better understand dark matter.
The contract covers Phases A and B of the mission, including preliminary spacecraft design and work to derisk key technologies. The award is one of two made by ESA for the mission, although the agency did not disclose the other company that received a parallel award. ESA will pick one of the companies in September 2026 for a Phase C and D contract to build the spacecraft.
The study contract is a major milestone for efforts by AVS, which had been known for scientific instrumentation, to enter the satellite market. The company’s first satellite, LUR-1, launched in August 2024 on the Transporter-11 rideshare mission. The microsatellite carries an Earth observation payload and will also test deorbiting technologies.
“This contract is a powerful endorsement of smaller businesses and highlights Europe’s ability to embrace non-traditional players in flagship science missions,” said Miguel Angel Carrera, chief executive of AVS, in a statement. “All eyes are now on this two-year competition phase, where we aim to showcase our capabilities and value proposition to ESA and all stakeholders.”
ARRAKIHS will use an AVS bus called LUR-100, which supports payloads from 200 to 1,000 kilograms. That bus has not yet flown, said Ramon Blanco Maceiras, head of space for the U.S. subsidiary of AVS, during an interview on the sidelines of the SpaceCom conference here. However, he said the company expected to have significant flight heritage for the bus by the time ARRAKIHS launched in 2030.
The focus of AVS in space is to produce what he called “high performance” satellites for demanding missions like ARRAKIHS rather than mass manufacturing of identical satellites.
The U.S. subsidiary of AVS, based in upstate New York, is building its own satellites, with two satellites scheduled to launch this summer for an unnamed university. The satellites, along with a ground station and mission control center also provided by AVS, will be used by the university for spacecraft operator training, including proximity operations and docking.
