The Dutch Ministry of Defence have confirmed the upcoming launch of the first Dutch nanosatellite to orbit in mid-March by Virgin Orbit.
This military satellite – named BRIK-II after the first aircraft built for the precursor organisation of the Royal Netherlands Air Force in 1913 to explore the air domain – is an experimental project which has been set up in a unique collaboration commissioned by the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
“NATO underlined the importance of Space at the end of 2019 by declaring Space as an operational domain and, subsequently, in the fall of 2020 by standing up the NATO Space Centre at Ramstein, Germany.
The Dutch Ministry of Defence, in its Defence Vision 2035 describes, amongst others, the use of Space as an indispensable link within information-driven Armed Forces. Furthermore there is a collaboration nationally with the Delft University of Technology and internationally with the University of Oslo.”
The US-based company Virgin Orbit has been selected to carry out the launch of BRIK-II.
Constellations of networked tiny cubesats – way to go.
Agreed.