Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc.

Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc. is an American company that designs and builds Nano-satellites and CubeSats and provides launch services and on-orbit operations to deliver small satellites for critical missions across a variety of applications in LEO, GEO and beyond Earth orbit, and vehicle classes, including Nano-satellites and Micro-satellites. The company is based in Irvine California USA.

Tyvak is part of Terran Orbital Corporation, a leading manufacturer of small satellites headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida USA. The company launched more than 220 small satellites worldwide. Terran Orbital recently went public through a merger with Tailwind Two Acquisitions Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in a deal that included AE Industrial Partners and Lockheed Martin.

Various missions were completed for ESA (FSSCAT), the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with Iperdrone, the Nano-satellite constellation for Eutelsat ELO, the Commtrail satellite for Search & Rescue and ARGO Earth Observation satellite for the EU.

Company History

Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc. was established in 2011 by CubeSat designer Jordi Puig-Suari and former manager of Nano-satellite programs for Boeing Phantom works, Scott MacGillivray. The company has locations in San Luis Obispo in California USA and Turin in Italy.

In 2015 Tyvak International, Srl. was formed as an independent European entity and is based in Turin, Italy. Turin was selected for the location as Tyvak’s first European office due to the area’s strong aerospace industry focus and proximity to Politecnico di Torino (one of the largest engineering universities in Europe) and easy access to the multitude of high-technology companies available in Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland. Tyvak International is a wholly owned subsidiary of Terran Orbital.

In 2018 satellite operator Eutelsat from France ordered Eutelsat ELO alpha (Tyvak-182A) nanosatellite from Tyvak International for their ELO satellite constellation for IoT. ELO’s first test satellite was launched on April 28^th 2021 on a Vega rocket operated by Arianespace.

In November 2019, Tyvak was one of five companies selected to be eligible to bid for the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS).

On November 16^th, 2022 the CubeSat LunIR (Lunar Infrared Imaging) satellite was launched as a secondary payload with NASA’s Artemis-1 uncrewed moon mission on the Space Launch System (SLS) operated by Lockheed Martin. 
Kongsberg Satellite Services from Norway is providing ground network support for the LunIR mission with ground stations in Punta Arenas, Chile, Svalbard (Spitzbergen) Norway and Antarctica’s Troll station.

In February 2023 the company was awarded a 2.4 billion USD contract to design, build, and deploy 288 LEO satellites for satellite operator Rivada Space Networks. As part of the contract, mother company Terran Orbital will also develop 12 spare satellites to assemble a total of 300 spacecraft.

In October defense company Lockheed Martin acquired Terran Orbital with its Tyvak International subsidiary and Radar Imaging company PredaSar, in a 450 million USD deal. The company will operate as a separate entity is the Lockheed Martin’s Space business area. Lockheed Martin was Terran Orbital’s largest customer and represented 71% of the company’s revenue in the first six months of 2024. 

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Resources

www.tyvak.com
www.tyvak.eu
www.nanosats.eu
www.terranorbital.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.satmagazine.com  edition 16^th September 2016
www.spaceitbridge.com  edition 24^th September 2019
www.spacenews.com   edition 28^th October 2021
www.eutelsat.com
www.spacenews.com  edition 9^th, February 2022
www.satcom.digital  edition 22^nd February 2023
www.eportal.org
www.satellitetoday.com  edition October 30^th, 2024