Redwire Corporation announced Phantom, a new European Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) spacecraft platform. Phantom is being developed at Redwire?s facility in Belgium and is designed to carry out a wide array of intelligence, Earth science, and communications missions. Phantom joins Redwire?s American-built VLEO spacecraft platform, SabreSat, that was recently unveiled.

Redwire will advance Phantom?s design and development through the European Space Agency?s VLEO mission: Skimsat, on which Redwire is working together with Thales Alenia Space in the United Kingdom. The main goals of Skimsat are boosting satellite sustainability and mission performance while reducing spacecraft mass and mission cost by enabling sustained operational capability at lower altitudes. In addition, the Skimsat platform design team seeks to improve key elements such as overall system performance, subsystem modularity, supply chain sustainability and safety of operations in VLEO.

The strategic significance of VLEO is growing for Earth science, intelligence, communications, and defense and security applications. While low Earth (LEO) and geosynchronous (GEO) orbits are becoming increasingly congested and contested, spacecraft in VLEO operate in a relatively unimpaired environment. Bridging the gap between air and space, VLEO spacecraft fly above airborne anti-access areas while operating significantly closer to the Area of Responsibility on the ground than existing satellites.

Additionally, unlike LEO and GEO, debris in VLEO deorbits in hours or days rather than in decades or more.