Dragonfly Aerospace
Welcome to Dragonfly Aerospace. This is the latest chapter in a proud history of South African space engineering and space missions. Our team has a strong experience and heritage dating back to the first earth observation satellite missions starting in the 1980’s through to our most recent satellite launch in 2018 and imager launch in 2020. Members of our team have worked on every microsatellite space mission since South Africa entered the space race.
Products
Imagers
GSD* Swath* Mass Bands Satellite options Physical Size Flight Heritage
Small Imagers for CubeSats
Large Imagers for Microsatellites
Gecko
Mantis
Chameleon
Caiman
HR-250
Raptor
39 m
16 m
10 m
5 m
1.4 m
0.7 m
80 km
32 km
40 km / 20 km
20 km
20 km
11 km
0.4 kg
0.5 kg
1.6 kg
1.8 kg
18 kg
45 kg
RGB
6 × MS / 148 × HS
7 × MS / 148 × HS
7 × MS
7 × MS
7 × MS
Compatible with 1U or 2U
Compatible with 1U or 2U
Compatible with 3U or 6U
Compatible with 6U
50–100 kg
100–150 kg
1U (10cm × 10cm × 6.5cm)
1U (10cm × 10cm × 6.5cm)
2U (10cm × 10cm × 20cm excluding electronics)
(10cm × 10cm × 21.5cm with rear-mounted CCU)
(10cm × 10cm × 21.5cm with rear-mounted CCU)
2.5U (10cm × 10cm × 25cm excluding electronics)
(10cm × 10cm × 26.5cm with rear-mounted CCU)
(10cm × 10cm × 26.5cm with rear-mounted CCU)
32cm Ø × 92cm
45cm Ø by 90cm
(excluding baffle)
or 120cm (including straylight baffle)
(excluding baffle)
or 120cm (including straylight baffle)
12 delivered, 4 space missions
Qualification Model
Flight Model Hyperspectral delivered for 2020 launch
In development
In development
In development
Why dragonfly?
The dragonfly has excellent vision, agility and stability, the same as our high-resolution imaging satellites. The eyes of the dragonfly are one of the best in the animal kingdom. Some have over 30 colour receptors like our hyperspectral imagers. A compound eye is good analogy for our large constellations of imaging satellites with numerous objectives imaging simultaneously to create a complete picture. A dragonfly’s eyes provide a 360-degree field of vision just as our satellite constellations provide a 360-degree view of the Earth.
Our Facility
Dragonfly Aerospace is investing in a 3000m² design and manufacturing facility with 1000m² of cleanroom areas for microsatellite constellation production. The facility is situated in the technology hub of the Western Cape, called Techno Park, overlooking the vineyards and mountains of Stellenbosch. The facility is a 30-minute drive from Cape Town International Airport.
The facility consists of satellite and imager assembly cleanrooms, development and environmental test labs and office areas. The satellite assembly clean rooms are ISO 8 controlled while the imager assembly clean rooms are ISO 7 controlled and ISO 6 flow cabinets are used for imager focal plane assemblies.
We are planning a production line with up to 16 satellites being built in parallel and up to 48 satellites produced per year. The facility is designed to build satellites from 50kg to 600kg and imagers from 1U CubeSat imagers to 400mm aperture sub-metre imagers. It is intended to serve commercial and civil space customers.
Our Vision
Dragonfly Aerospace has a vision to create compact high-performance imaging satellites and payloads that are designed for large imaging constellations that provide persistent views of the Earth in a wide range of spectrums enabling unprecedented business intelligence and improving the lives of people around the world.
Satellites
We are hiring!
- Configuration manager
- HR Assistant
- Procurement Manager
- Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
- Assembly Technician
Contact hr team
Get into direct contact with our HR Department