Cleanroom technicians work on integrating the Kineiss flight model satellite. Photo: Kineiss
French startup Kineis is preparing two launches by Rocket Lab starting in June to launch the first 10 satellites of its IoT constellation. Kineis announced on Thursday that it has two launches planned between June 17 and July 15, with five satellites in each launch.
Kineis signed a contract with Rocket Lab for five launches in 2021. At the time, launches were scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2023.
The Kinéis nanosatellite is built on a 16U platform and weighs 28 kg. It carries IoT and Automatic Maritime Identification System (AIS) payloads. The prime contractor for the satellite is Thales Alenia Space. Hemeria built the satellite platform and Syrlinks provided the payload.
Also on Thursday, Kinéis announced a new partnership with chipmaker Semtech to integrate its satellite connectivity into its terrestrial IoT chips. Semtech LoRa Edge chips will give users global access to Kinéis’ IoT connectivity, in addition to LoRaWAN terrestrial connectivity, without the need to add an additional electronic module.
Kinéis plans to serve industries and use cases such as agriculture, fixed infrastructure and energy network monitoring, transportation and logistics monitoring, wildlife and livestock tracking, and defense. The company plans to launch services with 20 satellites in orbit in 2025.
