iXblue and Airbus Defence and Space celebrate the 100 cumulated years of Astrix gyroscopes in orbit

iXblue, a French company recognised worldwide for the design, development and manufacturing of high-technology equipment, and Airbus Defence and Space are celebrating a special birthday this month: the 100 cumulated years of the Astrix gyroscopes in orbit!

The Astrix range is the result of a long-lasting partnership between Airbus Defence and Space and iXblue for more than 20 years. Benefiting from the advanced expertise of both companies, including Airbus Defence and Space technical and commercial know-how of the space industry and iXblue’s robust and competitive Fiber-Optic Gyroscope (FOG), Astrix provides a fail-safe solution for numerous space applications such as military and scientific satellites, global navigation satellite systems, or telecommunications satellites. As of today, Astrix is flying on more than 25 satellites representing more than 100 years of cumulated flight on all types of orbits.

Astrix is trusted for many well-known missions like Pleiades constellation, Planck space observatory, SPOT, MeteoSat, Sentinel, Galileo… Thomas Buret, iXblue Chief Operating Officer comments: “Thanks to this partnership, we have developed together very high-performance gyroscopes that have become over the years a reference for the space market. With the unrivaled FOG technology, we provide unbeatable reliability and address all type of satellites requirements. We are very proud to celebrate this special birthday today and look forward to pursuing this fruitful cooperation with Airbus Defence and Space.”

To continue this technological and industrial adventure, a new 5-year collaboration agreement is being renewed this year by both partners. In this frame, they aim to keep providing the most precise gyroscope for the space applications, to produce very competitive gyroscopes and to develop new products suited to the current and evolving needs of the space market.