And will play a vital role in servicing the global demand for their mineral exploration solution ExoSphere.

Rapid global adoption of ExoSphere has been the catalyst behind the company’s sustained innovation in space technologies and growth over the past year their press release says. Over 40 industry leading exploration companies – including Rio Tinto, Core Lithium, and Barrick Gold – have used the technology to complete over 300 surveys for a variety of critical minerals across five continents. In 2023, Fleet Space completed a heavily oversubscribed 50 million dollar Series C funding round, doubled its valuation to 350 million dollars, and was named Australia’s fastest growing company.

Centauri-6 has been designed with multiple upgrades to optimise the resilience and durability of the satellite while also enhancing the overall capacity of Fleet Space’s low-Earth orbit satellite constellation to support the growing demand for ExoSphere. Centauri-6 has greater uplink capacity and redundancy, enabling more resilient data transfer from Fleet Space’s satellite-enabled seismic sensors on the ground.

The satellite has also been designed with an ion electric propulsion system powered by solar panels to provide thrust in the vacuum of space. Centauri-6’s design also leverages 3D-printed components – including the 3D-printed metal patch antenna Fleet Space pioneered on earlier Centauri satellites.