World leader in star trackers

Sodern is the world leader in star trackers and offers the widest range of products on the market, which is adapted to all missions, budgets, satellite platforms and orbits.

From low Earth orbit to deep space, our star trackers benefit from a long flight experience, at the service of the largest space agencies and the main satellites manufacturers in the world, but also start-ups and new space constellations.

Our range of star trackers Auriga™ Hydra Horus

Compare our star trackers

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Auriga™

The compact star tracker for small satellites constellations

Auriga™ star tracker is is packed with the latest high-tech components and is optimized for the small satellite markets of less than 500kg and for New Space projects as of 6U.

Radiation-resistant with a thicker casing and spacial optics, Auriga™ allow a lifetime of over 15 years in geostationary orbit and 10 years in low Earth orbit (LEO 400-1,200km). With its standardized components, is
specifically designed to meet cost reduction objectives while offering excellent technical performance and reliability. Its reduced volume (66 x 59 x 94 mm) and its weight of 225g make it the most compact star tracker in its category.

Over 1,000 Auriga™ are in orbit with a mission success rate of 100%.

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1 + million hours in safe operation Production capacity of 120 units per month Auriga™ Dedicated testing and integration solutions
Auriga™50 k€ - 100 k€*
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AURIGA-SA
(Stand-Alone)
  • The star tracker software is implemented in a specific electronic unit, supplied by Sodern
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*From 100 K € for one optical head and one electronic unit (indicative price excluding NRE)
AURIGA-CP
(Centralized Processing)
  • Auriga CP is composed of an optical head which integrates image pre-processing
  • The software provided by Sodern is implemented in the satellite’s on-board computer and enables three optical heads to be processed at the same time
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*50 K € for one optical head (indicative price excluding NRE), lead time less than 3 months for small volumes.

Hydra

Highly resilient modular star tracker

Hydra is a star tracker which provides modularity and performance thanks to a range of versions. Providing exceptional quality and resilience, Hydra is installed in particular on board the main institutional and scientific missions of several countries, as well as on telecommunications and observation satellites in all orbits.

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HYDRA ACCESS
Available off-the-shelf
  • The first high-end star tracker available off-the-shelf
  • The best trade-off between performances and price
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HYDRA
  • Best in class, highly modular star tracker
  • Centralized processing / or Autonomous unit
  • 1 up to 4 OH / 1 up to 2 EU
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HYDRA CUSTOM
  • Specific State-of-the-art star tracker solutions
  • Autonomous Unit / or Centralized Processing
  • On demand configuration
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Hydra & Electronic Units

EU-Baseline
HYDRA-CP (Centralized Processing)
EU-TC (Two Channels)
EU-M (Minimum Power)

Horus

Single box star tracker

Horus is an autonomous star tracker which uses innovative technologies to guarantee performance and competitiveness for applications which require a single field of view. A robust and very recent product, Horus is particularly adapted to telecoms platforms.

New generation APS space detector (Active Pixel Sensor) Processor integrated into a single component Light composite baffle
HORUS
  • New generation APS space detector (Active Pixel Sensor)
  • Processor integrated into a single component
  • Light composite baffle
  • Exceptional robustness
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Flight heritage, a few examples

TELECOMMUNICATIONS
DirecTV-15 Mission:
Equipped with Hydra star trackers, the DirecTV-15 satellite is a geostationary telecommunication satellite. It provides telecommunications services to the continental United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Alaska.
CONSTELLATIONS
One Web mission:
The One Web constellation, which is equipped with Auriga star trackers, comprises 600 telecommunications satellites in low orbit. It will provide private customers with broadband Internet access.
EARTH OBSERVATION
Pléiades Neo mission:
Equipped with Hydra star trackers, Pléiades Neo is a constellation of 4 Earth observation satellites from Airbus Defense and Space. They provide high resolution images.
SCIENCE (AND CLIMATE)
NASA Goes R mission:
Geostationary meteorological satellite equipped with Hydra star trackers. The mission will provide information about the Earth's atmosphere and ocean masses for the United States National Meteorological Service.
SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION
ESA JUICE mission:
The mission will enable the study of the Jupiter system, in orbit over the icy surface and analyze the internal structure of Jupiter's moons (Europa, Ganymede, Callisto)
Mission NASA Lucy (Discovery program):
The Lucy space probe, equipped with one Hydra, will study Jupiter's trojan asteroids.
NASA Europa Clipper mission:
JPL/NASA chose Sodern in 2018 to provide the star tracker for the future Europa Clipper mission. Sodern was able to rise to the challenge of developing a new star tracker, derived from our Hydra product, but one which was specifically dedicated to Jupiter's hostile environment: the most radiative in the whole solar system. The mission seeks to study Jupiter's atmosphere and magnetosphere and to characterize the composition and physical properties of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. To be able to withstand Jupiter's hostile environment, shielding was added around the star tracker, radiation-resistant electrical components were selected or developed and high-performance software derived from the tracker's traditional software was designed.
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Cygnus mission:
Sodern equips all the Cygnus resupply ships (food, fuel, etc.) to the international space station with SED 26 star trackers, the successor of which is the Horus star tracker.

Discover…

Understand star trackers: Discover the missions which improve our understanding of the climate.