GRUS
Axelspace
GRUS is Axelspace's 100-150 kg class optical Earth-observation microsatellite bus, the building block of the AxelGlobe satellite constellation, delivering sub-3-meter multispectral imagery for agriculture, environmental monitoring, and mapping.
Technical specifications
- Satellite mass (GRUS-1)
- ~80-100 kg
- Satellite mass (GRUS-3)
- ~150 kg (wet mass)
- Panchromatic resolution (GRUS-1)
- 2.5 m GSD or better
- Multispectral resolution (GRUS-1)
- 5.0 m GSD or better
- Spatial resolution (GRUS-3)
- 2.2 m GSD
- Swath width (GRUS-1)
- 55 km or more
- Spectral bands (GRUS-1)
- Panchromatic, Blue, Green, Red, Red Edge, Near-Infrared
- Orbit
- 585-600 km altitude, sun-synchronous sub-recurrent orbit
- Design life
- Over 5 years
- Flight heritage - GRUS-1
- 5 satellites launched Dec 2018-Mar 2021; operational AxelGlobe constellation since June 2021
- Flight heritage - GRUS-3
- Precursor launched June 23, 2025 (Transporter-14); seven production satellites launched July 7, 2026 (Transporter-17)
About
GRUS is a compact, mass-producible Earth-observation microsatellite developed by the Japanese New Space company Axelspace to power its AxelGlobe optical satellite constellation. The platform uses twin onboard telescopes to combine a wide imaging swath with high spatial resolution. The first-generation GRUS-1 bus (~80-100 kg) captures panchromatic imagery at 2.5 m ground sample distance and multispectral imagery at 5.0 m GSD, with a swath width of 55+ km, from a 585-600 km sun-synchronous sub-recurrent orbit with a design life exceeding 5 years. Five GRUS-1 satellites were launched between December 2018 and March 2021 and formed the operational AxelGlobe constellation from June 2021. The next-generation GRUS-3 bus scales up to roughly 150 kg wet mass, improves spatial resolution to 2.2 m, adds a coastal-blue band, and integrates Nikon-built telescopes. A GRUS-3 precursor unit launched June 23, 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter-14 rideshare from Vandenberg and remains operational in validation. Seven additional GRUS-3 satellites were slated to launch together on a Falcon 9 Transporter-17 rideshare mission on July 7, 2026. AxelGlobe imagery serves agriculture, forestry, disaster response, infrastructure, and national mapping customers.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.