ION

Operational orbital transfer vehicle by D-Orbit, providing last-mile satellite delivery, orbit-raising, and end-of-life deorbiting services for commercial and government satellite operators

Yes. ION is independently verified in real-world operation on the DEPLOY registry, confirmed at named deployment sites with primary sources: not a concept, render, or demo-only.

ION is made by D-Orbit, based in Fino Mornasco, Italy, founded in 2016.

3 verified deployments of ION are on the DEPLOY registry, including at Vandenberg SFB, California, USA, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, USA (multiple Transporter missions), Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA.

ION is in commercial deployment and is sold to operators; contact the manufacturer to buy, and see the pricing section for any recorded price.

On the DEPLOY registry, comparable defense robots to ION include SMSS (Squad Mission Support System), AZAK S26 UGV, Blackswan Autonomy Suite, Jackal.

ION and SMSS (Squad Mission Support System) (Lockheed Martin · 3 deployments) are both defense robots on the DEPLOY registry. ION has 3 verified deployments on record. Compare both records for specs, safety, deployments, and verified-vs-claimed autonomy.

On DEPLOY's intelligence score, which blends verified deployments, safety, adoption, media, and IP signals, ION ranks in roughly the top 14% of defense models tracked by the registry.

ION is at the commercial stage on the DEPLOY maturity ladder (research, prototype, pilot, commercial, production). Commercial stage means production-grade deployments are operating at named customer sites.

ION has no incidents on record in the DEPLOY registry. This does not constitute a safety guarantee; it reflects the incidents DEPLOY has tracked and verified to date.