Italian smallsat developer Argotec has introduced a novel modular satellite bus design, the Hawk Plus, emphasizing adaptability for various payloads. Announced at the Satellite 2025 conference, the design employs modular panels, enabling plug-and-play functionality to meet diverse mission requirements. “What we are introducing is one flexible platform which, on one hand, is standardized enough to offer a high level of industrialization, but on the other hand, is designed to accommodate flexibility and to evolve over time in order to cope with different missions,” explained Emilio Fazzoletto, Argotec's head of product management.
This flexible design utilizes modular panels housing essential subsystems like power and communications, allowing for reconfiguration based on mission needs. This builds upon Argotec’s experience with the IRIDE Italian Earth observation constellation. A key benefit, as Fazzoletto highlighted, is the decoupling of payload from the bus. “You can install the payload at a later stage,” he stated. “It also means that payload integration can happen at a later stage, also at facilities other than ours. So, for example, we can let our customers integrate classified payloads at their facilities.”
Argotec opted for a modular system instead of developing various bus sizes. “They want something that already exists, but it’s hard to have something that already exists with almost no NRE [non-recurring engineering] and fit their unique payload into it,” noted Corbett Hoenninger, Argotec's U.S. managing director. Production of Hawk Plus modules will occur at Argotec’s SpacePark facility in Turin, Italy, with a future U.S. facility in Florida also planned. This allows for "hybrid" production, with modules produced in Italy and shipped to the U.S. for final assembly and payload integration.