Elevation Spacecraft Product Line
BAE Systems
BAE Systems' (formerly Ball Aerospace) standardized small-to-medium satellite bus family — successor to the flight-proven Ball Configurable Platform — offered in Summit, Trek, and Ascent variants for government and commercial missions.
Typed specifications30 values
Discloses 4 of 7 fields engineers filter by in this category (category median 3).
- Design lifetime
- 5 years design life, Summit and Trek · datasheet p.2 5 years mission life, Ascent
- Orbit
- LEO 400 to 1000 km, 40 deg to SSO (Summit, Trek) · datasheet p.2 GEO Ascent | lunar cislunar, Ascent | SSO Summit, Trek | MEO Trek, MEO option
- Max payload mass
- 2 200 kg max · Ascent · datasheet p.3 225 kg max · Summit | 1 000 kg max · Trek
- Payload envelope (L × W × H)
- 2 x 1 x 0.4-0.75 m Summit, typical (L x W x H) · datasheet p.2 1.7 x 1.8 x 3 m Ascent, with ports for secondary payloads
- Power available to payload
- 400 W min · Summit, orbit average, EOL, 28 VDC; 400 to 850 W · datasheet p.2 2 700 W max · Ascent, orbit average, EOL, 28 VDC | 850 W max · Summit, orbit average, EOL, 28 VDC; 400 to 850 W | 1 900 W max · Trek, orbit average, EOL, 28 VDC
- Unregulated bus for the payload
- 28 V nom. · payload power at 28 VDC · datasheet p.2
- Pointing accuracy
- 0.002 ° max · datasheet p.2
- Attitude knowledge
- 0.001 ° max · datasheet p.2
- Propulsion
- included Summit: electric propulsion included; Trek: chemical and elec… · datasheet p.2
- Delta-v
- 380 m/s min · Summit, electric propulsion · datasheet p.2 200 m/s min · Trek, chemical | 550 m/s min · Trek, electric propulsion | 1 500 m/s max · Ascent, refuellable chemical propulsion, 6DOF control
- Radio band
- X mission comms · datasheet p.2 Ka mission comms option, Trek and Ascent | S TT&C | L TT&C, Trek and Ascent (S/L-band) | optical mission comms option, Trek and Ascent
- Flight heritage
- STPSat-2 (2010), STPSat-3 (2013), GPIM (2019, BCP-100), IXPE (2021, 4th BCP-100 build); related Ball Aerospace instrument heritage includes TEMPO, GEMS, MethaneSAT, ICESat-2 (ATLAS instrument), SPHERE product page
Each value is typed with its unit and measurement condition and cites the datasheet page it was taken from. Nothing is guessed: a field that is absent here has not been published by the manufacturer. machine-extracted ✓ checked by NewSpace Market ✓ manufacturer confirmed by the manufacturer.
As published by the supplier7 lines, in the manufacturer's own wording
- Summit variant payload capacity
- Up to 225 kg
- Summit variant power generation
- 850 W orbit average
- Trek variant payload capacity
- Up to 1,000 kg
- Trek variant power generation
- Up to 1,900 W orbit average
- Ascent variant features
- Multi-payload hosting, high maneuverability, high-thrust propulsion, refuelability, rendezvous/proximity operations/docking support
- Legacy bus name
- Ball Configurable Platform (BCP), including BCP-100, BCP-Small, and BCP-Large variants
- Flight heritage
- STPSat-2 (2010), STPSat-3 (2013), GPIM (2019, BCP-100), IXPE (2021, 4th BCP-100 build); related Ball Aerospace instrument heritage includes TEMPO, GEMS, MethaneSAT, ICESat-2 (ATLAS instrument), SPHEREx
About
The Elevation Spacecraft Product Line is BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems’ (the former Ball Aerospace space business, acquired by BAE Systems in February 2024) standardized, modular spacecraft bus family. It carries forward the design heritage of Ball Aerospace’s Ball Configurable Platform, a small satellite bus that used a common structure and standardized payload interfaces to reduce cost and delivery time. The BCP-100 class bus was built four times, including for NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission (built in 46 days) and NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, and traces further heritage to STPSat-2 and STPSat-3. The rebranded Elevation line offers three standardized variants: Summit (up to 225 kg payload, 850 W orbit-average power, precision pointing, ideal for rideshare), Trek (up to 1,000 kg payload, up to 1,900 W orbit-average power, enhanced attitude determination for high-power/high-mass payloads), and Ascent (multi-payload hosting, high maneuverability and high-thrust propulsion, refuelability, rendezvous/proximity operations support). The line targets government and commercial customers needing affordable, mission-ready spacecraft platforms, drawing on over 70 years of aerospace heritage.
Documentation
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