May 3, 2018 – Arianespace announced that it has been selected by SITAEL to launch the first small satellite for delivery of STRIVING services, to be conducted using a Vega as part of the launcher’s Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) Proof of Concept (POC) flight. It is the third contract signed by Arianespace for this POC flight. The first STRIVING small satellite will be launched on Vega in 2019 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. STRIVING is a new one-stop-shop commercial service offering to both private and public entities affordable and effective access to space for testing, validating and/or operating their innovative technologies and solutions. SITAEL, the Space Mission Provider (SMP), acts as a single interface to customers, leading an industrial team composed also by IMT, Planetek and Tyvak International. The service infrastructure is currently under development within a public-private partnership between ESA/ASI and SITAEL in the frame of the ARTES PIONEER Initiative. Built by SITAEL using its S-75 microsat platform, the first STRIVING satellite will weigh approximately 70 kg. at launch and is designed to have a nominal service life of at least two years once positioned in a sun-synchronous orbit at 500 km.