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PAVE Space
Orbital transfer vehicles for rapid satellite delivery

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About

PAVE Space SA is a Swiss space infrastructure startup founded in 2024 and spun out of the Gruyère Space Program, the EPFL student initiative that built and flew Europe's first reusable vertically-landing liquid-propellant rocket demonstrator (Colibri) across 53 test flights on a budget of just CHF 250,000. The company develops a family of orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) designed to move satellites from low Earth orbit (LEO) to their final operational destinations — geostationary orbit (GEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO), or lunar trajectories — in under 24 hours, compared to the 6–12 months satellites currently take under their own power.

PAVE's flagship product, LYOBA, is a heavy-lift kick stage weighing approximately 20 metric tons and capable of carrying up to 5 metric tons of payload. Its second platform, IBEX, is a smaller, more agile vehicle targeting responsive missions and dual-use defence applications. Both vehicles use storable bipropellant propulsion rather than cryogenic fuels, enabling long-duration in-space loitering and compatibility with a wide range of launch providers including Falcon 9, Ariane 6, and MHI. The company develops propulsion systems, avionics, control algorithms, and structural design entirely in-house.

PAVE's target customers include satellite operators, telecom providers, Earth observation companies, and European defence organisations. The company has already secured eight reservation agreements with satellite operators. In October 2026, PAVE launched its first in-space mission, GRAZE — a cubesat-form avionics demonstrator flown aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter-18 rideshare — successfully reaching orbit and beginning on-orbit validation of the company's navigation software and communication architecture. LYOBA's first full mission is planned for 2029.

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