Success Story
Source Energy
Source Energy develops large silicon-cell solar arrays for spacecraft missions that demand fast delivery, competitive pricing, and the production volume to support missions at industrial scale.
Based in Colorado, Source is part of the new generation of space companies focused on building practical, readily-available hardware while making integration easier for customers and mission teams.
Their systems are designed to deliver reliable power in demanding environments, while supporting efficient spacecraft development and testing on the ground. Testing is central to ensuring this reliability, giving Source Energy’s customers the peace of mind that mission risk has been minimized.
Source Energy's Challenge
For many Source Energy customers, solar array deployment testing can be one of the most demanding — and expensive — parts of a campaign.
Historically, deployment hardware often allowed only a limited number of test cycles (if any at all). This meant configuration breaks, hardware swaps, and repeated setup work during qualification campaigns. Each interruption added engineering time, mission risk, and significant cost.
Customers increasingly realized that saving a small amount on deployment hardware like HDRMs could end up costing tens of thousands of dollars in overall testing cost. What they really needed was a reliable, flight-proven HDRM that could be reset and reused repeatedly without disrupting their campaign.
Dcubed Solution
Source Energy became an early adopter of Dcubed’s Milli Release Nut (mD3RN), quickly recognizing its potential to simplify testing and reduce operational friction.
Through the new strategic partnership, Dcubed will supply milli Release Nuts for Source Energy customer missions, supported by short lead times and responsive engineering support whenever and wherever it is needed.
Source Energy values the following attributes of the Milli Release Nut in particular:
- Cost Efficiency — Dcubed’s resettable HDRMs reduces the need for consumable hardware, lowering overall production and testing costs across multiple test campaigns.
- Reduced Contamination and Safety Risk — Pyrotechnic HDRMs carry some handling risks and can produce particulate contamination when fired. A resettable, non-pyrotechnic mechanism eliminates these hazards, making it safer for personnel. Testing Flexibility – During ground testing, our engineers need to repeatedly simulate launch and deployment sequences. Dcubed’s resettable HDRM allows the mechanism to be reset and tested multiple times without replacing components, saving our team time and cost during the integration and test phase.
Speaking about the power of the partnership, Source Energy’s CEO, Philip Keller said:
“The Dcubed resettable HDRM is a well-engineered solution that directly addresses the testing challenges we face during satellite integration and test. We see clear value in the mD3RN for our current and future customers.”
In addition, the fact that Source and Dcubed are practically neighbors in Colorado ensures fast, onsite collaboration is easily possible whenever it’s required.
Dcubed Impact
By switching to an easily resettable, reusable, flight-proven release mechanism, Source Energy customers can now perform dozens of deployment cycles without replacing hardware or pausing their test campaign.
This eliminates costly configuration breaks, reduces schedule risk, and often saves customers tens of thousands of dollars in a single campaign. In practice, Dcubed’s mechanism frequently pays for itself many times over before launch.
More broadly, the partnership reflects the shared philosophy of both companies: making space engineering easier, and making procurement and integration faster and more predictable for mission teams.
It’s also a strong example of Dcubed’s Vertical Integration 2.0 approach, where vendors become true partners to mission teams — not just product suppliers.
Let’s Make Your Next Test Campaign Easier
If you’re planning a mission and want to eliminate deployment headaches, reduce testing costs, and keep your campaign moving without interruptions, Dcubed is ready to help.
Talk to the Dcubed team about reliable deployment solutions for your next mission.