The Walt Disney Company Italia and D-Orbit, a leading company in the international space industry, announce an unprecedented collaboration as part of the promotional campaign for “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu”, the all-new Star Wars film arriving in cinemas on May 22, 2026. A faithful replica of the iconic Mandalorian helmet has been brought into orbit aboard Wayfinder, the 22nd commercial mission of ION Satellite Carrier, the “space taxi” through which D-Orbit delivers customer satellites into orbit. From more than 500 kilometers above Earth, cameras developed in-house by the company are capturing footage of the object against the backdrop of the planet, creating unprecedented images.
The helmet aboard ION is a replica created from a 3D scan of the original helmet provided by Disney, machined from a solid block of 6000-series aluminum and completed with dedicated electronic and optical components. Before launch, the object underwent the same environmental and functional qualification campaign required for any commercial payload, together with ION: vibration tests to simulate launch stress, thermal vacuum chamber testing to reproduce operational space conditions, and functional verification of the integrated system. The images are being captured by cameras installed aboard ION, developed internally by D-Orbit for its orbital vehicles. The acquisition phase began with payload commissioning, during which the correct framing of the helmet and the quality of the footage in an operational environment were verified.
“Behind these images lies the extraordinary work of a team that enabled us to deliver sequences to Disney Italia that met their expectations. For many of us, this collaboration has also been deeply personal: working on a project connected to Star Wars, a saga that has always been part of our imagination, is a source of pride and enthusiasm felt throughout the entire company”, stated Matteo Andreas Lorenzoni, Director of D-Orbit’s Orbital Access Business Unit.
The integration of the helmet into an already planned commercial mission, without requiring a dedicated launch or leaving any separate object in orbit, reflects sustainability principles shared by both D-Orbit and Disney Italia. A Benefit Corporation registered under Italian law, D-Orbit designs its vehicles and missions with sustainable use of the orbital environment in mind: each ION vehicle is designed to carry payloads for multiple customers on a single flight, and at the end of the mission it is removed from orbit through a controlled decommissioning maneuver, in full compliance with international regulations.
Wayfinder was launched on March 30, 2026, from Vandenberg Space Force Base aboard the Falcon 9 rocket by SpaceX as part of the Transporter-16 mission, and deployed into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of approximately 510 kilometers. The mission also contains several hidden tributes to the franchise: the name itself, Wayfinder, references the famous Mandalorian phrase “This is the Way”; the official mission patch, when turned upside down, reveals the silhouette of a Mandalorian helmet hidden within the launch design.
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