ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,304,662, issued on May 20, was assigned to EXOLAUNCH GmbH (Berlin).
"Release apparatus" was invented by Dmitriy Bogdanov (Berlin), Peter Schwarz (Salzburg, Austria), Peter Wimmer (Pfarrwerfen, Austria), Johannes Gruber (Salzburg, Austria), Sergey Polyak (Berlin) and Denis Bederov (Berlin).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A release apparatus for releasing a satellite comprises a release plunger that can be preloaded by a release spring and that is held in a preloaded position by two two-armed pivot levers pivotable about a respective pivot axis, wherein each pivot lever can be held against a force of a spring in a holding position by a relea...