Archives for November 2019

The U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center and its mission partners successfully launched the Aerospace Rogue Alpha/Beta Cube Satellites on November 2, 2019.

Lift-off occurred at 9:59 a.m. ET from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia. The Cygnus capsule will mate with the International Space Station and the satellites will remain there until deployment in early 2020.

The Aerospace CubeSats have officially achieved their priority mission of developing a small LEO constellation in just 18 months. The satellites will now collect data on cloud backgrounds to inform future LEO missions. The USAF will also use this program’s data to investigate potential uses of the capability.

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft. Image is courtesy of NASA.

The Rogue CubeSat Program, a dual smallsat program co-developed by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center and The Aerospace Corporation, finished preparations for launch and was fully integrated onboard Northrop Grumman’s Antares Cygnus launch vehicle at Wallops Island, Virginia, on November 1.

Colonel Dennis Bythewood, Program Executive Officer for Space Development, said the successful launch of the Aerospace CubeSats marks a huge achievement for SMC and its partners. This mission has set a precedent for speed and will also provide us with much needed data for future space development programs.

The Northrop Grumman NG-12 Resupply Launch, with the Cygnus spacecraft aboard, lifts off from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Image is courtesy of NASA.

The cubesats were designed, built, and tested by The Aerospace Corporation, a national nonprofit corporation that operates as a federally funded research and development center dedicated to advancing the nation’s missions in space. The Rogue Cubesats design emphasizes Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) sensors, non-exotic parts and features a high-speed laser communications system that will enable downlinks of large image files. These dual smallsats will also use novel wavelengths for infrared sensing.

The mission priority is to investigate the feasibility of developing small and low-cost satellites as a means of rapidly reconstituting a proliferated LEO constellation. Rogue has succeeded so far by meeting its targeted 16-month design, build, and test timeline. The satellites will also work on jump starting LEO cloud scene processing and provide test data for new short-wave infrared band satellites.

Kepler Communications has opened early-access registration for its Internet of Things (IoT) Developer Kit, which will be available for purchase in Q1 2020 — a limited number of early trials will be provided.

The DevKit will provide early access to Kepler’s forthcoming satellite-enabled narrowband connectivity service.  Designed to provide a truly-global and affordable satellite service that will support IoT services such as asset tracking and monitoring sensors anywhere on the planet. The trials will be supported by Kepler’s third satellite and others that will launch throughout 2020. The spacecraft will offer both wideband and narrowband data transfer services globally, from pole to pole, and represents another significant milestone in Kepler’s technology roadmap.

Kepler’s everywhereIOT™ is designed to overcome the hardest connectivity challenges faced by those looking to deploy a global IoT solution. By ensuring low-cost global coverage under a single network, the service is able to satisfy the bandwidth requirements of a wide range of applications, from railcar tracking to monitoring the status of containers or the location of livestock. Currently, many of these use cases are hindered by the lack of low-cost, globally-available satellite and terrestrial infrastructure.

As the constellation grows, Kepler will enable a cellular-quality, standardized connection for IoT that utilizes the purpose-built fleet of CubeSats designed and operated by the team at Kepler. The IoT DevKit has been developed with an integrated Raspberry Pi, facilitating the use of an array of smart, connected products and sensors currently available on the market.  Multiple data requirements, ranging from bytes to MBs per month, will be supported by way of low-cost, flexible airtime plans. In parallel with the DevKit, Kepler is also developing a mobile-phone sized module for asset tracking, the first application-specific IoT hardware to be brought to market.

Wen Cheng Chong, Co-Founder and CTO at Kepler, said various studies and market research reports predict billions of industrial IoT connections coming online in the next five years, and a global solution such as the company’s everywhereIOT service will be key to achieving this. For this reason, Kepler believes this to be exciting news for the market, as much as it marks an important milestone for the firm. A unique set of capabilities for smart connected devices are being added that did not previously exist in a satellite service. Together with the world’s OEMs, device and sensor manufacturers, and solution providers, the company envisions a future where Kepler’s everywhereIOT makes possible higher efficiencies across multiple industries.

To secure a spot on Kepler’s Early Access list, register online at this direct link…

Pixxel, India’s first private Earth imaging company, has announced their agreement with Leaf Space, a company delivering complete ground segment expertise for smallsats.

The announcement was made at the 70th International Astronautical Congress in Washington DC, wherein Leaf Space will provide the ground segment support for the satellite to be launched in July of 2020.

Through this partnership, Leaf Space will provide the support service up to one pass per orbit to the satellite in SSO (Sun-Synchronous Orbit), demonstrating the capabilities of its mid-latitude, distributed, ground station network. Uplink and downlink service for the mission will be provided using VHF, UHF and S-band frequencies. The satellite is set to be launched on a Soyuz rocket in July 2020, thanks to a contract inked in August this year.

The agreement also facilitates future mission support for Pixxel’s planned constellation thanks to the integration of the communication systems and interfaces, nonetheless, familiarizing the satellite operations team with Leaf Space services.

Pixxel is aiming to build a constellation of Earth imaging small satellites that will provide global coverage every 24 hours once fully deployed. The satellites will collect data that will be accurately analyzed using artificial intelligence in order to predict effective solutions for existing environmental problems.

Commenting on the agreement, Awais Ahmed, CEO, Pixxel said the company is excited to partner with Leaf Space for the ground segment support to the firm’s first satellite. Pixxel strongly believes that this combined expertise will result in smooth and timely delivery of highly accurate geospatial imagery to people all across the globe. This partnership will be marked as the first milestone in India’s space technology progression.

Jonata Puglia, CEO of Leaf Space, said the firm is eager to start supporting Pixxel’s ambitious remote sensing mission, as this program has the potential to generate valuable data for the new space market. The company is looking forward to delivering this service to the firm’s customer, laying out the most favorable environment for future mission and constellation support.