Archives for April 2020

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. and Spaceflight Inc. have signed a Launch Services Agreement (LSA).

The agreement confirms that Spaceflight will secure the majority of the payload mass aboard a Firefly Alpha launch, scheduled for lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 2021.

In addition to being the anchor customer, Spaceflight will sign, manage, integrate, and deploy multiple payloads on the flight, enabling Firefly to maximize its full 630 kilogram launch capacity on the commercial Alpha mission to Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha smallsat launch vehicle.
Image is courtesy of the company.

Also, according to the LSA, Spaceflight will help maximize payload capacity aboard future Firefly Alpha launches.

The Alpha launch vehicle is designed to address the needs and demands of the burgeoning smallsat market, combining the highest payload performance with the lowest cost per kilogram to orbit in its vehicle class. Alpha will provide launch options for both full vehicle and rideshare missions. Spaceflight has launched a record-setting 271 satellites via 29 rideshare missions, establishing itself as a leading rideshare service provider, offering comprehensive launch and integration services across a global portfolio of vehicles.

Spaceflight successfully executed nine missions in 2019, the most rideshare launches the company has performed in one year. The company also completed the first-ever rideshare mission to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) in 2019, launching the first privately funded lunar lander.

Spaceflight enables commercial, non-profit organizations and government entities to get launched, achieving their mission goals – on time and on budget.

Leading up to the maiden flight of the Alpha launch vehicle later this year, final acceptance of the first and second stage will take place over the next several months at Firefly’s test facilities at Briggs, Texas, with hardware deployments to Vandenberg planned for early summer. Firefly teams are also integrating new composite technologies into its overall manufacturing capabilities, with the goal of significantly boosting production of its launch vehicles to align with demand growth over the next few years.

Curt Blake

Curt Blake, President of Spaceflight, said the company has long been committed to providing reliable, cost-effective access to space and the firm is eager to partner with Firefly, as both companies share this exciting vision. In fact, the company has many customers in mind, including some specifically in APAC, which we believe will benefit from this additional capacity and flexibility. Spaceflight is honored to secure the primary payload aboard an Alpha flight in 2021 and looks forward to working closely with the Firefly team to accelerate more small satellite rideshare launches for the industry. ”

Dr. Tom Markusic

Dr. Tom Markusic, Firefly CEO, added that Alpha launches in 2021 will play a key role in establishing the company’s  manifest and production capability, and having Spaceflight’s deep payload integration expertise in the firm’s corner is an important part of the overall launch strategy. Firefly’s Alpha launch vehicle will quickly fill a major market gap with the capability to deliver 1 metric ton to LEO and 630 kilograms to the highly desirable 500 kilogram SSO, about four times the current payload capability of other small satellite launch vehicles.

The first of 165 satellites is being built by Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group (HKATG) and getting ready to launch the low-orbit high frequency satellite, the “Golden Bauhinia No.1”,  in June from China. The planned launch marks an important milestone in the company’s “Golden Bauhinia” space remote sensing project.

According to the U.S. Satellite Industry Association (SIA), commercial aerospace revenue was US$277.4 billion in 2018 and is expected to increase 10 percent per year. Reinforcing the fact that the rapid development of international commercial aerospace makes it one of the most dynamic industries after the internet, AI and 5G. The strategic value of the aerospace industry has driven investment into commercial aerospace organizations in Europe and America, with the market value of commercial aerospace enterprises listed in the U.S. continually reaching new heights.

Humanity is shifting from needing an aerospace industry to dependency; with the strategic and commercial value of space infrastructure becoming ever more apparent. As the modern aerospace industry takes shape, the value of orbit and spectrum base resources will become highly sought-after “space real estate”.

HKATG is the first International Astronautical Federation’s member in Hong Kong. Mr. SUN FENGQUAN, Chairman of the Board of Directors of HKATG, said that the Greater Bay Area aerospace industry generates tens of billions of dollars in demand each year. The new development direction of HKATG is centred on regional urban agglomeration, and launching the “Golden Bauhinia Constellation”.

Using mobile target monitoring, space AI and dynamic change monitoring, the “Golden Bauhinia Constellation” aims to achieve commercial application and development of communications, navigation, and remote sensing systems with global 24-hour online tracking and the ability to re-visit key areas in under 30 minutes.

The “Golden Bauhinia” project aims to launch 165 low-orbit, high-frequency satellites in 2020 covering the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and serve the world’s fastest-growing urban centres. The satellite to relaunched in June was designed, manufactured and patented by HKATG.

Astroscale U.S. Inc., (“Astroscale U.S.”), the U.S. unit of Astroscale Holdings Inc., has announced that Dave Fischer and David Hebert, two experienced space industry professionals, will join the Astroscale U.S. management team.

Fischer joins the company as VP of Business Development and Advanced Systems, and Hebert joins as Director of Communications, with both of these appointments effective as of March 2020.

Fischer joins Astroscale with more than 30 years of experience in business and technology management. Most recently, he was Director of Business Development for RUAG Space USA. Prior to that, Fischer held several management roles in business development and strategic development with Ball Aerospace.

Hebert comes to Astroscale from The Aerospace Corporation where he most recently served as Senior Communications Strategist for policy, and civil and commercial systems. His nearly 20 years of experience includes strategic communications, public engagement and content development. He also held management roles at The MITRE Corporation and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Fischer and Hebert will play leading roles in expanding Astroscale U.S.’ collaboration and engagement with partners, potential clients and other groups in the commercial and government space and technology communities. Fischer will help lead the company’s exploration of new opportunities to fulfill its mission of making space sustainability a reality. Hebert will drive positioning, perception and brand strategy for the company.

Ron Lopez, President and Managing Director of Astroscale U.S., said that during the next few years, space sustainability will become common practice as the company’s talented team fosters greater awareness about the need for safety in space and drives growth in this market. Dave and David bring strength to Astroscale as the firm expands its presence in the U.S. market — these two key appointments represent the momentum Astroscale U.S. is gaining in the development and sutainability of the orbital highways.

A consortium of Norwegian and Dutch research centers have selected satellite integrator NanoAvionics to build two smallsats, ‘Birkeland’ and ‘Huygens.’

Artistic rendition of the Birkeland and Huygens smallsats on-orbit. Image is courtesy of NanoAvionics.

The purchase order is part of a military use of space (MilSpace) project under a bilateral strategic mutual assistance in research and technology (SMART) memorandum of understanding (MoU). The two nanosatellites are intended to demonstrate the concept of a space based spectrum monitoring system to geolocate radar signals. This is the first time for Norway and the Netherlands to launch a formation of satellites.

The BROS (binational radiofrequency observing satellites) mission is the first known two-satellite system to detect, classify, and accurately geolocate Radio Frequency signals, including navigation radars used on ships, by combining the measurement angle of arrival (AoA) and time difference of arrival (TDOA). Simultaneous detection of pulsed radio signals by both satellites flying in tandem enables accurate geolocation during all weather conditions.

“Birkeland” and “Huygens” will both be based on NanoAvioncs’ pre-configured M6P smallsat bus with a deployable solar panel configuration, high precision attitude determination and control system (ADCS) and a propulsion system. The mass of each 6U nanosatellite will be up to 10 kilograms.

Artistic rendition of a NanoAvionics M6P smallsat on-orbit. Image is courtesy of the company.

The launch of the two smallsats is scheduled for the second quarter of 2022 when they will be placed into a polar LEO with an altitude range of 450 to 600 km. Both smallsats will be positioned in the same orbital plane with a separation of 15 ro 25 km, allowing them to simultaneously detect emissions from radar systems. For a polar LEO orbit of 600 km altitude, the payload antenna will be able to cover any point on the Earth’s surface at least four times per day.

Drawing from experience from the Norwegian NorSat-3 and the Dutch BRIK-II missions, the consortium for this strategic and bilateral mission also expects to gain valuable insights into formation flying. The project team consists of the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) and Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO).

Vytenis Buzas

Vytenis J. Buzas, Co-Founder and CEO of NanoAvionics, said that exchanging science, research and technology experience in this MilSpace mission is a great start for flourishing partnerships with the participating organizations. The agreement is also an example of the new cross over between commercial and military space missions. This was made possible by standardizing NanoAvionics’ bus design, which allows the firm’s nanosatellites to host a wide variety of payloads for diverse applications.

Equatorial Space has signed a letter of intent to work with Scottish launch aggregator, Responsive Access, on finding customers for launches of the firm’s smallsat launch vehicle.

The company’s fully hybrid launch vehicle, Volans, is being designed to carry up to 200 kg. of payload into near-equatorial LEO – a rare capability for the many smallsat launch companies active in this burgeoning sector and heavily regulated by technology export restrictions by their domiciles.

Aiming for the first orbital launch by 2021, ESI has previously been crowned the winner of MBRSC Innovation Cup 2018 in Dubai, a Top 500 Deep Tech Startup by Hello Tomorrow 2018, as well as the Most Promising Startup at the NAMIC Innovation Day 2019.

Responsive Access is a participant in the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centre and aims to simplify access to space through the use of innovative software and key partner relationships that provide a one-stop-shop for the launch of cubesats into orbit.

Simon Gwozda

Simon Gwozdz, the CEO and Founder of Equatorial Space, said the company has reached a point along the development roadmap when the firm can confidently discuss launch contracts, as this technology matures and the team grows. Despite the delays in the inaugural prototype mission, the Low Altitude Demonstrator, due to the COVID-19 crisis and resulting travel restrictions, Equatorial Space is pushing forward with all work being completed remotely.

CEO of Responsive Access, Andrew Paliwoda, added that the company is delighted to have formalized  initial discussions with this letter of intent and look forward to strengthening this partnership with Equatorial Space in the coming months by bringing them satellite payload opportunities to fit their timelines.

Smallsat manufacturer and mission integrator NanoAvionics, together with the Mexican Space Agency (AEM) and students from the Polytechnic University of Atlacomulco, will develop the first nanosatellite for the State of Mexico, the AtlaCom-1.

Building the smallsat is part of a pilot project to establish a nanosatellite infrastructure for future space missions designed and built by Mexico’s youth.

The NanoAvionics M6P smallsat bus.

The project, starting in September of 2020, is a testimony to the importance of space applications enabled by nanosatellites, which are rapidly becoming essential to national economies. Together, the Mexican Space Agency, led by Dr. Salvador Landeros, appointed director general of AEM in 2019, and NanoAvionics are fostering the advanced skills that Mexican youth will need to bring the country’s space industry forward.

NanoAvionics’ engineers will share their space mission experience and help the students and faculty at the Polytechnic University of Atlacomulco to develop the ATLA-1. The company’s multi-purpose nanosatellite buses are pre-configured and pre-qualified, allowing mission teams to focus on their payloads. As a result, technology development missions can produce results quicker and satellite constellations can enter commercial service much faster.

The project is further supported by the Mayor of Atlacomulco, Roberto Téllez-Monroy, an engineer with a passion for space technology.

F. Brent Abbott

Brent Abbott, the CEO of NanoAvionics US Inc., said the company’s participation in this educational pilot project with the Mexican Space Agency further confirms the firm’s status as a global mission integrator and the company’s determination to advance STEM education. NanoAvionics is continuing its work with universities and is proud to support AEM’s STEM efforts. Benefiting from NanoAvionics’ great expertise and technology, Mexican students will gain prodigious knowledge and skills to participate in their country’s growing space economy and experience the entire development and operation cycle of a space mission. To make sure all members involved in building the nanosatellite are protected, we’ll put the same strict guidelines, safety equipment and measures in place the company is already using in the firm’s manufacturing facilities.”

Mayor Téllez-Monroy added that nanosatellites and other technologies, such as breakthroughs in robotics, 3D-printing and biotech, mark the fourth industrial revolution and promise enormous economic benefits, not only to Mexico, but the entire world. NanoAvionics’ commitment to developing the technical skills of students in Atlacomulco will help building a solid foundation for Mexico’s emerging nanosatellite industry.

Ovzon and Airbus Defence and Space have entered into a partnership through a reseller agreement wherein Airbus will include Ovzon’s innovative satellite communication services into their portfolio in the UK.

Together, Ovzon and Airbus will market Ovzon’s end-to-end services that include Ovzon’s mobile terminals and efficient, reliable support.

Airbus will integrate the Ovzon solution in to its extensive satellite communications product and system portfolio.

From late 2021, the offering will be expanded to include Ovzon’s own first satellite. According to the firm, this is an important step to further revolutionize mobile broadband by satellite, offering the highest bandwidth with the smallest terminals. Ovzon 3 is the first of a number of satellites planned for global reach of Ovzon’s high-end service.

Artistic rendition of the Ovzon 3 smallsat on-orbit.
Image is courtesy of the company.

Airbus is a leading integrator and provider of advanced secure satellite communication services and network management infrastructure. Airbus delivers flexibility, resiliency and security for governments, militaries and international agencies with an end-to-end service offer bringing the most comprehensive bandwidth and terminal portfolio coupled with leading capabilities in network services and solutions.

Magnus René, CEO of Ovzon, said the firm is excited to team with Airbus for them to include the company’s industry leading, end-to-end, satellite service in their product portfolio. Their professional team has a long history and legacy supplying satellite-based communication services to demanding customers.

Richard Budd, Head of Secure Communications in the UK and US at Airbus Defence and Space added that the company is always looking to ensure customers are benefiting from the best and latest technologies as part of the company’s ongoing service capability and offering. Being able to offer Ovzon’s advanced services and associated exciting mobile terminals to the firm’s portfolio means Airbus can continue to bring the best available solutions to the front line commands and end users.

GeoOptics, Inc. has launched an original radio occultation data processing system called the GeoOptics Processor for Radio Occultation (GeoPRO) that provide even more accurate and timely weather data from its CICERO constellation of radio occultation (RO) satellites — CICERO smallsats are designed to create the most detailed picture ever assembled of the Earth’s ionosphere and atmosphere.

For many years, detailed scientific analyses of radio occultation data have used a precise processing method called “phase-matching” to produce the most accurate radio occultation profiles possible. However, this method was generally considered too resource intensive for use in real-time data processing for operational weather modeling and forecasting.

GeoOptics Processor for Radio Occultation (GeoPRO) produces spectrograms that reveal the disintegration of the dual-frequency raw radio occultation signal at lower altitudes. The red areas are signals reaching the receiver after passing through the atmosphere. The dashed line is the processed atmospheric bending angle on each frequency generated by GeoPRO. Image is courtesy of GeoOptics.

GeoOptics has developed GeoPRO as a real-time phase-matching processing system built around the on-demand parallelism enabled by serverless cloud-computing services, sometimes referred to as “Serverless Supercomputing.” By optimizing the processing system and running it on massively parallel serverless infrastructure, GeoPRO enables near-real-time phase-matching processing of large quantities of radio occultation data.

Traditionally, the processing of radio occultation data has been undertaken in a batch processing mode in which relatively large chunks of data are processed together and then released. However, as the number of GeoOptics satellites and ground stations increases, data will arrive much more frequently, requiring a different mode of operations to minimize data latency and maximize utility. GeoPRO is designed to make that transition possible.

Data from the new processing system have been made available to scientists around the world and GeoOptics commercial data partners. Due to the accuracy of the data processing and the quality of the Cion receiver, the data exhibits remarkably low bias even in warm air near the Earth’s surface, where lower quality radio occultation data often suffers from uncontrolled biases. Research has shown that this degree of accuracy in the lower atmosphere is vital for forecasting hurricanes and other high-impact weather events.

GeoOptics’ mission is to provide the most detailed picture possible of our planet’s atmosphere, surface and subsurface to our customers as well as scientific users around the world. We have embarked on our mission with our first constellation of nanosatellites, known as CICERO – Community Initiative for Cellular Earth Remote Observation. The first operational satellites contain advanced Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) sensors developed in partnership with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems.

Artistic rendition of GeoOptics CICERO smallsats on-orbit. Image is courtesy of LASP/NASA/GeoOptics.

With the company’s initial CICERO satellites on-orbit, GeoOptics is now providing the first and only high-quality commercial radio occultation data from space. Satellites now in work will expand upon and refine this capability and deploy other technologies to provide a comprehensive picture of the Earth’s environment.

Dr. Alex Satlman

Dr. Alex Saltman, COO and architect of the new processing system related that the company is excited to provide this newly refined data to customers who depend on getting the most timely and precise weather data possible. The firm is leveraging new technologies across the GeoOptics satellites, ground systems and now data processing to deliver best-in-class data as a service to the government and commercial customers.

Rocket Lab has signed a deal with Japanese satellite company Synspective to launch a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite in late 2020.

Synspective’s StriX-α satellite will be launched on an Electron launch vehicle as a dedicated mission from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.

The satellite will be the first in Synspective’s planned StriX constellation of around 25 SAR satellites designed to provide geospatial solutions. SAR satellites actively observe and acquire Earth surface information by transmitting and receiving reflected microwaves.

Compared with optical satellites, which rely on sunlight reflection, SAR can capture images of the ground surface in all weather conditions and at any time of the day or night.

With the StriX constellation, Synspective aims to equip companies, governments, and research organizations with high-quality and user-friendly information data that can be used for urban development planning, construction and infrastructure monitoring, and disaster response.

The launch of an Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Photo is courtesy of Rocket Lab.

The StriX-α satellite will be the sole payload on the Electron launch vehicle for this mission, giving Synspective the ability to select the exact orbit, launch site, and launch timing that best suits the company’s needs.

Rocket Lab Founder and Chief Executive, Peter Beck, said the company is delighted to welcome Synspective to Electron the firm is honored to be play such a pivotal role in the development of the StriX constellation. Rocket Lab understands just how important it is to have control over the orbit and the launch schedule when building out a constellation, so the firm is proud to be delivering that capability to Synspective on Electron.

Synspective Founder and CEO, Dr. Motoyuki Arai, added the firm is pleased to work with Rocket Lab, a pioneer in rocket ventures. The company is also grateful for their flexibility in accepting Synspective’s requests on the satellite’s orbit and launch period. This year, the company will launch our first satellite as well as our SAR data solutions. With this launch, Synspective is taking a most important step toward establishing the company’s one stop service.