Archives for May 2020

Astroscale Holdings Inc. (“Astroscale”) has opened a Series E funding round and has secured I-NET CORP. (I-NET), a leading Japanese data center provider, as its first investor for an undisclosed amount.

The additional financing will be used to broaden Astroscale’s current business services and achieve the company’s mission of securing a sustainable orbital environment.

Despite the many complications brought on by the onset of COVID-19, Astroscale has shown steady growth and success in the first half of 2020. In January, the company was awarded a grant of up to US $4.5 million from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Innovation Tokyo Project,” and in February, Astroscale was selected as commercial partner for Phase I of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) first debris removal project.

Astroscale’s offices in the United Kingdom and United States continue to make key additions to their management and technical teams and are well positioned to service future commercial and institutional customers. In addition to building technical capabilities and securing contracts, Astroscale continues to work with industry and government representatives to develop standards and best practices for safe and sustainable satellite servicing and debris removal.

Astroscale’s success in the first half of the year is expected to continue. Notably, in the later half of 2020 Astroscale is on track to launch its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission, the world’s first demonstration of commercial orbital debris removal.

The Series E funding round will close by the end of 2020.

Nobu Okada, Founder and CEO of Astroscale, stated that daily lives have changed drastically and all have come to depend on satellite services at a whole new level during this unprecedented global crisis. Now, more than ever, it is evident that we need to take action to protect assets in space and, with the broadening of Astroscale’s business services, the company will be even better positioned to meet the challenges of orbital sustainability. The firm is grateful to I-NET as the first investor of this Series E funding round.

Earth Observant Inc. (EOI) closed their seed round in the first quarter of this year.

Over the past 18 months, the company has been designing a constellation of low-flying satellites that leverage the team’s decades of experience developing propulsion systems and Earth imaging platforms.  The company’s propulsion system is currently in fabrication, with ground-based testing slated for the third quarter of 2020. In addition, EOI has down-selected its optical payload provider and has started development on the first optical payload.

EOI has designed a highly responsive platform for remote sensing and space domain awareness. This platform allows for a much higher quality product at a fraction of the cost of any existing or planned offerings. EOI’s mission is to make very-high resolution (VHR) imagery affordable and easily accessible to defense and intelligence agencies and commercial customers to support a range of applications such as resource management, environmental & disaster assessment, asset monitoring, logistics planning, infrastructure mapping, public safety, homeland security, insurance and real estate.

Many experts believe mass adoption of VHR imagery has been inhibited by limited coverage and high costs. EOI’s approach offers a paradigm shift in cost and quality by incorporating Very Low Earth Orbit into the constellation design. Starting in the next 24 months with one spacecraft, the initial constellation is designed to increase to 30 spacecraft that achieve an average revisit of every two hours, supporting constant monitoring services. To meet future demand, the constellation is easily expandable to accommodate additional satellites.

Christopher Thein, CEO of Earth Observant Inc., said this proprietary propulsion system will enable our satellites to maintain a significantly lower orbit than other Earth observation satellites. This approach will allow the satellite to capture data at a higher resolution and provide multiple revisits per day in key target areas for continually updated information.

Herb Satterlee, former CEO of MDA Information Systems and an Earth Observant Inc. board member, added this is a game changer for the growing EO industry. By combining superior resolution with excellent revisit rates, many traditional applications, as well as emerging machine learning technologies, will greatly benefit from persistent observations from space.

Momentus and Alba Orbital have announced a contract for three Alba Albapods to ride on plaza deck of the Falcon 9 vehicle, which will launch in December 2020 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

Alba Orbital is actively working with customers to launch clusters to their mission requirements via PocketQube deployers suitable for 1p, 1.5p, 2p or 3p PocketQube format smallsats. A PocketQube is a type of smallsat for space research that usually has a size of 5 cm cubed (one eighth the volume of a cubesat), has a mass of no more than 250 grams per unit, or ‘p.’

Alba Orbital’s PocketQube satellites are integrated into the Albapod deployers and mounted alongside Vigoride onto the ESPA Grande ring interface provided by SpaceX on their dedicated rideshare missions. Momentus is enabling Alba Orbital to have a regular launch cadence and mission flexibility in the future to ensure drop off orbital altitudes where their customers need it.

Based in Glasgow, Scotland, and Berlin, Germany, Alba Orbital wants to get more people building and launching their own satellites by democratizing access to space via the PocketQube standard. They provide a hub of support for PocketQube satellites by building their own platforms as well as ground stations and launch services to companies, universities and space agencies around the world. Momentus’ flexible shuttle service is a perfect complement to Alba’s offering.

A graduate of the prestigious Y Combinator program and based in Santa Clara, California, Momentus announced a $25.5 million Series A raise last year, bringing total funding to nearly $50 million. Momentus employs new and proprietary technologies, including water plasma propulsion to enable revolutionary low cost orbital shuttle and charter services. The prototype of the Vigoride vehicle, “El Camino Real,” was launched and tested last year. The first full-scale Vigoride test mission is planned for Q4 of 2020 on the SpaceX dedicated rideshare mission.

Tom Walkinshaw, CEO and Founder of Alba Orbital, said the company is very excited to be partnering with Momentus on their first rideshare mission in December, where we plan to deploy a record number of PocketQubes in orbit. The flexibility which Momentus offers enables access to proven rocket platforms, increasing mission reliability and performance.

Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Momentus, added Alba Orbital is a key partner for Momentus, enabling the company to service PocketQube customers with demonstration missions in form factors even smaller than cubesats. The firm looks forward to launching 10 PocketQubes in December as well as many more in the near future.

Planet is set to launch six more SkySat satellites (SkySats 16-21) into LEO this summer, rounding out the fleet of 15 SkySats already in operation.

SkySats 1-15 operate in Sun Synchronous Orbits (SSO), a specific type of Low Earth Orbit that results in the Earth’s surface always being illuminated by the Sun at the same angle when the satellite is capturing imagery. About half of the SkySats currently pass overhead in a morning crossing plane, while the other half moves in an afternoon crossing plane, so together they provide twice-daily coverage of select areas on a global scale.

SkySats 16-21 will operate at a “mid-inclination” orbit of 53 degrees, complimenting the SSO fleet, and will offer more targeted coverage and raw image capacity in key geographic regions.

The six SkySats will be evenly split across two launches on SpaceX’s Falcon 9, a two-stage reusable rocket that has successfully flown satellites and cargo over 80 times to orbit. They will do so as rideshare payloads on launches of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.

SkySats 16-18 will launch on SpaceX’s ninth Starlink mission, targeted for launch in the next month, and SkySats 19-21 will launch later this summer. Both missions will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida.

The launch of SkySats 16-21, as well as the development of the company’s enhanced 50 cm imagery (to be made available to customers this year)—are just some examples of Planet’s evolving geospatial offerings.

Space Launch Complex 40 at Kennedy Space Center, with a Falcon 9 on the pad. Image is courtesy of Plant.

Sen, a British space company establishing a video streaming service to provide real-time and timely Ultra-High Definition (UHD) video of Earth, and Momentus, a provider of in-space transportation services for satellites, today announced a contract for the orbital deployment of Sen’s first satellite, with an option to launch a further four satellites for Sen in 2022.

Under the agreement, Momentus’ Vigoride orbital transfer vehicles will carry Sen’s satellites to sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) riding on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, with the first launch booked for summer 2021 and a further four satellites scheduled for late 2022. From their drop-off orbits, the Vigorides will deploy the EarthTV satellites to their final desired altitudes. In the case of the cluster of four, Vigoride will also equally distribute the satellites in their orbital plane.

Built by NanoAvionics under a separate contract that was announced in March, the EarthTV satellites are cubesats with a 16U form factor, which makes them the largest payloads contracted to Momentus so far. This is also the first agreement specifically leveraging the orbital maneuvering capabilities of the Vigoride shuttle.

Momentus will test fly the Vigoride transfer vehicle later this year. It is optimized for orbital maneuvers in low Earth orbit such as altitude raising, in plane phasing, change of orbital planes, correction of inclination, and more. Vigoride will commence operations in 2021 with up to three commercial missions by the end of that year. A more capable variant called Ardoride will be introduced in 2022-2023, offering larger capacity as well as the ability to deliver satellites to higher orbits – Geostationary and medium Earth orbits – and even to the Moon.

Founded in 2014, Sen already demonstrated 4K Ultra High Definition video from a satellite with six cameras during its first mission which launched in February 2019, filming both the satellite and wide-angle imagery of Earth with its steerable cameras. Sen’s videos will provide news and information to people who want to explore Earth and follow major events and planetary changes.

The videos will be freely accessible for individuals both online and with a smart phone app. Sen will also provide an open source data platform and premium services for businesses and organizations. Sen’s open source data platform will enable partner organisations to build apps and analytics using the video data with the aim of opening up new markets and uses for space data.

After the launch of Sen’s first five satellites, the company plans to grow its EarthTV constellation in LEO and also place video cameras in other orbits in deep space locations around Earth, the Moon and eventually beyond.

A graduate of the prestigious Y Combinator program and based in Santa Clara, California, Momentus announced a $25.5 million Series A raise last year, bringing total funding to nearly $50 million. Momentus employs new and proprietary technologies, including water plasma propulsion to enable revolutionary low cost orbital shuttle and charter services. The prototype of the Vigoride vehicle, “El Camino Real”, was launched and tested last year. The first Vigoride test mission is planned for December2020 on a SpaceX dedicated rideshare mission to sun-synchronous Orbit (SSO).

Charles Black, Sen Founder and CEO, said the EarthTV constellation of nano-satellites will stream real-time videos from space to smart phones so that everyone can enjoy the unique perspectives of Earth from space. The company is delighted to be working with Momentus for the launch requirements as we share a vision to democratize space for the benefit of humanity. Their launch services are flexible and very attractive for smallsat constellations.

Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Momentus, added that the firm is elated to partner with Sen and kickstart this ambitious Earth gazing project. Sen and Momentus will be ideally positioned with the firm’s family of transfer vehicles for prospective growth.

A pair of important arrivals this week – one by air, the other by sea – marked an acceleration of preparations at Europe’s Spaceport for Arianespace’s next two missions, to be performed from French Guiana with its lightweight Vega and heavy-lift Ariane 5 launch vehicles.

These parallel arrivals involved personnel who will conduct the first Vega “rideshare” mission, scheduled for mid-June to orbit 53 small satellite payloads; and Ariane 5 launch vehicle components for a three-passenger flight planned for liftoff this summer.

Team members for the Vega launch campaign were flown in aboard a chartered airliner that touched down at Félix Eboué Airport near the French Guiana capital city of Cayenne. They will be responsible for preparing this mission’s liftoff from the Vega Launch Complex (ZLV), located on the Kourou side of the Spaceport.

As the personnel were settling in, main launcher components for the Ariane 5 flight were being unloaded from the MN Toucan, one of two roll-on/roll-off sea-going ships operated for Arianespace, which docked at Paricabo Port near Kourou. After unloading, the components were to be taken by road to the Ariane 5’s ELA-3 launch complex – also situated on the Spaceport’s Kourou side.

Launch activities in French Guiana had been suspended mid-March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and were gradually resumed – carried out in strict compliance with health rules published by the Prefect of French Guiana, as well as the French CNES space agency and the Guiana Space Center.

Vega proof-of-concept flight for SSMS
Designated Flight VV16 in Arianespace’s numbering system, Vega’s mission will be the first of the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) – a program initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2016, with the contribution of the European Commission. For all the European partners involved, its purpose is to perfectly address the burgeoning microsatellite market for institutional and commercial customers alike.

The modular SSMS dispenser was designed to be as market-responsive as possible, able to accommodate a wide combination of payloads – from a main large satellite with smaller companions to multiple smaller satellites, or dozens of individual CubeSats.

Flight VV16 will be Arianespace’s fifth launch overall in 2020, and its first this year using the lightweight Vega member of its launch vehicle family – which also includes the heavy-lift Ariane 5 and medium-lift Soyuz.

The satellite passengers on Flight VV16 will be deployed by Vega to Sun-synchronous orbits. They will serve different types of applications, such as Earth observation, telecommunications, science and technology/education.

Readying Ariane 5’s three-satellite payload
For Arianespace’s initial Ariane 5 mission following the resumption of operational activity at the Spaceport, its heavy-lift launcher will carry three payloads to geostationary transfer orbit: the Galaxy 30 and BSAT-4b telecommunications satellites, along with a Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV).

Riding in Ariane 5’s upper payload position will be Galaxy 30, produced by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS). This is the first spacecraft built under Intelsat’s North American satellite fleet replacement program and highlights the operator’s continued focus on C-band communication technologies.

To be deployed as a Galaxy 30 “piggyback” payload is Northrop Grumman’s second Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV-2) – a servicing spacecraft that docks with an existing satellite in orbit to provide life-prolonging propulsion and attitude control. After deployment by Ariane 5, MEV-2 will service the Intelsat 10-02 satellite, which was launched in 2004.

Flight VA253’s other passenger on Ariane 5 – BSAT-4b – was built by Maxar Technologies for Japan’s Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT) as a back-up to BSAT-4a, launched by Arianespace in 2017. BSAT-4b uses Maxar Technologies’ 1300 Class platform and carries Ku-band transponders.