Archives for July 2020

TriSept Corporation and Millennium Space Systems preparations are underway for the experimental DRAG RACER orbital debris mission payload to be delivered to New Zealand and integrated aboard a Rocket Lab Electron before the planned launch this fall.

Millennium has completed space qualification of its two DRAG RACER smallsats that will embark on a first-of-its-kind LEO mission to help solve the orbital debris challenge in space.

The DRAG RACER mission will use scientific methods to compare the de-orbit performance of two identical satellites – one that will reenter naturally and a second satellite featuring a tether developed by Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI) that is expected to significantly accelerate the de-orbit process.

Millennium plans to observe, evaluate and characterize the satellite hosting the 70-meter-long (230 feet) Terminator Tape tether aboard the control satellite, while calibrating predictive models through the use of radar tracking data. An onboard timer will trigger the tether deployment on the experimental satellite a few days into the mission, with reentry estimates averaging about a month-and-a-half, while the untethered spacecraft could take up to nine years to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.

Once launched, the DRAG RACER mission payload will separate into two identical 6U satellites with identical stowed mass properties and drag coefficients.

Executive Comments

“We are motivated to study and quantify space tether applications as they will offer the LEO space community worldwide both improved deorbit capabilities and unique propulsive solutions,” said Stan Dubyn, Millennium Space Systems Founder and CEO. “This orbital debris mitigation experiment exemplifies our commitment to fielding innovative concepts using low-cost solutions.”

“The DRAG RACER mission is built on an innovative collaboration between Millennium Space Systems, TriSept, Tether’s Unlimited and Rocket Lab that is dedicated to exploring and enabling creative and affordable solutions to the orbital debris challenge,” said Rob Spicer, TriSept President and CEO. “We look forward to leading the integration effort for this historic payload that could ultimately play an integral role in clearing orbital debris from Low Earth Orbit for years and generations to come.”

“The space community understands tether systems can expedite reentry, but this is our first opportunity to truly quantify performance directly and more effectively calibrate models developed over the last 50 years,” said Dr. Robert Hoyt, President of Tether’s Unlimited. “Predictions suggest the tethered spacecraft will deorbit in approximately 45 days, while the untethered spacecraft remains in orbit for approximately seven to nine years.”

Exotrail has raised 11 million euros ($13 million) — this Series A round was led by two European Venture Capital firms, Karista (through Paris Region Venture Fund) and Innovacom. IXO Private Equity, NCI-Waterstart, Turenne Capital and returning investors 360 Capital, Irdi Soridec Gestion and Bpifrance also invested.

This round will further boost Exotrail’s development by allowing the company to extend its product portfolio and scale-up its manufacturing and business development capabilities. The Series A fundraising will enable Exotrail to continue to bring unique solutions to significantly enhance deployment, improve performance and reduce space pollution in the rapidly growing small satellite space market.

Exotrail’s propulsion systems and mission design and operations software will now allow smallsats to optimize their deployment in space, choose their orbit, and prevent collisions thus reducing space debris.

Exotrail was incorporated in 2017 and has now raised 17 million euros to date. The company has designed, built and qualified a first propulsion system demonstrator in only 10 months. It was delivered in September 2019 and is now awaiting launch. Since the beginning of the year, the company has signed multiple contracts, including Clyde Space, Eutelsat, CNES and ESA, as well as with an Asian company. With a staff of 27 in Massy and Toulouse in France, the company intends to grow to 50 people during 2022 in order to be able to produce 100 propulsion systems per year.

Executive Comments

“This fundraising reinforces our core mission which is to build sustainable constellations of small satellites. Sustainable in terms of launch costs, performance capabilities and of course space environment. Raising this money in this challenging period is hugely important for us and is a significant success for the company, further underlining the accomplishments of our team in the past two years. Looking to the future, our ambition is to become a leading player in the European NewSpace sector.” said David Henri, one of the four Co-Founders and CEO of Exotrail.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to invest in Exotrail, a company with outstanding New Space solutions, supported by a visionary team with a unique go-to-market approach, which has already signed strategic business contracts with major Space players. Exotrail’s success is proof of our ability to identify and invest in promising companies in the New Space field, a sector which is at the heart of the strategy of our forthcoming fund supported by CNES, CosmiCapital.” said Yvan-Michel Ehkirch and Michael Thomas from Karista.

“We were won over by Exotrail’s ambition and expertise. We are delighted to support the best of French “deep tech” in space.” said Fréderic Humbert from Innovacom.

Skyrora has established an engine test complex in Scotland, where it has already successfully tested their 3.5kN engine and three-ton engine for the firm’s sub-orbital and orbital rockets — Skyrora expects the newly established Engine Test Complex to help the company create more than 170 new jobs in the area by 2030.

Skyrora’s engine test complex layout is fairly minimal, mainly consisting of a fuel and oxidizer loading system to put fuel into both tanks and a pressure supply system to feed the fuel to the engine in the test stand. Skyrora also built the actual test stand, the road to access the test site and the concrete slab for the test site to sit on. It took the team only a few weeks to build it, at a fraction of the estimated time and cost while making sure all measures followed health and safety guidelines.

Skyrora’s vision is to test all three engines used on its rocket suite in the one location: the seven-ton engine for the first and second stage of the orbital Skyrora XL launch vehicle, the 3.5Kn engine for the third stage and the three-ton engine for the sub-orbital Skylark L launch vehicle.

The test site is estimated to help Skyrora create over 170 mainly technical jobs in manufacturing and operations ranging from mechanical engineering to electronics for avionics systems.

In January 2020, Skyrora announced the company had completed as many as 25 tests on their 3.5kN upper stage orbital engine testing their Ecosene fuel, an equivalent kerosene derived from unrecyclable plastics. And right before the UK lockdown measures were implemented, the complex saw the three-tonne engine through several tests. The engine produces 30kN’s of thrust, meaning that it is one order of magnitude greater than the 3.5kN third stage.

Skyrora’s main objective of testing engines is to validate the performance of the engine. Variables such as pressure, thrust, flow of fuel and flow of oxidizer were stress-tested and assessed as part of the process.

The three-ton engine, integrated onto Skylark-L, also underwent a successful full vertical static fire test in May 2020. The 11 meter rocket could be ready to launch from as early as spring 2021 and can reach an altitude of 100 km; the test results showed it would have crossed the Karman line.

Following the 3.5kN and three-ton engine tests, Skyrora is now looking at expanding the test site to allow the rocket company to test their seven-tonne engine, used for the first and second stage of the LEO vehicle, the Skyrora XL.

Executive Comment

Volodymyr Levykin, the CEO of Skyrora, said, “The opening of our engine test complex represents a giant leap forward for the UK’s ambitions as a space nation and Scotland’s status as a space hub. The location and additional jobs will benefit the UK space industry and help the overall economy grow. It will also allow Skyrora’s highly skilled workforce and a young generation of engineers and technicians to be a part of this space revolution. Skyrora has developed and come so far as a team and a company, and I am really proud to see how many milestones we have achieved in a short period of time.”

Dr. Jack-James Marlow, engineering manager at Skyrora, who oversaw the testing, added, “Our engine test complex is a fantastic opportunity for Skyrora and the UK Space industry. Scotland is heading towards an unprecedented growth in UK space and our complex is one step closer to achieving this. We are planning to test all our engines, which are fully 3D printed and operate on high-test peroxide (HTP, a highly concentrated solution of hydrogen peroxide), at the site. Our recent successful testing of the three-tonne engine is nearly ten times greater in thrust than our last series of engine tests on our LEO engine. We pushed the engine to its limits to find its operational envelope and critical parameters. The engine performed as expected and has enabled us to begin small volume production of the engine”.

Looking to the future, both Skylark L and its 22 meter sibling, Skyrora XL, will use Ecosene, the fuel comprised of waste plastics developed by Skyrora. Technological advances mean Ecosene will be able to produce 600 kg of usable kerosene from 1,000 kg of waste plastics in the space of 24 hours.

Using proven technology from the likes of Black Arrow, Skyrora will use hydrogen peroxide as a fuel oxidizer. This removes the need and cost for cryogenic freezing due to Scotland’s unpredictable weather, which would prove debilitating in the event of a late cancellation.

The launch vehicle manufacturing company aims to complete the inaugural launch of Skyrora XL from a UK spaceport by 2023.

Sateliot has sealed an agreement with the Gatehouse Group to develop the world’s first NB-IoT network, which will enable the company to offer global 5G connectivity once the firm’s LEO smallsat constellation is deployed.

This agreement with Gatehouse is part of the 4.6 million investment plan in R&D of Sateliot and is one of the three projects that the Spanish company will carry out during the next two years.

Specifically, this work will consist of adapting the NB-IoT Slack Protocol and the NB-IoT waveform in order for IoT terminals to be connected to Sateliot’s LEO satellite network whenever land coverage or areas where there is no classic mobile communication infrastructure present communication challenges.

Within this framework, both companies will develop a ‘laboratory environment’ where they will simulate the connection using configurable hardware and test the commercial Sateliot services that are expected to start operating in the third quarter of 2022.

Sateliot’s research and work with Gatehouse will contribute to the implementation of the 5G NB-IoT international standard for small and low altitude satellite networks promoted by the 3GPP association, responsible for the 3G/4G and 5G standard, of which Sateliot is an active member. This standard will also be patentable for Sateliot’s exclusive use.

Nevertheless, and according to these implementations and developments, the company will deploy from the last part of the year a constellation composed of as many as 100 of these devices. The size of a microwave, they will orbit some 500 km from the Earth, acting as telecommunications towers in space that will provide an extension of coverage to traditional operators so that they can connect objects anywhere terrestrial networks do not reach.

Sateliot is the first satellite telecommunications operator that will provide global and continuous connectivity to all the elements that will make up the universe of the Internet of Things (IoT) – such as the car or the house connected – under the 5G protocol. Thanks to a constellation of the latest generation of smallsats, located at low altitude that act as mobile towers, Sateliot complements the large telecommunications companies by providing them with the necessary infrastructure where terrestrial technologies do not reach.

For more than a decade, GateHouse Telecom has provided the satellite communications industry with a range of market-leading software products for commercial, government and military use. GateHouse also offers consultancy services for software, hardware and system integration as well as for the preparation and evaluation of international tenders.

Executive Comments

For Michael Bondo Andersen, CEO of Gatehouse, “considering the potential of the New Space or data as 2.7 million IOT devices are connected today through satellites, it is necessary to develop a solution that moves the NB-IOT protocols into space.”

According to Marco Guadalupi, technical director of Sateliot, “our agreement with Gatehouse is strategic and fundamental for the implementation of our services. And a differentiating step since it will allow us to put our expertise in the main organizations of the sector of which we are members such as 3GPP, GSMA, ETSI or 5G IA.”

Technavio has been monitoring the satellite-based, Earth Observation (EO) market and reports the firm believes this market segment is poised to grow by $4.51 billion during the 2020 to 2024 timeframe.

The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic continues to transform the growth of various industries, the immediate impact of the outbreak is varied. While a few industries will register a drop in demand, numerous others will continue to remain unscathed and show promising growth opportunities. Technavio’s in-depth research has all your needs covered as our research reports include all foreseeable market scenarios, including pre- and post-COVID-19 analysis. Download a Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impacts

The market is concentrated, and the degree of concentration will decelerate during the forecast period. Airbus SE, GeoOptics, Inc., Hispasat, ImageSat International NV, L3Harris Technologies, Inc., Maxar Technologies Inc., Planets Labs Inc., PlanetiQ, Thales Group, and UrtheCast Corp. are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Demand for smallsats has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Technavio’s custom research reports offer detailed insights on the impact of COVID-19 at an industry level, a regional level, and subsequent supply chain operations. This customized report will also help clients keep up with new product launches in direct and indirect COVID-19 related markets, upcoming vaccines and pipeline analysis, and significant developments in vendor operations and government regulations.

Satellite Vu is preparing to provide a disruptive service to those who tackle critical global issues. Earth Observation (EO) has become a key part of environmental monitoring, and Satellite Vu is poised to transform this market through the construction and launch of unique and ground-breaking satellites that will deliver infrared imaging with frequent re-visit times, both day and night.

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, announced £3bn of energy efficiency measures toward a new green homes grant and for insulating public buildings. The measures are aimed at helping the UK meet its 2050 target for net zero carbon emissions.

Satellite Vu has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) to develop the infrared imaging space technologies for the constellation. The infrared thermal measurements can be used to identify which buildings are emitting the most heat and that might be candidates for energy efficiency measures.

“This ground breaking and timely technology will for the first time allow government and the public to make better and informed decisions on which buildings are a priority to upgrade.” said Anthony Baker, CEO of Satellite Vu. “Satellite Vu is open to collaborating with end users to develop specific trials to demonstrate the power and capability of this new data in advance of a future satellite launch.”

Phil Brownnett, Managing Director of SSTL, said, “SSTL is innovating at the forefront of space technologies in the UK and we are very pleased to be working with Satellite Vu on this exciting new mission.” The data from the thermal imaging systems will have multiple uses both commercially and for good causes, especially environmental. We have all felt Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) when the city temperature is higher than the rural areas. The UHIs can be limited to a city block or extend over larger districts, and high resolution infrared satellite imaging has the capability to detect the location of heat islands in every city on a national scale at better than postcode resolution. The presence of heat islands exacerbates the heat stress suffered by the most venerable especially during lockdown when confined to one location.“

Ten years ago this July, Satellogic started on a new journey and was launched in the hope that a company could be built that would help to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

A decade into our voyage, Emiliano Kargieman stated he’s proud of the incredible progress that’s been made and the firm is as excited as ever for what lies ahead.

Satellogic has grown to become a global company comprised of more than 180 satellite engineers, AI experts and solution specialists. The firm has proven that the vertically integrated approach of the company can deliver affordable and actionable planetary-scale insights from Earth Observation (EO). By making good on Satellogic’s promise to democratize access to geospatial analytics, the CEO is confident that Satellogic will play a significant role in addressing the great existential challenges of our time.

Through the past ten years, Satellogic has focused on the mission of building an accurate and up-to-date picture of Earth and the many forces that reshape the planet every day. In doing so, the company hoped to empower decision makers around the world.

After a decade of growth, the firm is proud of their many accomplishments, evolving from a small startup into a leader in geospatial analytics, with facilities in half a dozen countries and a growing constellation of satellites on-orbit.

In the first half of 2020, two new satellites — Sophie and Marie — were added to the Satellogic fleet and the company’s team continues to grow across the globe. The Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) facility in Montevideo, Uruguay, was expanded, enabling further scaling of spacecraft production. Plus, the company was selected as a finalist in the Satellite Technology of the Year Award.

Over the past decade, there have been countless other milestones, from the addition of new customers to the continued development of products and services. In the second half of 2020, Satellogic will continue to grow the team, the customer base and the constellation, driving down the costs associated with building and operating satellites as the firm scales, to include exclusive access to a dedicated constellation at a price point that is attractive to national and municipal governments as well as smaller enterprises.

Within the next three years, Satellogic expects to complete the construction of the first stage of the Earth Observation satellite constellation, giving the company the capacity to remap the entire planet at sub-meter resolution every week.

There are a number of exciting launches scheduled in the near future: Arianespace is scheduled to deliver the company’s next satellite, Hypatia, into orbit via a Vega launch vehicle on August 17th. This October, the company will be deploying an additional 10 satellites into LEO on a dedicated rocket. Then, in Q1 2021, four additional satellites will be launched to orbit.

With more than 20 commercial satellites in orbit by 2021, the firm will be able to revisit any specific point of interest at a global average of 4 times per day, scaling to up to 18 times per day by 2024. At the same time that the frequency of the data acquisition is improved, the company is also improving the resolution of the imagery. In 2021, Satellogic will start delivering 70 cm resolution data to serve existing and new customers.

New “on ground” capabilities will be launched later this month, including a self-serve AI platform for geospatial imagery, an end-to-end customer-centric EO digital product that improves access to geo-intelligence, automating this process for knowledge capitalization.

A new, Satellogic corporate video is available for viewing at this direct link…