Archives for September 2020

Astra launched their first orbital rocket on Friday, September 11, from a spaceport located in southern Alaska on Kodiak Island.

Rocket 3.1 began to climb straight into the sky before the launch vehicle began to start swaying back and forth. The danger of the flight passing outside of the controlled flight area and it started to drift away from the planned trajectory required a command be sent by Astra to shut down the rocket’s engines. The potential of Rocket 3.1 descending into protected areas required this action be taken. The 30 second burn was terminated.

According to Astra, a flight software problem caused the problem and was not due to any first stage hardware complications. An extensive investigation will now be undertaken to determine the exact cause of this anomaly.

Astra is scheduled for three additional test flights which, according to company CEO Chris Kemp, remains on track. He stated that there was almost no single part of the rocket that had ever flown before, and that the best method to obtain data about a rocket’s performance is to actually test the hardware in flight and not through simulations that go on and on.

The firm was founded in 2016 and is based in Alameda, California, and employs around 100 staff.

Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos said on Sunday, September 13, that their specialists have decided not to initiate an avoidance maneuver to adjust the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) due to the orbit of a US former military satellite named BRICSat-2.

According to Roscosmos, the Automated Warning System on Hazardous Situations in Outer Space, or ASPOS OKP, indicated that BRICSat-2 poses no threat to the International Space Station — the Russian side of ISS ops has repeatedly warned about the threat posed by low-orbit satellite groupings and “suggests special regulations be worked out.”

The experimental communications satellite, BRICSat-2, was placed into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in 2019 for the US Navy.

Roscosmos said on Saturday the ISS’ could be adjusted in a time span that ranged from 00:00 to 01:00 Moscow time on September 14 due to the approach of the BRICSat-2 satellite.

Partnerships and passion to ensure that methane emissions are tracked and documented has brought together partners from MethaneSAT LLC, Ball Aerospace and Harvard University, small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT).

The team announced completion of the Critical Design Review (CDR) for the upcoming MethaneSAT mission. BCT is manufacturing the microsatellite for the groundbreaking mission. MethaneSAT is a subsidiary of the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund. The donor-funded mission will provide global, high-resolution detection and quantification of methane emissions from oil and gas facilities, as well as measure emissions from other human-generated methane sources. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with over 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years that it is in the atmosphere. 

The comprehensive data from MethaneSAT will be made available to the public, and provide companies, governments and other stakeholders with a new way to track, quantify and take actionable steps to reduce methane emissions.

The MethaneSAT Spacecraft Bus CDR took place over a two-day period and was conducted virtually to accommodate the ongoing COVID-19 impacts and to keep team members from each organization safe. With over 70 engineers and scientific partners participating, the CDR demonstrated that the spacecraft bus designs meet the proposed requirements. The CDR completes the third milestone which culminates in the spacecraft bus being delivered to Ball Aerospace for payload integration in September 2021.

“This is a complex, technically challenging mission driven by the profound urgency of climate change. An intensive design process up front ensures that we can move quickly from here. The result is a more powerful measurement tool than even we thought possible,” said Cassandra Ely, Director at MethaneSAT LLC.  “Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our mission partners, MethaneSAT is now moving from the drawing boards and onto the assembly floor.”

“So much remains unknown about the true climate footprint of human beings. This mission will empower global leaders to make data-driven decisions about our fight against climate impact,” says Lorie Booth, Program Manager at Blue Canyon Technologies. 

The satellite will be designed using BCT’s newest X-SAT line of spacecraft, specifically the X-SAT Saturn-Class which can carry payloads up to 200 kg. As with other buses included in the X-SAT product line, the Saturn-Class is a high-agility platform, enabling the onboard instrument to collect data and revisit sites frequently, a key capability for the MethaneSAT mission. 

Current methane monitoring instruments have either a wide, global mapping capability or a sensitive, point-detection capability. MethaneSAT will provide much higher sensitivity and spatial resolution than today’s global mappers, combined with a far wider field of view than a point-source system. The X-SAT Saturn-Class’s compact profile is designed to maximize the volume, mass and power available for the unique new methane measuring instrument, which is being built by Ball Aerospace. 

“Reducing methane emissions is critical to slowing the pace of climate change, and we’re proud that our small-satellite technology will help MethaneSAT and Environmental Defense Fund with this important mission,” says George Stafford, President and CEO of Blue Canyon Technologies. “Our technology will make it less expensive and quicker to launch, allowing them to collect more data sooner.”

Human-generated methane emissions are responsible for more than 25 percent of global warming we currently experience. EDF calculates that reducing global oil and gas methane emissions 45 percent by 2025 would deliver the same near-term benefit to the climate as closing 1,300 coal-fired power plants.

Blue Canyon’s diverse spacecraft platform has the proven capability to enable a broad range of missions and technological advances for the New Space economy, further reducing the barriers of space entry.

BCT is currently building more than 90 spacecraft for government, commercial and academic missions. The company has doubled in size over the past 12 months and recently opened its new 80,000-square-foot headquarters and production facility in Lafayette, Colorado.

Momentus and LunaSonde have partnered with a launch service agreement to fly a demo cubesat (Gossamer) to SSO orbit in Q1 2021, with further options to fly a constellation of 3U cubesats to SSO in the future.

LunaSonde’s vision is to fundamentally change the way Earth and the planet’s resources are viewed. The company pioneered a technology that allows smallsats to essentially take an MRI scan of planet Earth. This technology combined with advanced algorithms enables direct imaging to identify valuable underground resources such as water, petroleum, and mineral deposits.

Momentus is a Space Transportation and Space Logistics company and a graduate of the prestigious Y Combinator program based in Silicon Valley. Momentus employs new and proprietary technologies, including water plasma propulsion to enable revolutionary low-cost orbital shuttle and charter services. Momentus has already demonstrated its core technology in space and is currently preparing for its next two customer test missions starting later this year.

Executive Comments

“We are thrilled to partner with Momentus for this mission,” said Jeremiah Pate, CEO and Founder of LunaSonde. “Momentus shares our vision of the unique opportunities space holds and the benefits it can offer society.”
Prior to founding LunaSonde, Pate worked on several research projects outside of the space sector, drawing international recognition for reversing Parkinson’s Disease in a laboratory setting twice. He developed and patented AMELIA, a machine learning-based aircraft safety system, and led a team who successfully created a low-cost fusion reactor to generate medical isotopes. Asteroid 34104 Jeremiah Pate was named in honor of Pate’s research.

“We are honored to have been selected as a partner for orbital placement of the Gossamer mission,” said Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Momentus. “We share a goal with LunaSonde of providing revolutionary technology to benefit both Earth and Space.”

Equatorial Space Systems (ESS) has initiated a new partnership with UK-based Commercial Space Technologies Ltd. (CST) for launch services to CST’s clients using the company’s Volans small launcher, slated for its first flight in late 2022.

Commercial Space Technologies Ltd. has been supporting the space industry with consultancy, trade and launch brokerage services since 1983. To date CST has arranged and managed the launch of 82 satellites on 19 separate launches. This experience extends to 5 different vehicles, operated from 4 different launch sites.

Equatorial Space Systems aims to revolutionize space launch operations with a launcher safer, simpler and more affordable than incumbents, by using the company’s proprietary hybrid propulsion technology. The company’s inaugural suborbital launch of the Dorado sounding rocket is slated for the first half of 2021.

Executive Comment

“With our first suborbital test flights right around the corner, it is a high time for us to focus on commercialization. Cooperation with well-established companies with proven track record in launch campaign execution is of paramount importance for a startup in our business, and we are thrilled to win their vote of confidence,” said Simon Gwozdz, the founder and CEO of Equatorial Space.

“We are delighted with the opportunity to broaden our portfolio and offer our customers a wider variety launch options. CST also recognizes that low inclination and equatorial launches, catered specifically to small satellite users, is currently a much needed yet under-supplied service. We, therefore, see great value in what Equatorial Space can bring to our customers and the industry at large,” added Alan Webb, Managing Director of Commercial Space Technologies.

Gilmour Space Technologies has secured the first Australian customer for the firm’s maiden Eris rocket launch in 2022 — Space Machines Company has contracted to launch a 35 kg spacecraft to orbit, the largest payload announced to date by an Australian space company.

Space Machines Company is an Australian startup that is developing in-space transportation capabilities to cost-effectively insert smallsats into desired LEO, GEO and Cis-Lunar (Moon) orbits.

More details about Space Machines Company and its in-space transportation service will be announced in the coming months., however, Mr Kulshrestha revealed: “”

Despite being a late entrant into the commercial space market, Australia’s pace of growth has accelerated in recent years with the emergence of smaller, more agile commercial players looking to tap into the $500 billion-a-year global space economy.

To meet this global demand, Gilmour’s first Eris rockets will be launching payloads up to 305 kg into low earth orbits – 215 kg into 500 kilometres sun synchronous orbits or 305 kg into 500 km equatorial orbits.

Executive Comments

“This could well be the first Australian payload to be launched to orbit on an Australian rocket, from an Australian launch site,” said Adam Gilmour, Co-Founder and CEO of Gilmour Space, a Queensland-based company that is building new hybrid rockets to meet the world’s growing demand for small rocket launches. “Startups like Space Machines Company are gearing up to launch their innovative new products and services to market. But getting to space is still a big challenge for small-payload customers, particularly if they need access to specific orbits or inclinations.”

“We are delighted to be supporting Gilmour’s first commercial flight and being part of this important milestone in the development of Australia’s space industry,” said Space Machines Company Co-Founder and CEO, Rajat Kulshrestha, adding, “At 35 kg, this will be one of the largest spacecraft developed and tested by an Australian space company. We’ve closed two commercial launch contracts in the last few months, and are targeting 12 rockets a year by 2025. Rockets often get the limelight, but we never forget that the reason we launch is so our customers can do their business in space.”

Alba Orbital has introduced their new Unicorn-2 satellite payload boards, Unicorn-R and Unicorn-XL.

Free PCB samples are available upon request to enable the planning for the next spacecraft missions immediately.

With Alba Orbital’s Unicorn-2 satellite platform, all that has to be done for a successful 0n-orbit mission is to plug-in the payload and let the company take care of the rest, making space access easier than ever.

The Unicorn-R + XL payload boards are designed to help users get hands-on with starting their mission plan and to become familiar with the payload space available on Unicorn-2.

Download the electrical and mechanical templates from the firm’s website, and request your free Unicorn payload boards to start your mission.