Archives for September 2020

Kepler’s LEO constellation has expanded with the successful launch of the company’s third satellite — the satellite, internally referred to as TARS, was launched onboard the Arianespace Vega SSMS (Small Spacecraft Mission Service) from the Guiana Space Centre at approximately 01:51 UTC, with communication established shortly thereafter.

Developed as part of the UK’s Satellite Applications Catapult’s In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) program, IOD-5 TARS is the final pathfinding satellite launched by Kepler ahead of the deployment of their GEN1 satellites set to launch in the coming months. The satellite bus and integration work was completed in partnership with AAC Clyde Space at their facility in Scotland, with launch services provided by Innovative Space Logistics B.V (ISL).

The satellite joins Kepler’s two other satellites, both launched in 2018, and will bring additional capacity to Kepler’s Global Data Services (GDS) data backhaul offering. This capacity will enable Kepler to increase the service level of GDS for existing users as well as add new users who have been awaiting the service.

In addition, TARS will advance the capabilities of Kepler’s constellation with the addition of narrowband support for IoT applications. Kepler became the first to provide Ku service from LEO with the launches in 2018, and with TARS will become the first to provide both Ku and narrowband from a single platform in LEO, a feat made possible by Kepler’s proprietary Software Defined Radio technology.

Demand for Kepler’s IoT service has been building since the announcement of the Kepler IoT DevKit, which will now be released to early program participants.

Kepler’s currently available Global Data Service (GDS) covers every part of the globe, from pole to pole, and allows the movement of Gigabytes of data to and from the user’s location at economic rates. With this launch, Kepler’s EverywhereIoT service will offer the same global coverage for IoT applications, with data plans that support a wide range of applications across a wide range of industries and use cases.

Executive Comments

“TARS represent another important and incremental step in Kepler’s Mission to deliver the Internet in space,” said Mina Mitry, CEO at Kepler. “We’ve seen great demand for our GDS Service, and we have significant pent-up demand for our IoT service. Based on customer discussions we’ve heard of the clear need for a global, affordable IoT solution across a range of industries, from monitoring to asset tracking to smart agriculture and beyond. With TARS and the GEN1 satellites to follow, we’ll start to address those needs.”

Jeffrey Osborne, VP of Business Development at Kepler, added, “The development and launch of TARS represents a truly successful outcome for the Catapult’s IOD program. Our partnership with SAC contributed not only to the build and launch of TARS, but was also fundamental in our choice to have the UK as the site of our first international expansion and first international hire. We look forward to continuing to advance our business in the UK and Europe, and further collaboration with the space ecosystem there.”

Stuart Martin, CEO, Satellite Applications Catapult, commented,“We have been delighted to work with Kepler Communications on this mission and to build on our Canada-UK relationship. With LEO satellite communications becoming a necessary and fast-growing sector, we are looking forward to seeing IOD-5 TARS support this growth with its new IoT service capabilities.”

Satellogic has launched their new spacecraft from the Guiana Space Center via a launch procured by Spaceflight, Inc. — the satellite, a NewSat Mark IV, was delivered to a SSO LEO on a Vega rocket from Arianespace at 1:51am UTC on September 3, 2020.

The spacecraft is named “Hypatia” after the philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who lived in Alexandria and was a symbol of learning and science. She was renowned in her own lifetime as a great teacher and a wise counselor and as an icon for women’s rights.

In line with Satellogic’s NewSats already in orbit, Hypatia is equipped with sub-meter multi-spectral and 30 meter hyperspectral cameras. This NewSat Mark IV is also equipped with new technologies in service of Satellogic’s research and development of Earth Observation (EO) capabilities. Upon successful commissioning, these new capabilities will be available to existing Satellogic customers.

The launch demonstrates Satellogic’s ability to adapt its satellites to different rockets and deployment systems. This mission will also allow Satellogic to test sub-meter imaging technology.

Satellogic’s current constellation remaps the planet at high resolution, which combined with Satellogic’s low-cost offering, has opened up applications for its customers across industries. Through the refinement of sub-meter imaging, the company plans to further drive down the cost of high-frequency geospatial analytics.

This news follows Satellogic’s launch in January 2020 of two spacecraft with China Great Wall Industry Corporation. Satellogic now has 11 satellites on-orbit, bringing the company closer to its established vision of a constellation that is capable of delivering weekly, high-resolution remaps of the entire planet at a price that will set a new standard for access and affordability in this market.

Executive Comments

“We design and build our own satellites, which gives our R&D teams the chance to validate new technologies in every launch. Each new generation of our satellites includes new products and further delivers on the promise of new space,” said Satellogic Founder and CTO, Gerardo Richarte. “This launch is an exciting indicator of all that is to come as we continue to bring new solutions into production and deliver them into space and to our customers.”

“Ambitious research and development efforts are crucial to both the development of the space industry and to humanity’s advancement overall,” said Stephane Israël, CEO of Arianespace. “We’re proud to work with Spaceflight to launch Satellogic’s newest satellite, which will enable Satellogic to test technologies that have the potential to dramatically reduce the cost of high-resolution, high-frequency geospatial insights.”

NanoAvionics is now making available a hosted payload flight opportunity to LEO onboard a reliable satellite bus and, as the company has stated, at a low cost.

The payload will be integrated into the NanoAvionics flight-proven 6U bus M6P and launched during the 3rd quarter of 2021. This is a considerable opportunity for company’s that possess a technology that needs to validated in space.

The ride-share mission includes a complete launch package for a customer, taking care of all aspects related to launch and operations:

Payload integration
Performance testing
Flight acceptance testing
Spacecraft registration
Launch and logistics
Frequencies allocation
Spacecraft commissioning
Payload on-orbit operations for 12 months
Secure data delivery to the customer

In order to use this unique opportunity and take a leap in technology development, please fill in the form located at this direct link and NanoAvionics will contact you with all of the details.

Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) is celebrating the successful launch and deployment of the GHGSat-C1 greenhouse gas monitoring smallsat and the Slovenian NEMO-HD Earth Observation (EO) smallsat, both developed in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Both satellites were in contact with ground control within hours of their launch on September 2, 2020, aboard an Arianespace Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, South America. The satellites are healthy and operating as planned.

Established at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) in 1998, SFL has developed cubesats, smallsats (which encompasses nanosatellites and microsatellites, all having achieved more than 126 cumulative years of operation in orbit. These missions have included SFL’s trusted attitude control and, in some cases, formation-flying capabilities. Other core SFL-developed components include modular (scalable) power systems, onboard radios, flight computers, and control software.

GHGSat Inc. awarded SFL the development contract for GHGSat-C1 (“Iris”) after building the pathfinding GHGSat-D (“Claire”) smallsat launched in 2016. Using high-precision target tracking capabilities developed by SFL, Claire successfully demonstrated that sources of methane and other gas emissions could be detected and measured from space. SFL is currently developing another microsatellite, GHGSat-C2, for the company.

Precise pointing made possible by a stable platform at a relatively low cost was also a factor in Slovenia’s selection of SFL to build the NEMO-HD Earth observation microsatellite. It will capture 2.8-meter resolution high-definition multi-spectral imagery and video for use in a variety of applications. The microsatellite itself is only 60x60x30 centimeters.

SFL’s heritage of on-orbit successes includes missions related to Earth observation, atmospheric monitoring, ship tracking and communication, radio frequency signal geolocation, technology demonstration, space astronomy, solar physics, space plasma, and other scientific research.

Executive Comments

“Congratulations to GHGSat Inc. of Montreal and SPACE-SI of Slovenia for making these groundbreaking microspace missions a reality,” said SFL Director, Dr. Robert E. Zee. “Our space-proven attitude control and precise pointing technologies were major factors in winning the development contracts for GHGSat-C1 and NEMO-HD.”

“The GHGSat-C1 mission is critical to GHGSat, and we knew we could rely on SFL to deliver our satellite. In addition to the normal challenges of spaceflight, SFL overcame a litany of launch delays beyond their control to make this mission a success. That’s the kind of service that keeps customers coming back to SFL,” said Stephane Germain, President of GHGSat Inc.

September 3, 2020 at 3:51 am CEST, was an historical date for the Dutch space company Hyperion Technologies, with the launch of Vega VV16, that took 53 small satellites into space.

Arianespace’s Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) Proof of Concept (PoC) carried, among these, three small satellites of particular interest to the Dutch space company Hyperion Technologies:  ESA’s Picasso mission, the University of Maribor’s TRISAT satellite and D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier.

Increased flight heritage for Star Tracker and integrated ADCS
Two components which have been jointly developed with Berlin Space Technologies have increased their flight heritage count again, thanks to the successful launch: The ST200 star tracker and the integrated ADCS, optimised for 3U satellites. 

The ST200 is part of ESA’s Picasso mission enabling the satellite to determine its attitude accurately, while the integrated ADCS is a key element to the University of Maribor’s TRISAT mission.

In Orbit demonstration for large magnetorquers
Another milestone is the first flight of Hyperion’s large magnetorquers. They are providing D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier with powerful attitude control. Originally developed for D-Orbit, Hyperion will make them available commercially to all its clients seeking for magnetic control for small satellites beyond 12U.

3D printed propulsion module in space
Hyperion’s and Dawn Aerospace’s 1U CubeSat propulsion module PM200 reached space upon the successful Vega launch. The PM200 was the first ECSS compliant 3D printed bi-propellant propulsion system to be allowed to be launched to space. It shared a ride aboard D-Orbit’s first ION Satellite Carrier. 

Bert Monna, CEO of Hyperion Technologies concluded after the Vega launch, “This launch is certainly an important moment for many satellite integrators and their suppliers. Quite a number of launches experienced delays due to the pandemic. Although we at Hyperion were continuously busy, the goal remains to bring our solutions up there, into space, and to contribute to the state of the art, and eventually enable better services for users on Earth.”

Rocket Lab has launched their first in-house designed and built operational satellite, cementing the company’s evolution from a launch provider to an end-to-end space solutions company that offers turnkey satellites and spacecraft components, launch, and on-orbit operations.

The satellite, named ‘First Light,’ is the first spacecraft from Rocket Lab’s family of configurable Photon satellites to be deployed to orbit. Launched as a technology demonstration, ‘First Light’ builds upon the existing capabilities of the Electron launch vehicle’s Kick Stage with additional subsystems to enable long duration satellite operations.

This pathfinding mission is an initial demonstration of the new power management, thermal control and attitude control subsystem capabilities. By testing these systems for an extended period on orbit, Rocket Lab is building up flight heritage for future Photon satellite missions planned to low Earth orbit, the Moon, and Venus.

‘First Light’ was deployed to orbit on Rocket Lab’s 14th Electron mission, ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Optical’, which lifted-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand on August 31, 2020. Approximately 60 minutes after lift-off, Electron deployed a 100 kg smallsat for Capella Space, an action that would typically signal the successful completion of a standard Rocket Lab mission.

However, shortly after deploying the customer payload, Rocket Lab conducted an entirely new operation for the first time: Rocket Lab engineers sent a command to transition the Kick Stage into Photon satellite mode. This action marked the first, on-orbit demonstration of Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite as a two-in-one spacecraft, first using it to complete its conventional launch vehicle function to deploy customer satellites, then transitioning into a satellite to continue a standalone mission.

Designed for launch on Electron, as well as other launch vehicles, ‘First Light’ paves the way for future, high-energy variations of Photon designed for lunar and interplanetary missions, including the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon for NASA in early 2021.

Lifting off from Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, Rocket Lab will use the Electron rocket and Photon Lunar spacecraft to launch NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) CubeSat to Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), the same orbit planned for Artemis.

With the ‘First Light’ mission, Rocket Lab has completed its first full demonstration of its end-to-end mission services, encompassing mission design, component build and spacecraft assembly, integration and test (AIT), launch, ground segment, and on-orbit mission operation. The process of developing the first on-orbit Photon also enabled Rocket Lab to refine and streamline production and testing processes for higher volume Photon production to meet growing customer demand.

Executive Comment

“We started with launch and solved it, releasing small satellites from the time and orbit constraints experienced when flying on larger launch vehicles. Now we’ve simplified satellites too,” said Rocket Lab’s founder and CEO, Peter Beck. “Launching the first Photon mission marks a major turning point for space users – it’s now easier to launch and operate a space mission than it has ever been. When our customers choose a launch-plus-spacecraft mission with Electron and Photon, they immediately eliminate the complexity, risk, and delays associated with having to build their own satellite hardware and procure a separate launch.”

Rocket Lab recently opened a new headquarters and manufacturing complex in Long Beach, California, to accommodate streamlined, rapid production of Photons. The facility is also home to payload integration facilities for Photon missions, as well as a state-of-the-art mission operations center. The production complex is already home to extensive production lines delivering more than 130 Rutherford engines for the Electron launch vehicle every year, along with guidance and avionics hardware.

In addition to expanding its manufacturing complex, Rocket Lab recently acquired Sinclair Interplanetary, a leading provider of high-quality, flight-proven satellite hardware, to strengthen the Rocket Lab Space Systems division. Sinclair Interplanetary products have become key features of the Photon satellite platforms, and Rocket Lab is also dedicating resources to grow Sinclair’s already strong merchant spacecraft components business.

The acquisition enables Sinclair Interplanetary to tap into Rocket Lab’s resources, scale, manufacturing capability, and innovative technologies to make world-leading satellite hardware accessible to more customers.

Astroscale Ltd. (“Astroscale UK”), the UK subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc. (“Astroscale”), has appointed Sharon Parker-Lines as the firm’s UK Operations Director, effective September 1, 2020.

Sharon joins Astroscale with more than 20 years of experience in operations, specializing in human resources, finance, production, commercial, and strategic planning. Most recently, Sharon was Centre Director for the Oxford Centre for Innovation, where she was responsible for supporting SMEs and start-ups to achieve sustainable growth. Prior to that, she was Group Chief Operating Officer of a global publishing company for nine years.

Sharon will work closely with John Auburn, CCO and Astroscale UK Managing Director, to build a world-class multi-skilled engineering and operations team in the UK and ensure the commercial success of the company. She will manage and oversee the support functions of the Astroscale UK business, including finance, human resources, IT, administration and procurement, whilst managing the resource requirements across the wider engineering team.

On her appointment, Sharon said, “Astroscale is an exciting and agile company that’s working on ground-breaking missions to address orbital sustainability, including the growing concern of space debris. To join this talented team is a dream come true for me.”

Since its establishment in 2017, Astroscale UK has grown to over 30 personnel with plans to grow to 80 by 2022. The UK unit includes the ground segment and operations engineering teams, that are leading the development of the In-Orbit Servicing Control Centre – National Facility. This state-of-the-art facility will form the basis for operating missions to clean up space debris and conduct other in-orbit servicing operations, providing Astroscale with a world-leading operational capability. The team is currently in the process of testing the operational procedures for the upcoming End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) has awarded two contracts for the first generation of the Transport Layer — these awards represent one of the first major and highly visible steps toward developing the National Defense Space Architecture’s inaugural tranche (called Tranche 0).

This set of contract awards will initiate the design, development, and launch of constellations that will be comprised of tens of satellites with optical intersatellite links capable of sending and receiving wideband data to and from other space vehicles and ground stations. The capability demonstrated in the Transport Layer Tranche 0 will provide our warfighters with periodic regional access to low-latency data connectivity via space-based extensions of existing tactical data links.

York Space Systems awarded a $94,036,666 firm-fixed-price contract for the Space Development Agency Transport Layer Tranche 0. The work to be performed under this contract will include on-time delivery of space vehicles (SVs) and paths to optical intersatellite link (OISL) interoperability success.

Lockheed Martin Corporation is awarded a $187,542,461 firm-fixed-price contract for the Space Development Agency Transport Layer Tranche 0. The work to be performed under this contract will include on-time delivery of space vehicles (SVs) and paths to optical intersatellite link (OISL) interoperability success.