Archives for November 2020

The Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) has determined that there are no unresolved national securities concerns with AAC Clyde Space acquiring SpaceQuest Ltd.

AAC Clyde Space will now initiate the closing process which is expected to be finalized during December of 2020.

AAC Clyde Space announced on October 15 that they had reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares in SpaceQuest Ltd. in an all shares deal, subject to approval by CFIUS.

The group AAC Clyde Space offers turnkey solutions and services from mission design to on-orbit operations, including reliable customizable satellite platforms in the range of 1 to 50 Kg and a full range of subsystems for cube and small satellites. With unrivaled flight heritage and end-to-end service, AAC Clyde Space enables customers to reach their mission goals through a single, trusted point of contact. AAC Clyde Space’s shares are traded on Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market. The share is also traded on the US OTCQX-market under the symbol ACCMF.

Momentus Inc. (“Momentus” or the “Company”) and Gilmour Space Technologies have signed a new agreement for launch and orbital transport services.

Under the agreement, Momentus will gain access to low inclination and equatorial orbits using Gilmour Space’s Eris launch services. With Momentus’ Vigoride transportation service, Gilmour Space will have the capability to expand the flight domain of the Eris rockets (the company has several larger models planned coming to market beginning in 2023) and enable constellation deployments and missions beyond LEO.

Gilmour Space has the option to book up to three Vigoride charter missions for orbital transfer services from Momentus over the 2023-2025 period, while Momentus will purchase one dedicated Eris launch service from an Australian launch site.

Gilmour Space is a venture-backed rocket company in Queensland, Australia that is developing new launch vehicles powered by lower-cost hybrid propulsion technologies. The Eris launch vehicle will debut its services in 2022 and offer lift-off capability to LEO in the 300 kg class.

A more capable variant, Eris Heavy, is intended to be commercially available in 2025 with a lift off capacity up to two tons. The Eris family of launch vehicles will launch from Australian and international launch sites, offering access to low inclination as well as Sun-synchronous orbits.

Executive Comments

“Momentus is proud to announce another partnership with the Australian space industry, shortly after sealing an agreement to launch Skykraft’s satellite in 2021,” said Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Momentus. ”We are looking forward to supporting ambitious projects in partnership with Gilmour Space, such as flagship missions with the Australian Space Agency and development of sovereign space capabilities with the local industry.”

“This is the first international contract we’ve announced this year, and a great example of how innovative companies are coming together to accelerate development and provide new access to space,” said Gilmour Space CEO, Adam Gilmour.

On Tuesday, November 24, at 9:13 p.m. EST, SpaceX launched its 16th Starlink mission from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, pushing 60 smallsats to orbit via the firm’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

The Falcon 9 first stage rocket booster that supported this mission previously flew on six other missions: the Telstar 18 VANTAGE mission in September 2018, the Iridium-8 mission in January 2019, and four Starlink missions in May 2019, January 2020, June 2020, and August 2020.

Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which was located in the Atlantic Ocean. One half of Falcon 9’s fairing previously supported a mission and the other half previously supported two.

Watch a replay of this mission by selecting this direct link…

Last month, SpaceX launched its “Better Than Nothing Beta” test program. Service invites were sent to a portion of those who requested availability updates on Starlink.com and who live in serviceable areas. A couple weeks ago, Canada granted Starlink regulatory approval and SpaceX has now rolled out the service to parts of southern Canada.

Rocket Lab has announced Japanese Earth-imaging company Synspective as the customer for Rocket Lab’s 17th Electron launch and the company’s seventh mission of the year.

The dedicated mission for Synspective is scheduled for lift-off during a 14-day launch window opening on December 12 UTC and will launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula to a targeted 500 km circular LEO.

The mission is named ‘The Owl’s Night Begins’ in a nod to Synspective’s StriX family of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) spacecraft developed to be able to image millimeter-level changes to the Earth’s surface from space, independent of weather conditions on Earth and at any time of the day or night. Strix is also the genus of owls.

The StriX-α satellite onboard this mission will be the first of a series of spacecraft deployments for Synspective’s planned constellation of more than 30 SAR smallsats to collate data of metropolitan centers across Asia on a daily basis that can be used for urban development planning, construction and infrastructure monitoring, and disaster response.

For this mission, Rocket Lab will use a custom, expanded fairing to encompass Synspective’s wide-body satellite C, the first use of the expanded fairing options that Rocket Lab recently introduced alongside a suite of vehicle performance improvements, including advances in battery technology which enable an improved payload lift capacity up to 300 kg (660 lbs). Rocket Lab will also perform an advanced mid-mission maneuver with its Kick Stage space tug that will shield the StriX-α satellite from the sun to reduce radiation exposure ahead of payload deployment.

Executive Comments

Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck, said, “We’re honored to be providing the ride to orbit for Synspective and playing a pivotal role in deploying the first satellite of their constellation. By flying as a dedicated mission on Electron, the Synspective team have complete control over their orbit and launch schedule, giving them a degree of certainty over a crucial time in their business development.”

Synspective Founder and CEO, Dr. Motoyuki Arai, added, “We are so happy to share this launch of our first satellite, the StriX-α, together with Rocket Lab. This is just the start of a 30 SAR satellites constellation. We are very excited to begin the scaling of our business, which includes both SAR satellites and downstream solutions.”

Resolve Optics has supplied video streaming specialists, Sen (Didcot, UK), with radiation hard lenses for their satellite-based, Ultra-High Definition (UHD) video cameras.

Sen launched its first set of UHD video cameras into space in 2019 and successfully demonstrated the excellent performance of its video streaming platform. The next step in Sen’s plan is to launch its own satellite constellation so that it has full control over its live data stream.

To make technology work in space is not straight forward, with both mechanical and environmental challenges, such as extreme temperature changes and radiation that can damage electronics and hardware. Space is also very mass sensitive because each gram costs money to launch. As a consequence, Sen decided they needed a specialist provider who could custom design and manufacture cameras to meet both the unique constraints of spaceflight hardware and the environmental challenges of operating in space for several years. Commercially available camera lenses were not suitable for this application because the glass would increasingly suffer from radiation ‘browning’ – meaning that image quality would gradually deteriorate over the life of the satellite.

Sen approached Resolve Optics to assist with this project because of its expertise in custom designing low mass, high performance lenses using radiation resistant glass that could meet the harsh demands of the space environment.

Executive Comment

Charles Black of Sen commented, “It has been great working with Resolve Optics, who took our requirements in terms of optical performance, mass and mounting points and designed lenses that addressed both the mechanical and environmental challenges of our spaceborne application. After the first satellite has launched in 2021 – Sen will be sharing videos of Earth using Resolve’s lenses and we can’t wait to share them. After that, we plan to launch many more satellites and we are confident Resolve will continue to meet our requirements and high standards.”

The world’s first, publicly-available, real-time link between satellites in high and low earth orbits is now available — after a five-year collaboration, Inmarsat and Addvalue Innovation have announced the Commercial Service Introduction (CSI) of their Inter-satellite Data Relay System (IDRS) service, following the successful demonstration of the first live data connectivity between customer Capella Space’s Control Center and its recently launched Sequoia satellite at LEO.

This success paves the way for satellites in LEO to continuously maintain communications with the ground, receiving and transmitting data on demand and in real-time. Satellites in lower orbits typically include those used for climate observations and disaster relief efforts, as well as a host of other applications. Traditionally, these satellites have had to wait until they came back into range of a ground station before being able to receive tasking information and transmit telemetry and valuable collected data. The new data link should reduce waiting times for such data transfers from several hours to a handful of minutes. This can enhance life-saving efforts in a natural disaster or enable observers to spot issues and direct resources to tackle them before they develop or get out of hand.

The new on-demand IDRS service was successfully commissioned on Capella Space’s Sequoia satellite at 10:14am PST on November 12, 2020. The Capella satellite, situated in LEO, communicated with Inmarsat’s I-4 satellite network, which operates at the L-band spectrum and sits in a high Earth, geostationary orbit. Capella Space is a market leader by being the first LEO satellite operator to leverage this enhanced functionality to offer an unprecedented level of responsiveness to its customers.

While instantaneous connectivity on the ground is commonplace, LEO satellite operators have traditionally suffered from high latency in making contact with their satellites, due to geographic sparsity of the required ground stations. This new system, consisting of the Addvalue on-board terminal and the Inmarsat data relay service, achieves a world first by allowing persistent, on-demand transfer of data, creating a new paradigm for smallsat LEO operations.

The benefits of Addvalue and Inmarsat’s solution go beyond the speed at which subscribers receive their data and images. Satellite operators also gain significant operational efficiencies by being able to stay in constant contact and control of their constellation. This is especially pertinent in the fast growing new space industry of large satellite constellations when real time control and coordination of multiple satellites can effortlessly and simultaneously be accomplished through the use of IDRS. This stands in contrast to current practice with its demanding need to coordinate and precisely time communications with multiple ground station operators.

Executive Comments

“We’re proud to team-up with Inmarsat and Addvalue to deliver an entirely new level of efficiency and functionality to our customers,” said Christian Lenz, Vice President of Engineering at Capella Space. “This real-time connectivity will allow us to significantly reduce the time between customer tasking requests and when we collect the data on-orbit.”

Todd McDonell, President, Inmarsat Global Government, commented, “In-orbit connectivity represents an exciting new growth market for both Inmarsat and Addvalue. This LEO smallsat market is growing at an exponential rate. What is critical to LEO operators such as Capella Space is the ability to offer timely services their customers now expect in a connected world. Inmarsat’s L-band satellite network is uniquely placed to facilitate seamless real-time communications that are designed for mobility and can be administered globally. We are delighted Capella Space has achieved the distinction of being the first LEO operator to offer this service to their customers.”

“We could not be more excited to watch Capella realize all of the operational efficiencies and flexibility that the IDRS solution provides a LEO satellite operator,” said Khai Pang Tan, CTO of Addvalue. “From operational service introduction of the Sequoia satellite to the compounding efficiencies that are expected with the addition of each satellite added to the Capella constellation, we are confident that the possibility of “always-on”, on-demand, 24/7 communication capability will create a new standard for LEO satellite operations.”

A commitment to invest over £80 million in a UK Space Centre of Excellence in Ayrshire, Scotland, was made by both the UK and Scottish Governments, in partnership with South Ayrshire Council, as part of the Ayrshire Growth Deal signing on November 21, 2020. The funding package will develop and support a wide range of new, cutting-edge aerospace and space activities around Glasgow Prestwick Airport (pictured below), including a satellite launch site and a range of other advanced technology initiatives beyond space launch.

This significant investment forms part of an even larger £250 million package that was announced via the Ayrshire Growth Deal Head of Terms agreement 18 months ago. This saw the Scotland Office pledge to invest £103 million in the region over the next 15 years, alongside £103 million from the Scottish Government over 10 years, augmented with further investment from the three local authority areas of East, North and South Ayrshire. This will help drive economic development across the region, create new employment opportunities and encourage further inward investment.

The innovative space activity, enabled by the ambitious Aerospace and Space Program element of the Ayrshire Growth Deal, is expected to provide a host of opportunities beyond launch, too. The additional interconnected projects which are being planned include a technical innovation centre to support UK business and academia, a national flight test center with training facilities for skills development, and an educational outreach and visitor centre. The deal also provides for various commercial building developments and improvements to the region’s transport infrastructure — improving quality of life for local residents and providing an opportunity for Ayrshire to profit from the rapid growth of the space sector.

The signing of a deal of this size reinforces Ayrshire’s position as a leading UK aerospace hub. The region already employs over 3,500 people in global companies such as Spirit AeroSystems; BAE Systems; GE Aviation; Collins Aerospace; Woodward and National Air Traffic Services (NATS), accounting for more than half of the aerospace industry’s workforce in Scotland. The financial boost aims to add another 4,000 jobs by 2035, helping Ayrshire capitalize on the exciting opportunities offered by the fast-growing commercial space sector.

Some £80 million of the Growth Deal investment will be used specifically to help realize Ayrshire’s vision of creating a leading cluster, for both space, and wider aerospace supply chain activity. Detailed plans are already in place for a spaceport development that would provide the capability to launch smallsats from within Europe for the first time, using modified aircraft that would begin their journeys from Glasgow Prestwick Airport. These aircraft will carry out rocket launches at high altitude and provide access to the orbits required to observe Earth’s changing climate from above. The technique, known as ‘horizontal’ or ‘air’ launch, would make use of the existing infrastructure and coastal location at Prestwick, and the capability to launch satellites could make the UK a ‘one stop shop’ for commercial space companies.

Executive Comments

Ian Annett, Deputy CEO, UK Space Agency, said, “The deal will deliver another boost to the UK’s growing space sector by funding a range of new, cutting-edge aerospace activities around Glasgow Prestwick Airport, including development of the spaceport site. This will not only create highly-skilled jobs across the region, but also further the UK’s reputation as Europe’s leading new space destination and bring us one step closer to small satellite launches taking place in the UK.”

Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation Ivan McKee said, “The signing of the Ayrshire Growth Deal marks another major milestone in our journey toward the delivery of a world-leading commercial space sector. This is an exciting time for the emerging space sector globally, and Scotland is at the very forefront of it. In particular, the sector will play a critical role in the global fight against climate change with satellites used to measure essential climate variables. In Scotland, we already produce more small satellites anywhere outside of California and the provision of horizontal launch capability at Prestwick will further complement the launch offering across the country. This deal represents a major opportunity to inspire the next generation of space scientists and engineers as well as to deliver a major economic boost for Ayrshire.”