Archives for March 2021

Original release…
The launch date of the four Axelspace satellites (GRUS-1B, 1C, 1D, 1E) is set for March 20, 2021, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

These smallsats will become part of the AxelGlobe Earth Observation System and this will be the second launch for the company, after the successful deployment of GRUS-1A in December of 2018.

Launch Campaign Members in Axelspace hoodies have been working on final preparation for the launch.

Gilmour Space Technologies and Fleet Space Technologies are joining forces to launch smallsats to orbit.  

Fleet Space launched Australia’s first commercial smallsats in 2018 and its fifth just last week with their technology already transforming critical industries that range from energy and utilities to mining. 

Established well before Australia’s two-year-old Space Agency, Gilmour and Fleet were the first New Space start-ups to raise venture capital funding in Australia. The companies were seeded by Sydney-based venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures, which has since invested in subsequent rounds.

“We have signed a contract to launch six Fleet Space Centauri nanosatellites on our Eris rockets in 2023,” said Adam Gilmour, the CEO of Gilmour Space, which is tracking to launch their first commercial payloads to orbit next year. “This is a great example of how homegrown space companies are scaling and partnering to meet the world’s growing demand for innovative small satellite applications and affordable launch.”

“This launch is going to involve an Australian-built payload in an Australian-built satellite, on an Australian-built rocket,” added Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO of Fleet Space, which is building a ‘global digital nervous system’ to power the next industrial revolution. “This announcement is the start of an ongoing launch service relationship as we work towards our planned constellation of 140 satellites. We are building a strong portfolio of launch service partners, and we are very excited to have Gilmour Space as one of them.”

Blackbird partner, Rick Baker, added, “Gilmour and Fleet are leading the way forward through great technology and big ambitions. We’ve been impressed with both companies’ traction and see this partnership as a milestone for the maturing space industry in Australia. It’s fantastic to see leaders like Adam and Flavia joining forces to scale further and raise our collective ambition.” 

Dubai Municipality has successfully launched and deployed their DMSat-1, an atmospheric monitoring smallsat built by Space Flight Laboratory (SFL).

DMSat-1 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket on March 22 by GK Launch Services (GKLS). 

SFL developed DMSat-1 under contract to the Dubai-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The 15-kg smallsat was built on SFL’s space-proven next generation Earth Monitoring and Observation (NEMO) platform.

SFL is a unique microspace provider that offers a complete suite of nano-, micro- and smallsats – including high-performance, low-cost cubesats – that satisfy the needs of a broad range of mission types from 3 to 500 kilograms. Dating from 1998, SFL’s heritage of on-orbit successes includes 68 satellites and distinct missions related to EO, atmospheric monitoring, ship tracking, communication, radio frequency (RF) geolocation, technology demonstration, space astronomy, solar physics, space plasma, and other scientific research.

In its 23 year history, SFL has developed a variety of form factor smallsats that have achieved more than 140 cumulative years of operation on-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.

SFL was selected to build DMSat-1 for its compact size and performance, including the mission-critical importance of attitude control and precise sensor pointing. SFL has developed high-performance ground target tracking capabilities that enable the small satellite to execute a slewing maneuver in orbit to accurately point its sensors at selected swaths of the atmosphere.

DMSat-1 carries two instruments onboard. The primary payload is a multi-spectral polarimeter that monitors aerosols, which are typically fine particles of liquids and solids in the upper atmosphere often caused by anthropomorphic sources. Aerosols also correlate to natural phenomenon such as dust storms. The secondary payload is a pair of spectrometers for detection of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane.

DMSat-1 is the 16th SFL-built satellite launched in the past seven months. These launches include missions developed for GHGSat Inc. of Montreal, HawkEye 360 of Virginia, Space-SI of Slovenia, and a Toronto-based telecommunications company. This launch also included two communications satellites developed using SFL technology.

“We congratulate Dubai on the launch of its first atmospheric monitoring nanosatellite,” said SFL Director, Dr. Robert E. Zee. “DMSat-1 will play a key role in monitoring atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases for Dubai and the UAE. “Our ability to keep low-inertia, relatively inexpensive microsatellites like DMSat-1 pointed accurately and stably in orbit has made atmospheric monitoring missions possible at much lower cost.”

exactEarth Ltd. (“the Company”) (TSX: XCT) has launched exactAIS^® Platinum Plus, the newest member of the company’s exactAIS® family of global real-time AIS vessel identification and tracking data services.

The addition of Platinum Plus to the exactAIS family of data services augments the Company’s real-time satellite AIS capability through the addition of thousands of coastal and vessel-based terrestrial AIS receivers to raise exactAIS performance to an unprecedented level. The additional AIS receivers will provide significantly enhanced vessel detection in ports and regions of high vessel density to deliver the ultimate in real-time global AIS vessel identification and location data services.

At the core of the exactAIS family of services is exactView RT, the Company’s second-generation satellite constellation. exactView RT consists of 58 payloads that are hosted onboard the Iridium NEXT constellation of satellites and is capable of delivering AIS data services from any vessel, anywhere on the globe, relaying that data securely to customers in real-time.

Platinum Plus will track and identify more than 600,000 AIS equipped vessels globally – of which approximately 250,000 of those vessels are in daily operation – with industry leading update rates and lowest available data latency.

Platinum Plus is available in a wide range of data delivery methods, formats and area or vessel list filtering to meet the full range of customer and partner needs. 

“exactEarth pioneered commercial satellite AIS, and our continued pledge to our customers and partners is to always provide them with the best in global AIS service performance and reliability,” said Peter Mabson, exactEarth CEO. “We continue to fulfill that pledge by launching our Platinum Plus service which raises our performance bar even higher. Platinum Plus will further enhance the service level we can offer our customers, and we believe it will be essential for companies who are developing advanced analytics for surveillance, fisheries and fleet management markets.”

Myriota has initiated commercial IoT services in the United States and Canada, with the first of three new smallsats having launched on Rocket Lab’s ‘They Go Up So Fast’ mission.

Weighing less than seven kilograms and the size of a loaf of bread, the smallsats will deliver an improved, second-generation Myriota Network that will be open to customers in the US and Canada for the first time.

The service launch is accompanied by a new Myriota Developer Toolkit, which provides developers with the tools needed to unlock their industry’s full potential, thanks to Myriota IoT connectivity. Myriota’s first-generation network is already delivering millions of messages in Australia and New Zealand and connecting critical industries like environmental monitoring, agriculture and mining. Myriota Certified commercially available products include Goanna Ag’s rain gauge and water tank level monitor – GoRain and GoTank, Yabby’s dam level monitor – the Yabby Floating Level Sensor – and the Yabby Level Sensor and Rain Gauge.

Myriota has attracted more than $38.6 million in venture capital from investors that have included US-based Boeing HorizonX Ventures, In-Q-Tel and Singtel Innov8. The launch of Myriota’s American and Canadian services follows the acquisition of select satellites and ground stations from exactEarth Ltd. (TSE: XCT) in April 2020.

Myriota’s second-generation network will:

• Reduce latency and enable faster transfer of data between assets located anywhere on Earth and Myriota’s constellation.
• Increase uplink capacity on the network, allowing customers to send larger amounts of data from devices each day.
• Increase downlink capacity on the network, enhancing Myriota cloud-to-device communications capabilities including existing over-the-air updates.
• Support the activation of commercial network services in the United States and Canada.

The launch with Rocket Lab was the first for Myriota in 2021, with two additional launches planned. 

“The launch of our second-generation network ushers in a new era for the global IoT sector – one where data from devices is accessible anywhere on the planet in a secure and affordable manner,” said Dr. David Haley, Myriota CTO and co-founder. “Myriota Certified devices developed by our customers are already in the hands of end-users and are revolutionizing their industries. With our second-generation platform, they will now be able to send more messages and larger amounts of data each day. This US and Canadian expansion puts the company in pole position in the race to provide connectivity everywhere to support a global IoT market that is expected to triple in size to more than 25.4 billion devices by 2030. As the first network of this kind to be supporting commercially available products, the company has demonstrated the power of the firm’s unique direct-to-orbit technologies to transform the IoT sector. We see huge potential to help our customers develop and bring new IoT-driven solutions to the American and Canadian markets.”

BlackSky, who recently announced a planned business combination with Osprey Technology Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: SFTW), has secured five Rocket Lab missions to deploy nine satellites between March and the end of 2021.

The first of these launches occurred on March 22, 2021. BlackSky is accelerating the deployment of their Gen-2 constellation of high-revisit, high-resolution imaging satellites Gen-2 satellites and expects to deliver capabilities in 2021 that were originally planned for delivery in 2022.

Photo above: Using high-revisit satellite imagery, BlackSky’s Spectra AI has detected the use of major facilities at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Parking spaces shown in green are rarely used, while red indicates frequent occupancy. BlackSky customers can also understand inflow/outflow of cargo and monitor airline maintenance activity.

Photo above: Rocket Lab’s recent Electron “They Go Up So Fast” mission.

These launch missions enable BlackSky to fast-track their plans to offer one-hour average, dawn-to-dusk, imaging revisits and 90-minute average delivery times for customers. In 2023, BlackSky expects to begin including their recently announced Gen-3 satellites, which are intended to have 50 cm resolution and short-wave infrared (SWIR) for low light and nighttime imaging capabilities, moving toward the completion of the firm’s projected 30-spacecraft constellation.

The multi-launch agreement, inked with launch services provider Spaceflight Inc., who will manage the integration and launch services for BlackSky, includes the launch of nine BlackSky satellites across five Electron missions this year.

Collectively, BlackSky, Spaceflight and Rocket Lab are demonstrating how established expertise, shared understanding of systems as well as innovative technologies work together to help accelerate speed to space.

LeoStella, BlackSky’s smallsat development and manufacturing partner, produced the nine BlackSky Gen-2 satellites that are being delivered to Rocket Lab’s launch site in New Zealand.

“These deployments with Rocket Lab are intended to advance our delivery of real-time geospatial intelligence solutions to our government and commercial customers worldwide,” said Brian E. O’Toole, CEO of BlackSky. “Combined with our AI/ML platform, Spectra AI, BlackSky aims to provide customers with access to dawn-to-dusk global monitoring of key locations around the world. We’re proud to be working with Rocket Lab to achieve this launch cadence and advance our constellation network configuration, which is the foundation of our high-revisit imaging performance.”

“We’re thrilled to be providing BlackSky with dedicated, rapid, and reliable launches on Electron. Flying on dedicated Electron launches provides BlackSky with certainty around launch schedule, control over tailored orbits, and confidence and reliability at a critical time in its constellation and business development,” said Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab. “After two back-to-back launches for BlackSky on Electron in 2019 and our latest just this week, we’re fortunate to continue partnering with industry leaders to deliver reliable and rapid access to space.”

BlackSky is a provider of real-time geospatial intelligence. BlackSky monitors activities and facilities worldwide by harnessing the world’s emerging sensor networks and leveraging its own satellite constellation. BlackSky processes millions of observations from its constellation as well as a variety of space, IoT, and terrestrial based sensors and data feeds. BlackSky’s on-demand constellation of satellites can image a location multiple times throughout the day. BlackSky monitors for pattern-of-life anomalies to produce alerts and enhance situational awareness. BlackSky’s monitoring service, Spectra AI, is powered by cutting-edge computer techniques including machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and natural language processing.

OneWeb has announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with TrustComm Inc. The companies plan to enable LEO connectivity to government customers.

The agreement, signed on March 16, envisions OneWeb and TrustComm working together to deliver OneWeb’s high speed, low latency, beyond line-of-sight communications services – with initial focus on the northern latitudes. 

The partnership between OneWeb and TrustComm will enable LEO – delivered connectivity to government customers, bringing unprecedented opportunity to end users.

Supported by a global network of gateways and air, maritime and land user terminals, OneWeb’s Global Connectivity Platform will provide secure, high bandwidth and low latency secure data and internet connectivity to government customers across the globe. Initial services are expected to be available starting 4^th quarter of 2021.

TrustComm specializes in combining satellite and terrestrial communication systems into fully interoperable networks, providing customers with best-fit and customized end-to-end connectivity solutions in Ku, Ka, L, C and X-band frequency ranges. TrustComm operates a Teleport and Secure Managed Services Operations Center at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston, Texas, and holds a number of DoD contract vehicles to provide managed satellite services. 

OneWeb’s partnership with TrustComm will focus on early adopters looking to take advantage of LEO technology including the US Naval Research Lab, US Army Futures Research Lab and others. Solutions will be deployed initially into areas of operation including the Arctic which continues to suffer from poor levels in connectivity due to its high latitude and extreme terrain. OneWeb and TrustComm also expect to support the biennial Ice Exercise (ICEX) in 2022. 

OneWeb’s Head of Government Services, Dylan Browne said, “The US DoD is OneWeb’s largest single customer and so we will ensure we have the tools and vehicles in place to contract for service this November when our network goes live above the 50^th parallel.  I’m delighted we can now count on the support of the TrustComm team who are experts in satellite and terrestrial managed network service for DoD customers.”

TrustComm’s Chief Executive Office, Bob Roe, said, “We are truly excited by the potential and advantages that OneWeb’s LEO system brings to the US and other government users on a global scale.  With more OneWeb satellites being deployed on a monthly basis and the ground/service infrastructure coming online, we will be able to bring this capability to market quickly using our existing US Government contracts, especially CS3 and GSA. OneWeb’s unique architecture and focus on scalable solutions supported by clear SLA’s make it a perfect fit for the TrustComm portfolio.”

OneWeb is co-owned by a consortium of investors led by the UK Government and the global telecommunications provider, Bharti Global Limited.

The followinig is a statement issued from Arianespace: OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, has confirmed the successful launch of all 36 satellites by Arianespace from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. This launch, its second under new ownership, brings its total in-orbit constellation to 146 satellites. These will form part of OneWeb’s 648 LEO satellite fleet that will deliver high-speed, low-latency global connectivity. Flight ST30 was the 55th Soyuz mission carried out by Arianespace and its Starsem affiliate. Performed on Thursday, March 25 at precisely 11:47 a.m. local time at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome (02:47 a.m. UTC), Flight ST30 orbited 36 new OneWeb satellites — bringing the size of the fleet in orbit to 146.

“Congratulations to all the teams who made this latest mission from the Vostochny Cosmodrome a success. This launch confirms Arianespace’s ability to deploy the OneWeb constellation through the use of three different Soyuz launch sites — in French Guiana, Kazakhstan and Russia,” said Stéphane Israël, Chief Executive Officer of Arianespace. “I want to sincerely thank OneWeb for its trust. I am delighted that our company has contributed — for the fifth time — to this client’s ultimate ambition of providing Internet access to everyone, anywhere, at any time.” 

Arianespace has launched 146 OneWeb satellites to date. Soyuz successfully orbited the initial six from French Guiana during February 2019. In February and March 2020, Arianespace and its Starsem affiliate successfully launched 68 OneWeb satellites from Baikonur Cosmodrome, as well as an additional batch of 36 satellites from the Vostochny Cosmodrome during December 2020.

Pursuant to an amended launch contract with OneWeb, Arianespace will perform 14 more Soyuz launches through 2021 and 2022. These launches will enable OneWeb to complete the deployment of its full global constellation of low Earth orbit satellites by the end of 2022.

OneWeb’s mission is to bring internet everywhere to everyone, by creating a global connectivity platform through a next-generation satellite constellation in low Earth orbit. The OneWeb constellation will deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity to a wide range of customer sectors, including aviation, maritime, backhaul services, and for governments, emergency response services and more. Central to its purpose, OneWeb seeks to bring connectivity to every place where fiber cannot reach, and thereby bridge the digital divide. 

The satellite prime contractor is OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture of OneWeb and Airbus Defence and Space. The satellites were produced in Florida, USA in its leading-edge satellite manufacturing facilities that can build up to two satellites per day on a series production line dedicated to spacecraft assembly, integration, and testing.