Archives for March 2021

With the recent launch of a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome, ATLAS Space Operations has grown to support three, brand new missions with the firm’s Freedom Platform. With this multinational launch, ATLAS will support Astroscale, LinaSpace, and Axelspace in their space-based missions.

The challenge of how to address space debris has emerged as an urgent question for the space community to answer. Through a series of technical demonstrations that span several months, Astroscale’s ELSA-d spacecraft, will respond to this question by demonstrating the core technologies and capabilities necessary for debris removal and docking.

ATLAS, from its Brewster, Washington, ground station, as well as from its new ground station in Miami, which ATLAS expects to be operational next quarter, is one of the providers that will support the communications that power the Astroscale ELSA-d spacecraft which will use the company’s Freedom API, Freedom Pass Server, and ATLAS’ proprietary Flex Scheduler. 

The Freedom Pass Server (FPS) provides ATLAS’ clients with state-of-the-art networking and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) abilities. Through its mixed modem capability, the FPS enables ATLAS clients to interface with a diverse range of modems from different ground sites by abstracting away the hardware differences. For this mission, the client’s Command and Control System (C2) is designed for a KRATOS frame format; here, the FPS enables it to execute Commands and Telemetry using an Amergint Technologies modem.

LinaSpace is also making use of ATLAS’ global network of ground stations and Freedom Pass Server. ATLAS will support LinaSpace through their Ghana ground station, as well as two new ground stations in Scotland and New Zealand. LinaSpace specializes in EO and communications. With this launch, LinaSpace has delivered an EO satellite to orbit, with ATLAS supporting the data transfer process to monitor and control the mission. 

Axelspace, a Tokyo-based smallsat company building an EO constellation, also launched four satellites from Baikonur. ATLAS will support their mission from its new ground station in New Zealand, bringing valuable insights down from space. 

All of these initiatives work to further ATLAS’ mission in line with the interests of its clients: to connect humanity through space. 

“ATLAS’ clients can come with their existing integrations and the FPS will translate to any ground site hardware without the need for additional coding. Adaptive software can address a lot of these issues, and talking to the users and people closest to the problem has allowed us to significantly reduce costs and integration time for our clients. ATLAS offers our clients the freedom to get their data quickly and securely—on their terms,” said Brad Bode, Chief Technical Officer at ATLAS. 

SpaceLink has established the company headquarters office in Tysons Corner, Virginia, near Washington, DC. The company is building a space relay network in MEO to provide secure, continuous, high-bandwidth communications between customers’ LEO spacecraft and the ground. 

The SpaceLink relay network is designed to pick up where the U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) leaves off and go beyond with unprecedented capacity that leverages today’s technology advances. It helps close the business case for Earth observation companies, commercial space stations, satellite servicers and tugs and meets requirements for the U.S. government and close allies that need to leverage industry solutions to maximize capabilities. 

The MEO constellation is designed so that at least one of the relay satellites is always visible to any spacecraft in LEO and the SpaceLink constellation is always within line of sight of its gateway Earth stations.

In addition to its headquarters in northern Virginia, SpaceLink has operations in California’s Silicon Valley and in Huntsville, Alabama. The company is a subsidiary of Electro Optic Systems of Australia (EOS) and benefits from financing, support, and advanced technology from its corporate parent, including optical communications which unlock massively scalable capacity. 

“The new headquarters office is another indicator of how our business strategy is gaining momentum,” said David Bettinger, Chief Executive Officer at SpaceLink. “The northern Virginia location provides a hub for activities that serve a broad range of spacecraft operators who need continuous connectivity in near Earth orbit.”

SpaceLink continues to build its team and is recruiting satellite and network engineering talent, as well as experts in ground infrastructure, RF and optical terminals, and a range of business functions. For information on positions available visit this direct infolink… .

SpaceLink will help advance humanity to a new age of space commerce, exploration, environmental awareness, and security. The Always in Sight data relay system provides global coverage to empower space system operators to maximize use of their assets. SpaceLink Corporation is headquartered in the Washington DC area, with offices in Silicon Valley and secure facilities collocated with sister company EOS Defense Systems USA, Inc. in Huntsville, Alabama. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Electro Optic Systems Holdings Limited, a public company traded on the Australian stock exchange.

Synspective Inc. has signed a Launch Agreement with Exolaunch to launch the second demonstration satellite “StriX-β” on a Soyuz-2  launch vehicle from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia in late 2021.     

StriX-β is the second demonstration satellite following Strix-α and is aimed to demonstrate “InSAR (Interferometric SAR)” technology in orbit, a special SAR analytics technique to detect millimeter-level displacements on the ground surface.

Under the agreement, Exolaunch will provide launch, mission management and integration services for the Strix-β satellite that will be delivered to a Synspective’s custom orbit. The Strix-β is the second satellite of a 30 SAR satellite constellation that Synspective plans to build by the late 2020s.

Dr. Motoyuki Arai, founder and CEO of Synspective, said, “We are very pleased to entrust the launch of StriX-β, our second small SAR satellite, to Exolaunch, which has an extensive track record. Synspective has already begun operating its first satellite, as well as providing solution services. We are now entering a phase of business expansion. StriX-β is a crucial satellite to demonstrate InSAR technology and to deepen satellite-operation know-how, which are strengths in our business expansion. We will accomplish this mission and steadily achieve results to enhance global efficiency and resilience.”

Jeanne Medvedeva, VP of Launch Services at Exolaunch, said, “We are delighted to welcome Synspective as our customer and to launch StriX-β with Soyuz-2, which is known for its outstanding reliability. Synspective is a company with an ambitious mission to revolutionize an Earth Observation market by introducing new SAR technologies and solutions. Exolaunch’s commitment to working with global conscientious companies is the perfect complement to Synspective’s mission of advancing the world through data-driven decisions that have a lasting positive impact. We are proud of being both flexible and authentic, capable of providing on demand launches to requested custom orbits tailored to Synspective’s constellation needs.”

Synspective provides one-stop-solutions using geospatial data from its own SAR satellites, upon its mission to create a progressive world based on real data. The core technology was developed by the ImPACT program led by The Cabinet Office, Government of Japan.  Synspective is building a constellation of its own small SAR satellites and to provide its data and analytic information to governments and commercial outfits.

On Wednesday, March 24, at 4:28 a.m. EDT, SpaceX launched another flight of 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (AFS) in Florida.

This was the sixth launch and landing of this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously supported launch of GPS-III Space Vehicle 03, Turksat 5A, and three Starlink missions.

One half of Falcon 9’s fairing had supported the Sentinel-6A mission and the other half had supported a previous Starlink mission.

Leaf Space is expanding to the United States and will support their rapidly growing list of U.S.-based customers while also adding new ground stations to existing infrastructure. Headquartered in Lomazzo, Italy, Leaf Space enables full exploitation of space data to satellite and launch vehicle operators.

Since Leaf Space’s inception in 2014, the company has focused on developing ground station services and technology with the goal of creating GSaaS solutions available on the modern space market. The company has achieved success working in partnership with over 15 customers that include Astrocast, D-Orbit and the European Space Agency (ESA) to increase performance and availability of crucial data while simultaneously lowering costs and decreasing latency.

Now, Leaf Space is expanding operations to the U.S. to service existing customers including Momentus, Kepler Communications and Swarm, as well as introduce the company’s GSaaS solutions to a growing market of satellite and launch vehicle operators. Leaf Space is also adding more ground stations to existing infrastructure to amplify the company’s ability to provide customers with the highest-quality ground station services, at lower costs.

“There is a clear appetite among U.S. satellite and launch vehicle operators to simplify, outsource, and maximize the value from ground services and we believe that need is only going to grow,” said Jai Dialani, Head of U.S. Business Development and M.D. of Leaf Space LLC in U.S. “Leaf Space is uniquely positioned to provide expert level GSaaS solutions built upon years of experience with high-profile customers overseas, yet we are nimble enough to offer customers flexible solutions that support their unique business needs and mission requirements at scale.”

Leaf Space pioneered the concept of GSaaS for satellite and launch vehicle operators around the world. The company already provides GSaaS solutions for Momentus, ensuring reliable and efficient communication with spacecraft using Momentus’ services to place smallsats in precise orbits.

Kymeta and Kepler Communications have successfully demo’d the Kymeta u8 Terminal with LEO satellite acquisition, tracking and throughput measurements during extreme cold weather temperatures. This collaboration supports Kymeta’s goal to develop solutions that are future proof with a clear LEO upgrade path and compatible with growing mega-constellations.

In 2020, Kepler was selected for an extended u8 beta trial to capture the extended Northern winter in Inuvik, Canada. Frequent revisit times from the Kepler LEO satellites combined with the local environment of unprotected cold weather, snow, and ice provided a unique testing opportunity for the latest Kymeta technology. Results have demonstrated a significant increase in performance with lower latency, enhanced look angles and speeds that are approaching 10X faster than earlier products with higher throughput and total data passed.

The u8 system is designed to work down to -40^oC. During testing, Kymeta and Kepler were able to update software facilitating the testing of new algorithms in real time. Updates included capabilities of on-board FPGA-based tracking receivers, which allowed for usage of channels more than 2 times larger than previous demonstrations.

Testing results exceeded expectations during these cold weather trials with average uplink and downlink speeds of 100 Mbps, providing the ability to transfer more than two gigabytes of data with each pass. Initial testing was completed using linear polarization on the u8 – in a future software upgrade the addition of circular polarization support will lead to additional increases in data transfer speeds.

In January, Kepler launched 8 new satellites via SpaceX’s first dedicated SmallSat Rideshare Program. On March 22^nd, Kepler launched an additional two satellites via the Soyuz-2, expanding its active constellation to 15 satellites in total. An additional launch is planned for June. Kymeta believes the collaboration with Kepler and further testing is instrumental to providing reliable connectivity and superior benefits to customers.

“Kepler has been a great trial partner because they are agile and able to make adjustments for optimized performance at the same time we are adjusting the u8 terminal,” said David Harrower, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Kymeta. “Many of our customers are interested in compatibility with LEO satellite services, and this testing helps ensure the longevity of the u8 and Kymeta Connect as well as offer a solution that takes advantage of the increased utility of LEO satellites.”

“The performance of the Kymeta u8 with Kepler’s Global Data Service has exceeded our expectations,” said Wen Cheng Chong, Kepler’s CTO and Co-Founder. “Our recent testing and development efforts demonstrated not only the ability to move many more gigabytes of data than expected with each pass, but also the u8’s ability to operate in polar environments, where many of Kepler’s early adopters operate. With Kepler’s recently increased capacity the u8 can serve customers globally, pole-to-pole and all points in between.”

Open Cosmos has achieved a major milestone in the company’s mission to democratize space with the launch of two commercial smallsats that were entirely created at the company’s Harwell Campus-based HQ in the United Kingdom.

The launch on Monday, March 22, witnessed two Open Cosmos smallsats along with the South Korean EO satellite CAS500-1 and 30 other satellites launched aboard a Soyuz-2 rocket from the Baikonur base in Kazakhstan.

One of the Open Cosmos satellites is the latest addition to the Lacuna Space IoT constellation, which provides a service using LoRaWAN®, an open, global standard for IoT LPWAN connectivity, along with a new demonstrator satellite for telecoms operator Sateliot to provide 5G Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities to remote areas across the globe.

The satellites traveled to Kazakhstan after passing strict testing in controlled environments and receiving the operations license from the UK Space Agency (UKSA). The device was then integrated into the deployer in the rocket which, when the Soyuz-2.1A rocket reached 500 km from Earth, was ejected to take up its mission to travel around the Earth and provide connectivity services.

Open Cosmos will now be monitoring and operating the mission from four ground stations around the globe, all of which can managed by the team on behalf of their partners through OpenOps, Open Cosmos’s satellite operations software.

Open Cosmos operates space missions from start to finish by manufacturing and building satellites as well as handling the mission, satellite operation and services. The company, which was created five years ago, was established with a view to open up space by making it more affordable for small businesses and governments to utilise satellites to access data they need to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges from climate change, to civil protection and emergencies and infrastructure.

Open Cosmos and Lacuna Space are part of a new generation of UK space industry companies. The sector employs almost 42,000 people, more than 1,000 who work within the Harwell Campus, Europe’s most concentrated SpaceTech cluster that launched in 2015 as Open Cosmos was just starting operations. UK space generates an income of £15 billion every year, while the global space industry is predicted to be worth $350 billion. The UK government wants to gain a 10% share of the global space market by 2030 and clusters like Harwell are key to this endeavor.

Applications Catapult and the ECSAT telecommunications centre of the ESA in Harwell were also just starting. Five years later, these launches mark a key milestone for the UK space industry. Another Harwell-based company was instrumental in the recent launch: Oxford Space Systems, which provided the innovative deployable antenna that goes on top of Lacuna’s IoT satellite receiver and is able to receive short messages directly from small, battery-powered devices on the ground. Additionally, the satellite was tested within the Disruptive Innovation Space Centre (DISC) of the Satellite Applications Catapult and the testing facilities at RAL Space. This demonstrates how close collaboration amongst space startups, scaleups and stakeholders are enabling this new breed of companies to grow and thrive.

The focus for the UK space industry has been on tapping into the satellite launch market, which is why the UK is investing in spaceports in Cornwall and The Shetlands. Initiatives such as this collaboration demonstrate that the benefits of satellites don’t just lie in the economic gains of launching them, but the wider services they can offer to governments, citizens and businesses. In fact, £300 billion of wider UK GDP is supported by satellite services, including telecoms, science, earth observation and navigation. Open Cosmos has invested more than £4 million in R&D leveraged with support from the UKSA and the ESA through the ARTES Partnership Project’s Pioneer program, growing the team from five to 50 people.

Following these two launches, Open Cosmos will look to expand its commercial offering, delivering constellations for both private companies and governments in need of accurate global and information services. Open Cosmos has 10 missions under development at the moment, including the MANTIS mission in partnership with the ESA-Incubed program, and UKSA, which aims to provide high-resolution imagery and IOD6 in partnership with the Satellite Applications Catapult that will test innovative services in orbit. These satellites will be key to powering digital transformation in many sectors and fight the climate crisis using satellite data.

Rafel Jordá, Founder and CEO of Open Cosmos, said, “These launches mark a major milestone for Open Cosmos, demonstrating the capacity of low-cost satellites to provide IoT connectivity to remote parts of the world and collect data. With £300 billion of wider UK GDP supported by satellite services, Open Cosmos is key to unlocking these services and making them more accessible for businesses and governments across the world. We’re also extremely proud that Monday’s launches have been made possible by working closely with the UKSA, ESA, the Catapult and all our partner companies at Harwell Campus and abroad. We look forward to continuing to push forward the potential for UK space tech in 2021 and beyond.”

Rob Spurett, CEO of Lacuna, said, “The successful launch of our latest satellite is another important milestone in expanding our network capacity, and growing our services. We are providing the ‘Internet for Things’ and it is quietly revolutionizing industries in the same way that connecting people to the internet has. The range of services and possibilities that Lacuna is enabling is incredible and beyond our wildest imagination: from mundane tracking of cargo containers to counting penguins in the Antarctic. It has been wonderful to bring together other Harwell-based companies on this project such as Open Cosmos and Oxford Space Systems, demonstrating the strength of the UK’s collaborative space sector and depth of innovation. ”

Catherine Mealing-Jones, Director of Growth at the UK Space Agency, said, “The UK is a leader in the design and manufacturing of small satellites. With our support innovative companies like Open Cosmos, Lacuna Space and Oxford Space Systems are developing exciting services to improve our daily lives. Our space sector is thriving and it is fantastic to see these ambitious UK companies working together to enable connectivity in remote and hard-to-reach parts of the globe.” (Note: The UK Space Agency invests around £90 million a year, through its subscription in ESA’s ARTES program, in developing innovative technologies, services and applications to help meet societal challenges.)

Sean Sutcliffe, CEO of OSS said, “We are proud to deliver this milestone together with Open Cosmos to contribute to Lacuna Space’s ambitious constellation of IoT Gateways in space. This also gives further space heritage to our helical antenna product line, with several helical antennas already successfully deployed in orbit and working within the expected performance range. This is another step towards the delivery of reliable antenna solutions for the next generation of IoT constellations, as part of OSS’s comprehensive family of deployable antennas.”

Lucy Edge, Chief Operating Officer at the Satellite Applications Catapult said, “We are delighted to be supporting Open Cosmos on their growth journey, and to witness the launch of the first two satellites built at the Satellite Application Catapult’s DISC facility at Harwell. Open Cosmos’s success demonstrates exactly what can be achieved when a pioneering business, innovative UK partners and Catapult support all come together without limitations. We look forward to seeing how the low-cost IoT capability developed for these missions will help solve some of the major global challenges we all face.”