Archives for March 2021

Rocket Lab has successfully launched their 19th Electron mission and deployed six spacecraft to orbit for a range of government and commercial customers.

The mission, named ‘They Go Up So Fast,’ also deployed Rocket Lab’s latest in-house manufactured Photon spacecraft to build flight heritage ahead of the upcoming CAPSTONE mission to the Moon for NASA.

The mission launched from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 22:30, March 22, 2021 UTC, successfully deploying an EO satellite for BlackSky Global through Spaceflight Inc.; two Internet of Things (IoT) smallsats for Australian commercial operators Fleet Space and Myriota; a test satellite built by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra Space in collaboration with the Royal Australian Air Force; a weather monitoring cubesat for Care Weather Technologies; and a technology demonstrator for the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC). The mission took the total number of satellites deployed to orbit by Rocket Lab to 104.

After Electron successfully launched to an initial 550 km circular orbit, the rocket’s integrated space tug or Kick Stage deployed the first five satellites to their individual orbits.

The Kick Stage’s Curie engine was then reignited to lower its altitude and deploy the final small satellite to a 450km circular orbit. With its relightable Curie engine, the Kick Stage is unique in its capability to deploy multiple satellites to different orbits on the same small launch vehicle.

Following the deployment of the final customer payload on this mission the Kick Stage was reconfigured to Photon, Rocket Lab’s in-house built spacecraft. Photon Pathstone is equipped with new power management, thermal control and attitude control subsystems that will be used for the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon for NASA later this year. Photon Pathstone is also testing on-orbit new deep-space radio capability, an upgraded RCS (reaction control system), as well as sun sensors and star trackers.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck, said, “Congratulations and welcome to orbit for all of our customers on Electron. Reaching more than 100 satellites deployed is an incredible achievement for our team and I’m proud of their tireless efforts which have made Electron the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually. Today’s mission was a flawless demonstration of how Electron has changed the way space is accessed. Not only did we deploy six customer satellites, but we also deployed our own pathfinding spacecraft to orbit in preparation for our Moon mission later this year.”

Note: Details about Rocket Lab’s 20^th Electron launch will be announced shortly, with the next mission scheduled to take place from Launch Complex 1 within the next few weeks.

Original news posting…

The Rocket Lab launch team is gearing up for the company’s 19^th mission, that being a rideshare launch taking place from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula as early as tomorrow, March 22, with the launch window ranging from 22:20 to 23:30 UTC, 18:20 to 19:30 ET and 15:20 to 16:30 PT, and March 23, from 11:20 to 12:30, New Zealand Time. The launch opportunities will continue through March 31st, should such become a necessity.

Rocket Lab’s 19th Electron mission will deploy a range of satellites for commercial and government satellite operators, as well as place a next-generation Rocket Lab Photon spacecraft in orbit to build spacecraft heritage ahead of Rocket Lab’s mission to the Moon for NASA later this year. 

 Seven satellites feature on the mission manifest, including:

• An Earth Observation (EO) satellite for BlackSky via launch services provider Spaceflight Inc. — BlackSky will include a single Earth observation smallsat. This is the seventh launch of a Gen-2 spacecraft to date. Spaceflight arranged the launch and is providing mission management and integration services for BlackSky.
• Two Internet-Of-Things (IoT) nanosatellites for companies Fleet Space and Myriota, procured by Tyvak — Centauri 3 is a newly-designed 6U smallsat that will join Fleet Space’s planned constellation of 140 Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) satellites in LEO. Designed for use in the energy, utilities, and resource industries, the Centauri 3 will also test new hardware and space systems developed by Fleet Space that will support the 2023 Seven Sisters mission, a resource exploration mission by an Australian team of space, remote operations, and resource exploration companies that will launch smallsats and sensors to develop new resource exploration techniques for Earth, the Moon, and Mars, in support of NASA’s Artemis Program. Myriota 7 is the latest addition to that company’s satellite constellation and forms part of a crucial next step for the business as the firm moves toward near-real time connectivity. This smallsat will support Myriota’s customers by further improving the existing service that provides access to data from anywhere on Earth. Myriota’s long battery life and direct-to-orbit connectivity supports products from technology partners servicing a wide range of industries including utilities, transport and logistics, supply chain, agriculture, mining and defence.
• A technology demonstration satellite for the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra Space — This spacecraft from the University of New South Wales Canberra Space, in collaboration with the Royal Australian Air Force, will bring together emerging technologies that deliver advanced capabilities in earth observation, maritime surveillance, quantum computing, advanced AI, and laser communications. M2 follows on from the successful M2 Pathfinder mission deployed in June 2020 on Rocket Lab’s 12th mission, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’.
• A weather satellite pathfinder technology demonstration from Care Weather technologies — The Veery Hatchling mission will test Care Weather’s vertically-integrated satellite power, computing, and avionics systems in a 1U cubesat. This smallsat paves the way for Care Weather’s future constellation of scatterometric radar weather satellites capable of producing hourly maps of global wind speed and direction over the surface of the ocean. Veery Hatchling is the first step in Care Weather’s mission to save lives and livelihoods by better forecasting Earth’s extreme weather.
• A technology demonstrator for the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) through launch integration and program management services provider, TriSept — TriSept procured the rideshare slot on Electron for the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC). Gunsmoke-J is an experimental 3U cubesat that will test technologies that support development of new capabilities for the U.S Army.
• The final payload on this mission is Rocket Lab’s in-house designed and built Photon Pathstone. The spacecraft will operate on orbit as a risk reduction demonstration to build spacecraft heritage ahead of Rocket Lab’s mission to the Moon for NASA later this year, as well as Rocket Lab’s private mission to Venus in 2023.

Photon Pathstone will demonstrate power management, thermal control, and attitude control subsystems, as well as newly-integrated technologies including deep-space radio capability, an upgraded RCS (reaction control system) for precision pointing in space, and sun sensors and star trackers. Pathstone is the second Photon spacecraft to be deployed to orbit, following the launch of Photon First Light in August of 2020.

Fleet Space Technologies successfully launched their Centauri 3 smallsat on March 23, Centauri 3. The company’s fifth smallsat launched from New Zealand’s Launch Complex 1 at Mahia Peninsula aboard a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle “They Go Up So Fast.” 

The 10 kg smallsat entered its pre-planned orbit, 550 km above the Earth, on schedule, and was sending full telemetry data on its third pass. Over the next few days, the satellite will begin commissioning and engage in full operations.

Centauri 3 and the other smallsats make possible Fleet Space’s service to energy companies, utilities and mines worldwide. An IoT communications payload aboard each satellite, designed by Fleet Space, will connect thousands of sensors monitoring critical infrastructure across the world with their owners’ and managers’ base stations in real time, 24 hours a day. The full constellation of 140 satellites could generate a lifetime revenue of $1.82 billion.

The payload includes a highly innovative, lightweight, beam-steering antenna, AI-driven computer server and satellite modem, all designed in-house by Fleet Space. This will transform the ability of Australian industry to manage and control in real time remote assets. 

Fleet Space believes the service needs a constellation of 140 such satellites, of which about 50 will need replacement every year as their orbits decay.

To meet this demand, the company has applied for a $5 million grant under the Australian government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) to establish an advanced manufacturing capability in Adelaide to produce these satellites. The grant, matched by capital raised by Fleet Space itself, will make it possible to manufacture the entire satellite payload by itself. This will help increase Fleet Space’s workforce from 31 to 128 scientists, engineers and assembly technicians. Fleet Space’s partners, the University of Adelaide, Hawker Richardson, Lintek, and Redarc Electronics, will also increase their testing and manufacturing capabilities thanks to this grant.

“We’re very excited because Centauri 3 will demonstrate our Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) capabilities by linking multiple remote sensors monitoring critical infrastructure such as remote mine sites, gas pipelines and rurally dispersed electricity pylons with central base stations, 24 hours a day,” said Fleet Space CEO and Co-Founder, Ms. Flavia Tata Nardini. “The Centauri 3 nanosatellite – our fifth commercial nanosatellite and our most advanced payload yet – will be joined by two more this year and a further 16 during 2022 and 2023.” She noted that these later satellites will have much greater signal throughput and their greater numbers will deliver a continuous service to customers worldwide. 

“For the first time, we’ll be able to 3D print our innovative beam-steering antenna here in Australia,” she continued. “We design the antenna and all of the rest of the payload, but at present, the only space-qualified company that can manufacture the antenna is in Switzerland.”

These manufacturing capabilities will also be available to Defence as well as to other Australian space companies, adding depth and strength to the entire sector, Nardini noted.

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.”

OneWeb has signed an agreement with SatixFy to develop a new In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) terminal that will work over the firm’s network as well as on GEO satellite networks.

SatixFy UK has formed a Joint Venture with Singapore Technology Engineering Ltd. (ST Engineering), called JetTalk, to exclusively commercialize the IFC terminal for Commercial Aviation markets.

The agreement reaffirms OneWeb’s ambitions in the global aerospace arena as the company sets out its roadmap to support commercial, regional, business and government aviation users. 

The IFC terminal will access OneWeb’s LEO constellation and deliver a ‘home-equivalent’ inflight broadband experience, while also allowing operators to complement their legacy GEO service. The product is based on SatixFy’s Electronically Steered Multi-beam Antenna (ESMA) technology, developed together with JetTalk and provides multi-beam capability and operates simultaneously on multiple LEO and GEO satellites.

SatixFy has recently completed the development of Tx tile of 576 elements and Rx tile of 1024 elements that can be used as building blocks for the planned terminal. The tiles, which have been co-developed together with JetTalk, have completed initial testing and are currently being implemented inside a terminal product. The OneWeb IFC terminal will integrate the OneWeb modem as well as a GEO network one, inside the terminal.

Ben Griffin, VP Mobility at OneWeb, said, “OneWeb is creating IFC solutions which offer a significant increase in the whole passenger traveling experience. This agreement with SatixFy represents a major milestone for OneWeb Aviation, as we plot our path to facilitating onboard connectivity, globally, on commercial airliners and corporate jets, large and small.”

“The ability to deploy multi-beam, multi-satellite, multi-orbit IFC terminals is key in SatixFy’s offering developed in partnership with ST Engineering through our Joint Venture – JetTalk,” said Yoel Gat, SatixFy’s CEO. “Aggregating capacity from multiple satellites will give customers the grade of service they expect on flights. This great leap forward is made possible thanks to the continuous support by ESA and UK Space Agency.”

Catherine Mealing-Jones, Director of Growth at the UK Space Agency, said, “The last year has shown connectivity has never been more important to our daily lives, and it is exciting to see SatixFy and OneWeb working together to provide aircraft with broadband internet for the first time. The new aviation terminal will make use of the Prime, Beat and Sx3099 ASIC chips developed with UK Space Agency backing, showing how supporting our most innovative companies leads to results that make a real difference for people all over the world.”

Elodie Viau, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications at ESA, said, “Space and satellites are becoming increasingly important to the digital economy and there is a need to get data all the time and everywhere – even on board a plane. ESA is proud to have supported SatixFy in the design of the chips used for this terminal – enabling the digital transformation of society using telecommunications satellites.”

The Rocket Lab launch team is gearing up for the company’s 19^th mission, that being a rideshare launch taking place from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula as early as tomorrow, March 22, with the launch window ranging from 22:20 to 23:30 UTC, 18:20 to 19:30 ET and 15:20 to 16:30 PT, and March 23, from 11:20 to 12:30, New Zealand Time. The launch opportunities will continue through March 31st, should such become a necessity.

Rocket Lab’s 19th Electron mission will deploy a range of satellites for commercial and government satellite operators, as well as place a next-generation Rocket Lab Photon spacecraft in orbit to build spacecraft heritage ahead of Rocket Lab’s mission to the Moon for NASA later this year. 

 Seven satellites feature on the mission manifest, including:

• An Earth Observation (EO) satellite for BlackSky via launch services provider Spaceflight Inc. — BlackSky will include a single Earth observation smallsat. This is the seventh launch of a Gen-2 spacecraft to date. Spaceflight arranged the launch and is providing mission management and integration services for BlackSky.
• Two Internet-Of-Things (IoT) nanosatellites for companies Fleet Space and Myriota, procured by Tyvak — Centauri 3 is a newly-designed 6U smallsat that will join Fleet Space’s planned constellation of 140 Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) satellites in LEO. Designed for use in the energy, utilities, and resource industries, the Centauri 3 will also test new hardware and space systems developed by Fleet Space that will support the 2023 Seven Sisters mission, a resource exploration mission by an Australian team of space, remote operations, and resource exploration companies that will launch smallsats and sensors to develop new resource exploration techniques for Earth, the Moon, and Mars, in support of NASA’s Artemis Program. Myriota 7 is the latest addition to that company’s satellite constellation and forms part of a crucial next step for the business as the firm moves toward near-real time connectivity. This smallsat will support Myriota’s customers by further improving the existing service that provides access to data from anywhere on Earth. Myriota’s long battery life and direct-to-orbit connectivity supports products from technology partners servicing a wide range of industries including utilities, transport and logistics, supply chain, agriculture, mining and defence.
• A technology demonstration satellite for the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra Space — This spacecraft from the University of New South Wales Canberra Space, in collaboration with the Royal Australian Air Force, will bring together emerging technologies that deliver advanced capabilities in earth observation, maritime surveillance, quantum computing, advanced AI, and laser communications. M2 follows on from the successful M2 Pathfinder mission deployed in June 2020 on Rocket Lab’s 12th mission, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’.
• A weather satellite pathfinder technology demonstration from Care Weather technologies — The Veery Hatchling mission will test Care Weather’s vertically-integrated satellite power, computing, and avionics systems in a 1U cubesat. This smallsat paves the way for Care Weather’s future constellation of scatterometric radar weather satellites capable of producing hourly maps of global wind speed and direction over the surface of the ocean. Veery Hatchling is the first step in Care Weather’s mission to save lives and livelihoods by better forecasting Earth’s extreme weather.
• A technology demonstrator for the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) through launch integration and program management services provider, TriSept — TriSept procured the rideshare slot on Electron for the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC). Gunsmoke-J is an experimental 3U cubesat that will test technologies that support development of new capabilities for the U.S Army.
• The final payload on this mission is Rocket Lab’s in-house designed and built Photon Pathstone. The spacecraft will operate on orbit as a risk reduction demonstration to build spacecraft heritage ahead of Rocket Lab’s mission to the Moon for NASA later this year, as well as Rocket Lab’s private mission to Venus in 2023.

Photon Pathstone will demonstrate power management, thermal control, and attitude control subsystems, as well as newly-integrated technologies including deep-space radio capability, an upgraded RCS (reaction control system) for precision pointing in space, and sun sensors and star trackers. Pathstone is the second Photon spacecraft to be deployed to orbit, following the launch of Photon First Light in August of 2020.

When 36 OneWeb satellites launch on March 25 RUAG Space has critical mission products onboard like the satellite dispenser that was customized for the mega satellite constellation...

On March 25 OneWeb will launch another 36 broadband satellites aboard a Soyuz launch vehicle from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia. OneWeb is building a communications network with a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites that will deliver affordable internet access around the world.

As a key supplier to OneWeb Satellites, RUAG Space built the satellite dispenser, which functions as an interface between the Soyuz rocket and satellites. The dispenser is tailored to the need of a constellation such as OneWeb, being able to deposit up to 36 satellites safely into space. “Our dispenser is super-light and includes state-of-the-art technology to safely place the satellites in orbit,” says Holger Wentscher, Senior Vice President Product Group Launchers at RUAG Space. Dispensers from RUAG Space, produced in Sweden, are especially suitable for spacecraft constellations such as OneWeb, where a high number of satellites need to be placed in orbit within a short time frame. OneWeb Satellites—a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus—is OneWeb’s industrial partner and leads the design and manufacturing of OneWeb’s fleet of satellites.

RUAG Space manufactures the satellite panels used by OneWeb Satellites in Titusville, Florida. The OneWeb structures (satellite back-bone) are manufactured using the Automated Potting Process (APM). The APM process—developed by RUAG Space—is a revolutionary production method that uses a pick and place machine to rapidly position special inserts filled with adhesive into the satellite structure’s sandwich panels.

In Austria, RUAG Space produces the multi-layer thermal insulation which protects the OneWeb satellites against the cold and heat in space from approximately minus 150°C to plus 150°C (-238 degrees F to 302 degrees F). The insulation consists of several layers of metal-evaporated polyimide film. RUAG Space in Austria also built handle equipment and containers. The high-tech, custom satellite containers are used to transport the assembled OneWeb satellites from Florida to the launch sites, in this case Russia. The containers are equipped with a specifically designed damping system and climate-control.

If the grant application is successful, Fleet Space will become a major satellite manufacturing hub and increase its payroll from 31 staff today to 128 by 2024…

Australia’s satellite manufacturer, Fleet Space Technologies of Adelaide, has applied for a $5 Million Federal government Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) grant so that it can jump from building three hand-built smallsats a year to mass-producing 50. Additional support from the South Australian government will supplement nearly $4 Million the company is raising itself.

If the grant application is successful, Fleet Space will become a major satellite manufacturing hub and increase its payroll from 31 staff today to 128 by 2024, says its CEO and co-founder Ms. Flavia Tata Nardini. Most of the new employees will be engineers and specialist satellite assembly technicians.

Fleet Space has spent $12 Million since 2015 on R&D to develop the world’s most advanced beam-steering antenna and to miniaturize its satellites’ com where previously this level of connectivity was only possible with a 100kg satellite.

The company, which has already launched four smallsats, has applied for a $5 million grant under the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources’ Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) to help it make the jump. Fleet Space plans to build a new factory with more than double the space for R&D and manufacturing and has partnered with the University of Adelaide’s Institute of Photonics and Advanced Sensing, local company Redarc Electronics, Hawker Richardson in Melbourne and NSW-based Lintek to build the industrial capability to manufacture these smallsats in Australia.

The Nebula service for utilities, mining and energy companies uses satellites to connect sensors monitoring critical infrastructure such as remote mine sites, alternative energy sites, gas pipelines and rurally dispersed electricity pylons with central base stations, 24 hours a day. This also allows operators to conduct geological surveys and operate unmanned vehicles such as drones remotely from a proper control centre, rather than having to visit a distant, inaccessible site.

This is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and it’s transforming the ability of Australian companies to manage and control remote assets in real time, says Ms Tata Nardini. The full constellation of 140 nanosatellites could generate a lifetime revenue of $1.82 billion, she estimates.

The heart of Fleet Space’s 10kg Centauri-series satellites is its Nebula System, consisting of the smart, lightweight, low-power communications payload and antenna, ground-based Portal satellite modem and the Nebula Network Management System. The company designs all of these, including the advanced on-board Artificial Intelligence system that manages them, itself in Adelaide. However, it is forced to get the antenna and some of the complex electronics manufactured by space-qualified specialist suppliers in Switzerland.

In order to achieve seamless global coverage, the company needs a constellation of 140 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Up to 50 will need to be replaced each year due to the rate of orbital decay associated with LEO as well as battery and solar panel degradation. A fifth satellite in Fleet Space’s constellation, Centauri 3, will be launched from New Zealand in just days, with two more scheduled for launch this year and 16 in 2022-23.

“At present, every satellite launched by an Australian company is hand-made, and many of the components come from overseas,” says Ms Tata Nardini. “Our manufacturing rate is very low. Australia lacks many of the manufacturing capabilities its industry needs to build satellite payloads and the satellites themselves. And we certainly can’t produce them in volume.”

“We want to establish these manufacturing capabilities here in Adelaide so that we can kick-start Australia’s space industry.”

Fleet Space’s goal, says Ms. Tata Nardini, is to be able to manufacture the entire payload in Australia. That includes 3D printing the advanced beam-steering antenna and designing and manufacturing increasingly complex Printed Circuit Board Assemblies (PCBAs).

As well as high-precision 3D printers, with trained operators, Fleet Space needs to be able to design and prototype complex PCBAs up to 26 layers deep. The best that Australian firms can do at present is 12 layers. Fleet Space currently gets its complex PCBAs manufactured overseas and much of its pre-launch testing must be done overseas too.

“Winning this grant would mean Fleet Space and its partners can develop and manufacture the smartest parts of future satellites right here in Australia and provide an Australian service to a worldwide customer base,” says Ms. Tata Nardini. “Only a handful of companies worldwide such as SpaceX and Airbus have the capacity to mass-produce satellites. We can join them, if we move quickly.”

“We are very excited to finally speak about what we are building at Pixxel. Our new funding enables us to build a health monitor for the planet through the world’s most advanced hyperspectral small-satellites...

Pixxel, India’s first private Earth imaging company, said it has closed its $7.3 million seed round with new capital from Omnivore and Techstars joining alongside previous investors Lightspeed Ventures, Blume Ventures, growX and Ryan Johnson, ex-President at Planet Labs.

Also, for the first time on Thursday, Pixxel lifted the veil of secrecy and publicly discussed its mission to build the world’s highest resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation. The company’s first hyperspectral satellite will launch within the next few months.

“We are very excited to finally speak about what we are building at Pixxel. Our new funding enables us to build a health monitor for the planet through the world’s most advanced hyperspectral small-satellites. This enables us to capture some of the richest imagery that’s ever been beamed down to earth,” said Awais Ahmed, CEO, Pixxel. “Our hyperspectral satellites will allow society to tackle many of humanity’s most pressing issues and we believe they will become the holy grail of remote sensing – providing the best combination of spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions to date and empowering humans to see the earth like never before,” he said.

Compared to the common multispectral satellites prevalent today, Pixxel’s hyperspectral earth-imaging satellites will beam down 50x more information by capturing light reflected from the earth in far more detail and in much narrower bands than just red, green and blue. This allows Pixxel to capture exact chemical signatures and offer much more accurate solutions to seemingly unsolvable issues in agriculture, energy and environment conservation. Once deployed, Pixxel’s constellation will provide 24-hour global coverage in higher quality resolution and lower cost than any existing satellite competitors.

The additional funding will be utilised to boost Pixxel’s efforts in making the agricultural industry more efficient in the country and worldwide. The satellite imagery with agricultural datasets can help in improving the existing crop and water management analytics as well as identifying a spectrum of issues that crop up during the growing season. The funding will also enable Pixxel to continue to rapidly scale its operations to meet the growing demand for high-quality remote sensing data through hyperspectral imaging.

To date, Pixxel has built partnerships and worked alongside the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Maxar, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Pixxel, is expected to soon launch its first remote-sensing satellite on the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) workhorse – the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). For this, the Bengaluru-based firm has entered into an agreement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a Government of India company under the Department of Space.

The agreement with NSIL is one of its kind and one of the first since the setting up of IN-SPACe, the authorisation and regulatory body under the Department of Space (DoS) to enable private players undertaking space activities in India.

The DoS and Pixxel will work in collaboration to enhance utilisation and maximise the benefits of space assets for India. This first-of-a-kind private earth-observation mission will help provide solutions to many pressing environmental and agricultural issues, among other things.

Pixxel has also signed an agreement with Silicon Valley-based in-space satellite transportation and infrastructure company Momentus Inc, to launch its second satellite into space. The launch is scheduled for this year on top of a SpaceX Falcon-9 to SSO orbit (Sun-synchronous orbit), a particular kind of polar orbit.

By Peerzada Abrar, From Business-Standard.com