Archives for August 2021

AAC Clyde Space has founded AAC Space Africa to capitalize on the rapidly growing market for satellites and space services in Africa.

AAC Space Africa will design, build, and deliver space missions to the continent from its Cape Town base in South Africa’s Western Cape Province. The new subsidiary will also be the group’s center of competence for advanced radio communication for the entire AAC group, becoming the worldwide supplier of advanced radio systems for AAC’s space missions.

The new company will be managed by Dr. Robert Van Zyl as Managing Director and Francois Visser as Technical Director. They bring more than 40 years of smallsat experience to the company, having pioneered the African cubesat industry through several missions, including the first cubesat launched by the continent. Their expertise spans all facets of New Space technologies, with a special focus on communications.

The team will initially focus on radio communication systems as well as sales and marketing. The team is expected to grow quickly in the coming year to meet demand from the African space economy, which is set to grow to $10 billion by 2024 (NewSpace Africa Industry Report 2019).

AAC selected South Africa as the base for its new subsidiary AAC Space Africa, as the country has an established space industry as well as a strong position in communication systems, with highly skilled engineers and data scientists. AAC Clyde Space has previously been active in the African market through its European companies’ hubs, most recently by supporting Mauritius in its efforts to become a space nation and to track ocean currents with earth observation technologies.

“The ability to provide data from space and monitor key issues across the continent will help Africa develop at a far more rapid pace over the next decade. Adding local presence and expert knowledge to our existing commercial offering will put AAC in an excellent position to address these growing needs. We look forward to taking an active role in the South African space community and the wider market,” said CEO Luis Gomes. “The need for space services in Africa is growing rapidly as Government, companies and communities seek efficient ways to support development and build out crucial infrastructure. We see great potential for small satellites to provide timely, accurate and targeted data for sectors such as weather forecasting, ocean monitoring, agricultural planning, and land management.”

NorthStar Earth & Space (NorthStar) has received approval in principle from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) authorizing NorthStar to use all of the company’s requested radio frequency spectrum allocation for the firm’s planned 52-satellite constellation that will deliver a suite of information services related to Earth and space sustainability.

Specifically, ISED has authorized use for all NorthStar requested Ka- and X-band radio-frequency ranges, ensuring that NorthStar will have the bandwidth required to deliver millions of images per day of highly detailed, information-rich imagery from multiple sensor types. The ISED approval in principle confirms NorthStar’s Canadian spectrum application is in full compliance with the Radio Regulations of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency of the United Nations.

The full NorthStar 52-satellite constellation will be deployed in two segments. The initial 12-satellite constellation, named “Skylark,” is designed with optical sensors directed to near-Earth space and will deliver services to enhance Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and the safety of the space environment. NorthStar will launch a further 40 satellites to enhance Skylark with additional optical sensors, while deploying a combination of hyperspectral and infrared (IR) sensors to provide unique and valuable Earth observation capabilities.

NorthStar’s Skylark satellites will enable the delivery of near real-time high-fidelity SSA information services, elevating traditional SSA to the level of Space Information & Intelligence (SI2). With a comprehensive view of all near-Earth orbits (LEO, MEO, GEO and beyond), Skylark’s space-based sensors will deliver precise observations of more space objects with higher revisit frequency per object than any current system, according to the company. Skylark will deliver a suite of decision-quality information services derived from its unparalleled coverage, object custody, and enhanced predictive capabilities.

Following the full operating capability of NorthStar’s debut Skylark SSA constellation, the follow-on 40 satellite constellation will deploy a combination of hyperspectral and IR sensors to provide exceptional Earth observation capabilities, generating information-rich content enabling unique and valuable Earth Information and Intelligence (EI2) services for a wide range of industry, government and military customers.

“As NorthStar is advancing towards the launch of its first three Skylark satellites, this authorization from ISED to operate NorthStar’s planned 52-satellite constellation with the radio-frequency spectrum that we’ll need is an important milestone” said Stewart Bain, CEO of NorthStar Earth & Space.

Astroscale’s End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) successfully tested its ability to capture its client spacecraft using the servicer’s magnetic capture system in a demonstration performed on Wednesday, August 25 (UTC).

A major challenge of debris removal, and on-orbit servicing in general, is docking with or capturing a client object; this test demonstration served as a successful validation of ELSA-d’s ability to dock with a client, such as a defunct satellite.

When ELSA-d was launched and commissioned, a mechanical locking mechanism held its servicer and client spacecraft together. The first step of this demonstration was to unlock this mechanism. Once unlocked, the magnetic capture system alone held the client to the servicer, preparing ELSA-d to repeatedly capture and release the client in future demonstrations.

The client was then separated from the servicer for the first time and captured to validate the magnetic capture system. During the release and capture period, Astroscale’s Mission Operations and Ground Segment teams checked out and calibrated the rendezvous sensors and verified relevant ground system infrastructure and operational procedures.

The successful completion of this phase paves the way for the remainder of Astroscale’s pioneering demonstrations of space debris removal. The Engineering and Mission Control teams are now preparing for “capture without tumbling,” where the client will be separated to a greater distance, and the method of rendezvous and docking will rely on a combination of on-board autonomous software and advanced ground processing of telemetry and commands.

This demonstration is expected to be completed in the coming months and will be followed by the “capture with tumbling” phase, in which the client will simulate an uncontrolled, tumbling space object. The final capture demonstration will be “diagnosis and client search,” in which the servicer will inspect the client, withdraw to simulate a far-range search, then approach and recapture the client. 

“This has been a fantastic first step in validating all the key technologies for rendezvous and proximity operations and capture in space,” said Nobu Okada, Founder and CEO of Astroscale. “We are proud to have proven our magnetic capture capabilities and excited to drive on-orbit servicing forward with ELSA-d.”

Dawn Aerospace has now conducted five flights of the company’s Mk-II Aurora suborbital spaceplane — the flights were to assess the airframe and avionics of the vehicle and were conducted using surrogate jet engines.

The campaign was run from Glentanner Aerodrome in New Zealand’s South Island. Taxi testing commenced in early July and five flights occurred between the 28th and 30th of July and reached altitudes of 3,400 feet.

Dawn is creating reusable and sustainable space technologies – suborbital and orbital rocket-powered planes – that operate much like a fleet of aircraft, taking off and landing horizontally at airports. Mk-II is a suborbital plane designed to fly 100 km above the Earth and aims to be the first vehicle to access space multiple times per day.

The vehicle serves as a technology demonstrator for the two-stage-to-orbit-vehicle, the Mk-III. Mk-II will also be used to capture atmospheric data used for weather and climate modelling, and to conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations.

On December 9, 2020, Dawn announced the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had granted Dawn a certificate to fly Mk-II Aurora spaceplane from a conventional airport without exclusive airspace restrictions. Dawn tests various vehicles and systems in a number of locations across New Zealand’s South Island, and has agreements in place with a number of potential launch locations globally – the view is to one-day emulate the aviation-industry’s model and, in doing so, provide unprecedented access to space; operating globally with key hubs across the world.

Initial testing was conducted using surrogate jet engines. The Mk-II will be fitted with a rocket engine that is already in the later stages of testing. This will unlock higher performance for supersonic and high-altitude testing of the vehicle.

“Dawn are focussed on sustainable and scalable access to space and our Mk-II vehicle is entirely reusable,” said Stefan Powell, CEO. “The team have successfully captured extensive data enabling further R&D on the capability of Mk-II. I’m hugely proud of our engineering team for designing and building a vehicle that flies beautifully first time and just as predicted. We are delighted with the results and demonstrating rapid turnaround – we conducted five flights within three days, and two flights occurred within ninety minutes of each other. We were successful in demonstrating our ability to integrate with other airspace operators. Fixed-wing aircraft and local helicopter companies continued their operations unaffected. It’s fantastic being part of the Glentanner Aerodrome community. Viewing opportunities will be publicly notified in future, but for now we’re allowing our operational team to focus on the important task at hand.”

Skykraft’s recently revealed launch contract with SpaceX is a harbinger of change for the Australian Space Industry.

Just 10 months away, this single satellite is larger than all previous Australian-built satellites combined and will propel Australia into the global satellite market, with Skykraft’s global Air Traffic Management constellation.

The satellite is designed and built by Skykraft in Canberra, Australia. Using manufacturers in places such as Albury-Wodonga, Melbourne and Queanbeyan, it will be launched from the USA on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in June of next year.

The smallsat constellation technologies underpinning the June 2022 launch positions Skykraft to roll out their commercial Air Traffic Management constellation and also offers unique value and truly sovereign, sustainable capability to upcoming Defence programs, such as Space Domain Awareness (JP 9360), Satellite Communications (JP 9102), and Geospatial Intelligence (Def 799).

Skykraft are bringing along the wider community by offering a program called Skyride that gives innovators, scientists and enthusiasts the opportunity to ride along on this and future launches. This can be for education in universities and schools, or to demonstrate systems in space for commercial or research groups. Demonstrating systems in space using Skyride is an accelerated pathway to attaining NASA Technical Readiness Level 7 or 8.

Skykraft Chief Engineer, Dr. Doug Griffin, said, “This is a great time to be an engineer working in space. We have the technology and tools to build and launch satellites in a much more streamlined way than the past.”

L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) is expanding its satellite production site to include advanced production of unclassified satellites, which will deliver experimental capabilities for national defense.

The Central Florida location is home to more than 100,000 square feet of space used for development, manufacturing and testing of full satellites and components which already deliver complex, classified capabilities for national defense.

The increased production capability allows L3Harris to develop and test the experimental Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), which is a priority program for the U.S. Air Force. Facility investments also make it possible to develop and integrate three sizes of small-to-medium responsive satellites in support of urgent U.S. Department of Defense missions addressing evolving threats.

Two of the company’s eight buildings have recently been upgraded to manufacture multiple end-to-end satellites per month. L3Harris has built eight satellites at the expanded Palm Bay facility that are currently on-orbit and another 10 are in various stages of development. The company plans to add more production capacity by the end of the year to produce six satellites per month.

“Our customers face urgent threats that must be addressed in months rather than years,” said Ed Zoiss, President of L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems. “We prioritized facility investments to meet their accelerating timelines.”

During the 36th Space Symposium, Spaceflight Inc. announced the company had achieved 100% mission success for both its primary and secondary missions for SXRS-5, including the commissioning and successful firing of Astra’s Apollo Fusion electric propulsion system to enable orbital transfers.

The mission, which launched on June 30 aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-2 mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, featured two of the company’s innovative next-generation Sherpa orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) — Sherpa-LTE1 and Sherpa-FX2.

Spaceflight’s electric propulsion OTV, Sherpa-LTE1, successfully ignited thrusters on its first attempt on-orbit. Credit: Spaceflight Inc.

For the primary mission, the avionics systems on the two OTVs were tasked with separating 35 payloads, including six microsatellites and 29 cubesats, with a hosted payload remaining on board.

Following the successful deployment of all customer spacecraft, Sherpa-LTE1 initiated the mission’s second objective, ensuring all systems were operational and in good health as well as commissioning the propulsion system for additional orbital maneuvers.

All the data collected from these experiments will provide valuable insights before Sherpa-LTC1, Spaceflight’s first chemical propulsion OTV, launches on board SpaceX’s Transporter-3 mission, targeted for no earlier than December 2021.

Spaceflight successfully completed all of its identified mission goals over the past eight weeks. Milestones accomplished include:

• Avionics sequencers (R2A) on board the two Sherpa OTVs executed commands successfully, deploying 100% of customer payloads as planned within 24 hours.

• All Sherpa subsystems were confirmed operational and healthy. System temperatures, voltages, and other data were all within the predicted limits.

• Sherpa-LTE1 de-tumbled and commissioned the Astra/Apollo Fusion electric propulsion system.

• Sherpa-LTE1 successfully performed thruster ignition and operation on its first attempt and is now preparing to enter its tertiary phase of the mission, where it will maneuver to various orbits and conduct automated maneuvers on a weekly basis.

• Successful demonstration of modular subsystems, including Sherpa’s propulsion and command-and-control operations, proving rapid prototyping by going from kickoff to flight in less than six months.

• Spaceflight’s free flyer OTV, Sherpa-FX2, successfully demonstrated payload hosting, similar to Sherpa-FX1 which launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-1 mission in January.

• Contact was made with 34 of the 36 payloads within hours of launch, with several customers communicating with their spacecraft before the deployment sequence was complete.

• All spacecraft separation data was shared with the industry’s space object tracking body, 18th Space Control Squadron, as planned within 48 hours for ongoing tracking and monitoring.

As the only company to have successfully flown three OTVs in six months, including the industry’s first electrical propulsion version, Spaceflight has plans to launch two more OTVs later this year, including the firm’s first chemical propulsion vehicle, Sherpa-LTC. Building on the success of these Sherpa missions and the company’s experience managing 41 missions to date, Spaceflight is actively planning Sherpa missions beyond LEO to GEO and cislunar orbital insertions.

“The success of this mission has exceeded our expectations, an indication the technology we designed will be effective in executing a wide variety of missions,” said Phil Bracken, VP of engineering for Spaceflight. “With its versatility and modular architecture, Sherpa will be capable of not only deploying satellites, but hosting them on orbit, supporting infrastructure development, using various kinds of propulsion — all at unmatched development speeds. We are excited to continue building on the success of SXRS-5 and innovating new ways to use Sherpa to support our customers’ missions.”

“The successes of Sherpa-LTE1, and the promise of Sherpa-LTC, demonstrate the capabilities of our groundbreaking innovations to take spacecraft to any orbit — from LEO, medium Earth orbit, geostationary orbit, lunar or beyond, in a way that has never been accomplished before,” said Grant Bonin, SVP of business development at Spaceflight. “We are committed to the overall development of space and our Sherpa program is a significant component of our vision to offer the most comprehensive launch solutions to get our customers’ payloads to space — whenever and wherever they want.”

OneWeb has unveiled their newest and smallest user terminal that offers high-speed internet connectivity to businesses, governments and communities across the globe as well as in remote locations.

Developed in partnership with Intellian Technologies, Inc. and Collins Aerospace, the Compact-Electronically Steered Antenna OW1 user terminal, will play a key role in realizing OneWeb’s vision of bringing high-performance, easily installed, affordable communications services to the world’s least-connected regions and industrial sectors.

The OW1 terminal will bring performance, adaptability and a low profile that will make it ideal for delivering OneWeb-powered satellite broadband in a wide range of settings. The flat-panel antenna at the heart of the unit is easily installed, only requiring basic mounting and wiring skills to install and, coming in at 50x43x10 cm and around 10 kg, is about the size of a briefcase.

The flat-panel antenna will integrate with a OneWeb satellite modem in an environmentally sealed outdoor unit, can be installed using an optional stabilized J-mount and will connect via a single combined power and data cable to an indoor unit that will in turn provide connectivity to the end user devices, such as laptops or routers.

The new device follows the successful completion of OneWeb’s ‘Five to 50’ launch program that has delivered the satellites required to bring OneWeb services to Canada, the UK and Northern Europe later this year. OneWeb is on track to deploy its full fleet of satellites by 2022.

Michele Franci, OneWeb’s Chief of Delivery, said, “We are so excited to bring this user terminal to market, and we thank Intellian and Collins for their invaluable partnership in making it a reality. OneWeb’s vision of connecting the world requires the hardware to do it, and we are pleased to be able to offer an affordable, compact and easy-to-install user terminal. It will connect and empower communities and small to medium-sized businesses, opening up applications for a wide variety of purposes, including community Wi-Fi in remote regions; rural retail point-of-sale systems; agricultural Internet of Things functions; and internet service in hotels, health clinics, research stations and more, located in places that the status quo has left unconnected.”

“This agreement marks another exciting milestone in our great partnership with OneWeb, delivering another unique Intellian user terminal to address new markets and requirements with a high bandwidth and low latency user experience,” said Eric Sung, President and CEO, Intellian Technologies Inc. “The OW1 is our first flat-panel antenna, following years of investment in R&D, expanding our comprehensive OneWeb portfolio. This user terminal is a continuation of our ongoing mission of ‘Empowering Connectivity’, allowing customers in remote and challenging environments to access a cost effective and enhanced user experience otherwise inaccessible to them. The OW1 from Intellian along with OneWeb’s LEO service, can enable business growth, empower education and support the delivery of critical services in communities on a global scale.”

Article by Lesley Conn, senior manager of Research and Analysis at Space Foundation

Introduction

This edition, a special publication for the 36th Annual Space Symposium, examines where we are as a global space industry and considers the steps still to be evaluated and taken to transform into reality what is envisioned for the future of the industry.

The long-anticipated return of Space Foundation‘s Space Symposium comes on the heels of two events that renewed public interest in space flight.

With the July 20, 2021, flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard, Jeff Bezos became the second billionaire that month — after Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson — to fulfill a lifelong dream of going into space. Bezos and Branson represent the growth and growing influence of private commercial space enterprises.

Wally Funk, a passenger on the New Shepard flight, and in 2010 the first person to buy a ticket for Branson’s suborbital spaceplane, represents sheer perseverance and a singular vision to venture beyond Earth. At 82, she became the oldest person to rocket from the planet. She was eager to go 60 years earlier, when, in 1961, she was the youngest volunteer in the First Lady Astronaut Trainees program. Her dreams were repeatedly dashed, but she never lost confidence in her belief that she would one day reach space. And in that, she is not unlike so many other people around the world whose personal hopes and dreams are wrapped into a larger goal of scientific achievement, overcoming every obstacle, and becoming part of a new future in space.

This special edition examines other facets of how the future of space is unfolding:

1 | Space Economy

Commercial spending remained the significant driver of the overall global space economy, representing almost 80% of total revenue. Commercial Infrastructure and Support Industries is the smaller of two sectors — the other being Commercial Space Products and Services — but in 2020, Infrastructure and Support Industries showed the greatest growth, increasing 16.4% from 2019. Ground stations and equipment, valued at $118.45 billion, captured more than 86% of the sector, but developing industries, such as on-orbit satellite servicing and human spaceflight, have captured more public attention and investor interest. In February, Northrop Grumman subsidiary SpaceLogistics docked its Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1) to a geostationary satellite to provide fuel and thruster capability. Two more MEVs have since launched to extend service to other satellites. As for space tourism, Virgin Galactic before Branson’s flight had sold more than 600 tickets, each costing as much as $250,000, to people in 58 countries. After the flight, as demand grew, some industry observers expect new passengers to pay upward of $500,000.

Commercial Space Products and Services, the largest commercial sector, grew only slightly last year, easing up 1.2% to $219.44 billion. Earth observation satellites showed the strongest growth in the sector, increasing 9.1% to $3.7 billion. The Space Economy section also provides a recap of 2020 government spending, detailed more extensively in The Space Report 2021 Q2, released in July. The majority of nations reviewed, largely influenced by the global pandemic, reduced space spending last year, resulting in an overall 1.2% decline in 2020 to US$90.2 billion.

Compiling global space economy data that Space Foundation has tracked since 2005 finds that in the last 15 years, however, government and commercial spending have propelled total revenue to a 176% gain.

2 | Space Workforce

The U.S. space workforce grew more than 5% from 2019 to more than 192,000 workers. The European space workforce included 50,388 employees in 2020, an increase of 3.3% from 2019. In Japan, the space workforce included 8,725 workers in 2019 (the most recent year for which data is available), a 1.9% decrease from the previous year but a 10% increase over five years. India employed approximately the same amount of people within its Department of Space in 2020 as in 2019, totaling 17,099.

3 | Space Infrastructure

In this section, two articles probe what will be needed to move beyond initial exploration of the Moon and space. The United States’ Artemis program has 11 partners, but China, Russia, Israel, and Turkey also have missions planned, as do a growing number of companies that are public partners or working as independent operators.

As they look to establish permanence on the lunar surface, these nations and companies must consider sustainability on three major fronts — economic, environmental, and infrastructure. Ian Christensen, director of private sector programs at Secure World Foundation, leads the examination of lunar sustainability.

Nuclear power and propulsion are parts of that equation. Chris Beauregard, the former director of commercial space policy at the White House National Space Council, offered a primer on the nuclear applications, some already long in use, that offer the most promise for efficient, powerful solutions for sustainable energy.

This section also features two pieces that examine recent shifts in small launch vehicle and smallsat development. More than 1,100 smallsats deployed in 2020, comprising 92% of all spacecraft deployed. This strong majority represents a reversal from a decade ago, when only 27% of spacecraft launched were smallsats.

4 | Space Policy

As space infrastructure and applications develop, so too must international policy related to government and commercial activities on the Moon and in the rest of space. Michael K. Simpson and Elias de Andrade, both affiliated with the Global Expert Group on Sustainable Lunar Activities (GEGSLA), outline the work of the group, provide examples of how similar initiatives have shaped global policy, and explain how GEGSLA is encouraging participation and input from around the world.

Purchasing Options

The Space Report is widely recognized as the definitive body of information about the global space industry. It contains worldwide space facts and figures and is illustrated with photographs, charts, and graphs detailing the benefits of space exploration and utilization, the challenges facing the space sector, opportunities for future growth, and the major factors shaping the industry. The Space Report serves as a resource for government and business leaders, educators, financial analysts, students, and space-related businesses. For more than a decade, The Space Report has chronicled the growth of the space community from around the world. Space Foundation’s Research & Analysis team produces The Space Report.

To purchase The Space Report, or to subscribe to The Space Report Online, go to thespacereport.org/subscriptions.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has expanded their space systems infrastructure with the addition of a 7,500 ft2 Class 10,000 / ISO 7 cleanroom facility in San Diego, California, that will enable high-volume Optical Communication Terminal (OCT) production — this multi-faceted facility can facilitate fabrication of up to 300 OCTs per year.

Over the last several years, GA-EMS has continued to invest in expanding its space systems capabilities with facilities in San Diego; Centennial and Englewood, Colorado; Huntsville, Alabama, Tupelo, Mississippi; and Herndon, Virgina. In total, GA-EMS has more than 144,000 ft2 dedicated to space systems engineering, manufacturing, assembly, integration, test, and mission operations. In addition to hundreds of OCTs, these facilities can concurrently accommodate large-quantity fabrication of constellation-ready satellites ranging from cubesats to ESPA-Grande class satellites.

“GA-EMS is fully committed to the deployment of optical communication as the backbone of future national security space architectures,” stated Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “Leveraging 20 years of experience developing multi-domain optical technologies, GA-EMS’ low SWaP-C OCT is technologically advanced and designed such that it allows for greater production efficiencies to support large scale satellite constellation programs. The combination of a mission focused, manufacturable OCT design and large-capacity development infrastructure, means that we can meet requirements and deliver hundreds of units every year on budget and on time.”

“The GA-EMS OCT is easily integrated onto a variety of satellites providing customers with tremendous flexibility in platform configurations to drive costs down and meet mission objectives,” added Nick Bucci, vice president of Missile Defense and Space Systems. “In addition, the depth and diversity of our infrastructure allows us the agility to simultaneously support multiple programs of scale while maintaining the highest quality standards and deliver on schedule.”