Archives for November 2021

Spaceflight Inc. will be launching 13 customer payloads, including four microsatellites and nine cubesats to SSO aboard the SpaceX Transporter-3 mission, scheduled to launch no earlier than January 2022 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

On this mission, which the company has dubbed ‘SXRS-6,’ Spaceflight will deploy customer spacecraft to two distinct orbits for the first time using their chemical propulsion orbital transfer vehicle (OTV), Sherpa-LTC1. Capping a momentous year for Spaceflight, this mission will be the third debut of a new class of Sherpa vehicles within 12 months.

Once Sherpa-LTC1 deploys from the Falcon 9 at 525 kilometers, the OTV will begin its primary mission, deploying nine customer smallsat payloads. After commissioning and checking out all systems, which is expected to take about a month, Sherpa-LTC1 will fire up and maneuver to a lower altitude for the secondary mission, deployment at a customer-specified orbit. After dropping to 500 kilometers, the OTV will deploy the remaining four cubesat payloads. The OTV will then begin its final mission phase, on-orbit testing and automated maneuvering.

Spaceflight is managing this launch for eight organizations, including returning customers Capella Space, Umbra Space, Lynk Global, Inc., Kleos Space, and NASA. SXRS-6 will also include several first-time customers, including Czech Aerospace Research Centre in partnership with Spacemanic, Space Products and Innovation (SPiN), and Portland State Aerospace Society.

Featuring a high thrust, bi-propellant, green propulsion subsystem from Benchmark Space Systems, Sherpa-LTC provides a low-cost, rapid orbital transfer for many sizes of small spacecraft and is also capable of hosting payloads on orbit.

Spaceflight recently announced a fourth iteration of the Sherpa-NG program — Sherpa-ES, a bipropellant, high delta-V OTV that the company plans to debut no earlier than Q4 2022 on Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 South Pole Mission. Sherpa-ES will enable Spaceflight to execute rideshare deployments in trans-lunar orbit, low-lunar orbit, and beyond.

The GEO Pathfinder rideshare mission will use a creative trajectory to slingshot around the Moon and into GEO. This continues Spaceflight’s history of industry firsts, including the first fully dedicated SSOA rideshare mission with 64 smallsats on board, the first-ever rideshare mission to GTO with a lunar lander, and the launch of the first-ever electric propulsion OTV.

In January of 2021, Spaceflight debuted its first Sherpa-NG vehicle, Sherpa-FX1, on the company’s SXRS-3 mission aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-1. Sherpa-LTE1, the industry’s first electric propulsion OTV, flew on the SXRS-5 mission along with its second free flyer, Sherpa-FX2, aboard SpaceX Transporter-2 in June. Collectively, the company successfully launched 50 payloads via three OTVs in 2021.

"Each of our Sherpa launches this year has incrementally brought vital learnings that have prepared us to launch Sherpa-LTC1 to execute our first in-space multi-destination mission," said Ryan Olcott, mission director for Spaceflight's SXRS-6 mission. "This milestone mission validates our ability to provide customers with more customized launch options to achieve their mission objectives and get them to their final destination, even when there are no launches that initially meet their specific mission needs. Using our propulsive Sherpa OTVs for last-kilometer delivery is a ground-breaking capability for smallsats."

"This mission will debut the third model of our Sherpa-NG product line in just 12 months, delivering on the promise of modularity by expanding the range of launches we offer," said Grant Bonin, SVP of business development at Spaceflight. "Maneuvers in LEO are just the beginning. These capabilities and services will play a crucial role in accessing other orbits beyond LEO and developing in-space transportation and various mission services."

Spaceflight provides launch flexibility to ensure customers’ smallsats get to orbit exactly when and where they want through a combination of long-standing relationships with a diverse portfolio of launch partners, innovative satellite integration capabilities, including flight and ground support hardware, licensing and logistics management, and extensive mission management expertise. Based in Seattle, Spaceflight has successfully launched hundreds of satellites and is a part of the Mitsui & Co., Ltd. portfolio, operating as an independent, U.S.-based company.

Solstar Space has opened a new regulation, crowdfunding campaign on WeFunder. The company is continuing the development and delivery of suborbital and orbital communications systems for humans, payloads, IoT sensors, and spacecraft.

Solstar Space has completed three space missions since 2013. The company successfully demonstrated rocket mid-flight acquisition of signal, proved commercial satellites can connect to a moving rocket, obtained a data uplink and downlink, and an uninterrupted internet connection from launch to landing. Solstar’s Schmitt Space Communicator SC-1x flew on two Blue Origin New Shepard rocket missions in 2018.

“As space becomes increasingly congested, space-based communications systems are crucial,” said Mr. Brian Barnett, Founder and CEO, Solstar Space. “Connectivity is challenging during suborbital and orbital missions. We are designing communications solutions that make using your smartphone in space as easy as it is on Earth. Connecting people and spacecraft to resources in space and on the ground is essential for safety, and for extending space exploration, space medicine, monitoring human performance, and on-orbit communications. We are continuing the development and engineering of these important solutions.”

“Having been a crewmember on NASA Space Shuttle missions, I can say communication is critical to mission success,” said Charlie Walker, veteran industry astronaut. “We experienced limited communications availability, and dropouts, while dealing with onboard maintenance and software issues. Having solid and redundant communications systems would be a boon for the industry.”

Solstar Space is a commercial, space-based, connectivity company pioneering the use of persistent communications services for LEO / NGSO satellites. The firm provides bandwidth for smallsats, bi-directional two-way data services for payloaders and enables orbital and suborbital communications for crewed missions. The company’s fast, reliable services, space-tested routers, Wi-Fi hotspots, and satellite space communicators deliver on-orbit persistent connectivity for crew, spacecraft, and Earth-based satellite operations teams, and are supported by 24/7 customer care.

Capella Space has announced that the company will become the first commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) supplier to demonstrate Optical Inter-Satellite Link (OISL) compatibility with the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA)’s new National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA).

SAR data is a highly valuable asset for the SDA and the U.S. Department of Defense. The next generation of Capella’s persistent SAR monitoring capabilities will leverage new technology that enables high delivery speeds and direct access to its 24/7 all-weather data for U.S. Government customers.

Capella Space will install optical communications terminals (OCTs) on its commercial SAR satellites, starting in late 2022. This will enable the company to use highly efficient laser communications technology to send and receive data to and from its satellites in LEO, relaying data to compatibly equipped government satellites and military operations on the ground. The integration of OCTs onto Capella’s SAR constellation will drastically reduce latency from image collect to download and ensure spaceborne data is quickly available to inform critical decision-making for terrestrial missions.

Capella Space selected Mynaric’s CONDOR Mk3 Optical Communications Terminal. The company selected Mynaric’s technology following a thorough vetting process. Mynaric has previously demonstrated compatibility with the SDA systems and standards.

Capella Space has partnered with a number of U.S. Department of Defense agencies, including the National Reconnaissance Office, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army and the U.S. Space Force. Tjhis announcement follows a new Collaborative Research Agreement with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Technical Defense Center as well as the hiring of Amy Hopkins as Capella’s new vice president and general manager of U.S. Government. Since officially launching commercial operations in January 2021, Capella’s new innovations and the growth of its federal team positions it to serve U.S. Government customers with fast, direct access to reliable SAR data in order to solve challenges from tactical users to global policy making.

In 2016, Capella Space was founded to enable a richer understanding of our planet in entirely new and powerful ways. The company saw an opportunity to use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to monitor the Earth, including the 75% that is either covered in the darkness of night or obscured by clouds.

“Our team at Capella Space is thrilled to become the first commercial SAR company to demonstrate compatibility with the SDA’s National Defense Space Architecture and standards,” said Christian Lenz, CTO at Capella Space. “Enabling our satellites to integrate with the new SDA architecture efficiently is a critical step for us to work seamlessly with the U.S. defense and intelligence sector. We are proud to be able to work with the SDA in demonstrating this cutting-edge technology.”

“We are honored to be selected as the optical communications terminal vendor for Capella Space’s integration work with the SDA. The announcement today highlights the importance of standardization and compatibility within the industry,” said Bulent Altan, CEO of Mynaric, “Our recently announced CONDOR Mk3 is fully compliant to the SDA’s interoperability standard and a natural match for Capella’s innovative approach integrating commercial capabilities with governmental customers.”

Virgin Orbit in a planned business combination with NextGen Acquisition Corp. II (“NextGen”) (NASDAQ: NGCA) has announced that the company has entered into a memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) with ANA HOLDINGS, INC., the owners of Japan’s largest airline, to procure 20 flights of the LauncherOne rocket and to lead the effort to provide funds and support for those orbital missions to launch from Japan’s Oita Prefecture.

The terms of the MoU call for ANA HOLDINGS and several of its partners to fund the manufacturing of a new set of the mobile, ground support equipment used to prepare Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne system for flight from a pre-existing runway, with a target of making Oita a LauncherOne-ready spaceport by as soon as the end of 2022, pending appropriate regulatory approvals in the United States and Japan.

Japan’s aerospace industry has long been at the forefront of satellite technology innovation. However, the available launch services in Japan – and throughout all of Asia – have always been launched from fixed sites on the ground. Supported by ANA’s premier logistics and transport services, Virgin Orbit is set to change that by bringing air-launch to the Eastern Hemisphere for the first time in history.

By using a customized 747 as its flying launch pad, mobile mission control, and fully re-usable first stage, LauncherOne gains a substantial performance boost over a similarly sized ground-launched system. Additionally, the airplane’s ability to cover large distances between taking off and releasing the rocket provides both weather resiliency and direct-inject orbital flexibility that, until now, has never been available on the Asian market.
Virgin Orbit’s flight-proven, air-launch service provides a unique capability for ANA’s customer base in the booming commercial ecosystem for space in Asia.

The number of space start-ups in Japan has more than doubled since 2015, driven by increasing level of investment and government activities to energize and accelerate the private sector. The increasing amount of funding and investment in the space industry has encouraged start-ups to venture into space businesses, and legacy companies to expand their offerings – and launch is a critical enabler for those businesses and their future growth.

Koji Shibata, ANA Group Representative Director and Executive Vice President, said, “ANA is excited to work with Virgin Orbit to offer responsive launch and space solutions services to customers in Japan. Demand for satellite launches in Japan and Asia is rapidly increasing, and it is hoped that the number of launches will be desired from the customers. Virgin Orbit offers something no other launch company can, and that capability will be extremely valuable to the growing space industry in Japan and throughout the region.”

“ANA is a world-class company with an incredible legacy of aerospace innovation, commercial success, and customer satisfaction that makes them an absolutely ideal partner to bring air-launch to Asia,” said Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart. “We are elated to be partnering with such a talented and honored firm to move space launch forward and serve the rapidly growing need for launch. We look forward to collaborating with ANA to foster the ongoing transformation of the space economy.”

Digantara Research and Technologies Pvt. Ltd., (Digantara) has signed a contract with Orbital Astronautics Ltd. (OrbAstro) to fly the SCOT (Space–based space Climate and Object Tracker) payload onboard an ORB-6 satellite platform launching toward the end of 2022.

The mission will focus on demonstration of a novel LiDAR-based technology developed by Digantara, and will serve as the pilot for their LEO constellation providing a space situational awareness service.

“With the rapid growth of satellite applications and the influx of mega constellations, situational awareness of 1.0 – 10.0 cm objects, in addition to objects larger than 10 cm, is becoming increasingly important. With 96% of potentially hazardous objects still untracked, comprehensive situational awareness is required to operate assets in LEO effectively. Solving such intricate problems requires real-time insights,” said Anirudh Sharma, CEO of Digantara. “Digantara’s mission is to build a sustainable near-Earth environment and access to space by providing actionable insights through meaningful collaborations with industry stakeholders. Cooperation with companies such as OrbAstro play an important role in accelerating Digantara’s objectives.”

“Through its own satellite constellation, Digantara is working towards providing a service that constellation operators, space agencies, and regulators are screaming for. By far the most effective solution to a sustainable LEO environment will be comprehensive space traffic management. This will not be possible without companies like Digantara enriching datasets on traffi.”, said Dr. Ash Dove-Jay, CEO of OrbAstro. “Over the coming years, to enable the space traffic management aspect of our Guardian Network service, we are going to become reliant on partnerships with companies like Digantara.”

Beyond being a space-as-a-service provider geared towards nanosatellite and microsatellite constellations, OrbAstro is building an infrastructure to better service customer satellites, the Guardian Network. The Guardian Network provides low-latency access to customer satellites through an in-orbit data relay network, and it provides a high level of operations automation at the level of the satellite, mission, constellation, and space traffic management.

Digantara is a space situational awareness company building the world’s first in-situ orbital surveillance platform, SCOT. Digantara’s end to end platform, S-MAP (Space – Mission Assurance Platform) will change the way Mission design and operations are carried out in the industry today. Once deployed, Digantara’s satellite constellation will provide high fidelity data at 10x higher resolution than the current industry standards, effectively elevating space governance.

Orbital Astronautics Ltd is a United Kingdom and New Zealand based space technology company focused on providing “space as a service”, supporting companies looking to directly use satellites for their businesses. Orbital Astronautics is currently maturing a satellite batch production facility targeting constellation markets, and is building its own satellite constellation to provide low-latency access and autonomous operations services for customers satellites.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. has named Jason B. Mello as President of Firefly Space Transport Services (STS), formerly known as Firefly Black, located in Washington D.C.

Firefly STS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Firefly Aerospace, will serve as the primary business development unit for all of Firefly’s customers – commercial, civil, and military – with initial emphasis on Government customers. A former U.S. Air Force Colonel, Mello brings over 23 years of experience leading teams across the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community helping address and solve our Nation’s most difficult science and technology problems.

Prior to Firefly, Mello’s final assignment was at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), where he was the Chief Research and Technology Officer for Science and Engineering. In this role, he led a team of senior scientists and directed an over $500 million per year portfolio researching and developing future technologies vital for both the Air Force and Space Force.

Before this posting, Mello served as the Director of the National Intelligence Portfolio where he led the oversight team for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, overseeing a $9 billion per year portfolio of intelligence community programs. He has led at multiple levels including leading the first Launch Acquisition Division at the National Reconnaissance Office and multiple other satellite and intelligence programs.

Mello’s appointment follows several important milestones for the company including Firefly’s successful completion of its Blue Ghost CDR, in preparation for a 2023 mission that will deliver ten payloads to the lunar surface for NASA plus the inaugural launch of the Alpha launch vehicle from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. As Firefly looks towards its next Alpha launch, and the continued development of the Blue Ghost lunar lander, Mello will build on Firefly’s existing relationships and oversee all customer development and programs for Firefly STS.

”To date, the Firefly team has been focused on developing transformative launch and in-space transportation vehicles. With the recent first flight of our Alpha launch vehicle, and rapid developmental progress of our Blue Ghost lunar lander, Firefly is ready to provide unique transportation solutions spanning all cislunar space,” said Firefly Aerospace CEO, Dr. Tom Markusic. “I’m incredibly excited to have Jason leading the effort to engage with customers to utilize Firefly vehicle capabilities to perform a wide variety of spaceflight missions.”

“I am excited to lead and build Firefly STS to support both our Government and Commercial customers,” said Jason Mello. “A focused team dedicated to working with the United States Space Force, Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and civil space is vitally important to meeting the Government’s requirements for space access and in-space programs, and I am excited to showcase how Firefly’s capabilities will meet the needs of these organizations. The Firefly team has done an outstanding job creating low-cost, high-frequency space access capabilities by establishing strong relationships with key commercial customers that can fully benefit from Firefly’s low-cost, dedicated space transportation paradigm, and I look forward to continuing to grow and expand these relationships.”

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has officially opened the CASTLE — The Center for Advancing Science, Technology, Learning, and Engagements.

The CASTLE is a collaboration with NRO’s Advanced Systems and Technology (AS&T) directorate, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and their partnership intermediary, the Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation (VT-ARC).

NRO Director Dr. Chris Scolese joined AS&T Director Dr. Susan Durham and AFOSR Tech Advisor Dr. Van Blackwood to cut the ribbon and officially open the center among a small group of employees from the respective organizations.

The group toured the nearly 10,000 square foot unclassified facility, which includes areas for collaboration, teaching and meetings, as well as quiet spaces, and laboratory workshops. During the tour, the CASTLE’s laboratory was set up for a hands-on geology experiment for understanding the Earth’s layers, as well as a 3D printing station where a Polylactic Acid Plastic castle was being printed. Guests also stopped at the collaboration space where VT-ARC demonstrated digital collaboration capabilities that will allow NRO to more effectively interact with the unclassified world. 

The CASTLE currently hosts technical courses on topics such as smallsats and data science for staff across the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense. Personnel receive hands-on training with modern technology and experiential learning through limited-term projects and prototyping.

NRO plans to expand collaboration beyond the government in the near future. There will be opportunities for academic outreach through STEM events for K-12 students, summer internships, and college and university partnerships. 

HySpecIQ, a company involved in the development of space-based hyperspectral imagery, recently announced that the firm has closed its Series B funding with an investment from prominent venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

The investment accelerates the development and launch of 12 LEO satellite constellations (slated to begin in 2023). It positions HySpecIQ to be the leading provider of hyperspectral imagery and analytics for national security, commercial, and environmental uses given its unmatched resolution and global reach.

By combining HySpecIQ’s analytics and data science capabilities and through partnerships, the Company will have the ability to quickly turn massive amounts of data into valuable, actionable insights in ways rarely before available.

HySpecIQ’s early focus was primarily on national security— specifically the Intelligence Community and DoD—having secured a partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. Government agency in charge of designing, building, launching, and maintaining America’s intelligence satellites. The agency is also the largest customer for Earth Observation (EO) data in the world.

The Company is now undertaking product development pilots to identify use cases that measure and monitor key Environmental and Sustainability indicators in agriculture, insurance, and disaster forecasting. A recent Euroconsult report forecast accelerating growth and is expected to top $2.5 billion by 2030.

Founder William Sullivan, a veteran in space-related companies, said, “Data Scientists across industries and sectors are transforming how we enjoy and appreciate life here on Earth — from national security, to GPS, to weather tech and so much more. HySpecIQ represents a “Black Hole” of information and data sets that simply haven’t been available before from space. Importantly, the exceptional resolution will deliver the accuracy and ease of use our customers have long sought."