Kleos Space S.A (ASX:KSS, Frankfurt:KS1) has signed new contracts with satellite builder Innovative Solutions in Space B.V. (ISISPACE) and global launch services provider Spaceflight Inc. to build and manage the launch of the company’s fourth satellite cluster of four satellites — the Observer Mission (KSF3) scheduled for orbit in mid-2022.

Kleos’ fourth satellite cluster complements the 37-degree orbit of the ‘Scouting Mission’ and SSO of the ‘Vigilance Mission’ and ‘Patrol Mission’ satellites, with up to a further 119 million km2 data collection capacity per day (Vigilance and Patrol Missions each have similar data collect capacity).

Netherlands-based ISISPACE will provide Kleos with a turnkey solution for the four Observer Mission satellites, including design, development, production, testing, launch integration services, and support for checkout and commissioning”. ISISPACE has more than 15 years’ smallsat experience, successfully built Kleos’ ‘Vigilance Mission’ (KSF1) and is currently building the ‘Patrol Mission’ (KSF2) satellites.

Spaceflight provided the integration, mission management, and launch services for the successful launch of the Vigilance Mission satellites on its SXRS-5 mission in June of 2021 and has already been engaged by Kleos for the upcoming Patrol Mission launch.

Kleos successfully launched its Scouting Mission and Vigilance Mission satellites in November of 2020 and June of 2021 respectively. The company’s Patrol Mission satellites are progressing through the build process and on track for an expected January 2022 launch onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. Identical to the upcoming Patrol Mission satellites (KSF2), the Observer Mission will provide increased capacity and more frequent revisit times.

Each new cluster increases Kleos’ sensing and intelligence gathering capacity, generating potential for higher-value data products and tiered subscription licenses. Kleos’ satellites detect and geolocate radio frequency transmissions to improve the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities of governments and commercial entities. The firm’s independent geolocation data enhances the detection of illegal activity, including piracy, drug and people smuggling, border security challenges and illegal fishing, and is available to qualified subscribers as-a-service. Final mission costs incurred are anticipated to be comparable with publicly available satellite build and space rideshare costs and within the envelope of the cost of a launch advised within the prospectus.

Kleos Space CEO, Andy Bowyer, said, “We are rapidly building our constellation, using funds from our recent capital raise to commit to our fourth satellite cluster build and launch. Each new launch enables us to improve satellite data collection and increase revisits over key areas of interest for our customers. The Observer Mission increases the revenue opportunity from existing subscribers and caters to the needs of our growing global pipeline. Spaceflight and ISISPACE have proven to be effective partners for both our Vigilance Mission and upcoming Patrol Mission launch. We are leveraging their experience to accelerate the build and launch of our Observer Mission.”

Jeroen Rotteveel, CEO of ISISPACE, said, “We are proud to be expanding our strategic partnership with Kleos to build and support the launch of their fourth satellite cluster. Our extensive nanosatellite experience spans design, manufacturing and operation complementing Kleos’ in-house engineering Kleos Space S.A.- 26, rue des Gaulois - L-1618 Luxembourg - ARBN 625 668 733 / RCS B215591 2 expertise. We look forward to continuing to work with Kleos to increase satellite capability, leveraging learnings from earlier launches.”

Marcy Mabry, Spaceflight’s Mission Manager added, “We are delighted to be working with Kleos again to launch its small satellite payload into a 500-600km Sun Synchronous orbit. Our portfolio of frequent launch options provides unmatched flexibility and reliability, ensuring Kleos’ growing constellation gets to orbit when and where they want. Kleos’ satellite technology addresses a real-world need, providing precision geolocation data to improve situational awareness and disrupt illegal activity.”

AMOS s.a., a Belgian company specializing in the design and manufacture of advanced optical instruments, and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a contract to build and qualify a first flight model of an advanced compact hyperspectral imager designed by AMOS and called ELOIS.

Thanks to the financial support of the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO), this co-funded project will deliver the payload to be integrated on an InnoSat platform by OHB Sweden AB for a launch in 2024.

Both companies have been selected for an In Orbit Demonstration mission as part of the EU Horizon 2020 IOD/IOV Initiative. This program provides to the European industry opportunities to demonstrate and validate, in space, their most promising technologies and products. Such missions are essential for fostering innovation and expanding space capabilities and shows the European Commission’s commitment to maximize European competitiveness, independence and service sustainability in the space sector.

AMOS, leveraging its extensive experience in optical design and free form optics manufacturing, has developed a compact and lightweight, hyperspectral instrument that is dedicated to smallsats and offers a unique combination of large swath (70 km), broad spectral range (VIS-NIR-SWIR), high spectral and spatial resolutions and excellent radiometry. This high performance is achieved thanks to the integration of several technological innovations such as the company’s multi-blazed free form grating.

AMOS’ unique expertise developed in the ELOIS program has also been rewarded through the firm’s selection as member of the Core Team, led by OHB System AG (Germany), in charge of the development of the future CHIME instrument (Sentinel 10). This flagship hyperspectral mission is part of the EU Copernicus Expansion programme.

Philippe GILSON, AMOS’ CEO, said, “AMOS has a long track record in delivering advanced space hardware to large system integrators, from complex mirrors to complete opto-mechanical sub-systems. Our ELOIS is the best of both worlds: large-scale institutional mission capabilities blended in a smallsat payload suitable for the kind of remote sensing constellations considered by New Space startups as well as emerging space-faring nations. With this first IOD, we are paving the way towards our future range of high-end Earth Observation cameras that will be AMOS’ contribution to better seeing, understanding and reacting to the multiple changes affecting our planet.”

Creotech Instruments S.A., in cooperation with the Military University of Technology in Poland, recently initiated the process of building a constellation of three satellites.

The cooperation takes place as part of the PIAST project, which is an element of the plan to create a national system for the Polish Armed Forces EO needs. This will be the first commercial implementation of the HyperSat satellite platform that was developed by the Company.

PIAST (Polish ImAging SaTellites) is a project conducted as part of the Szafir program, the main task of which is an even better use of the potential for cooperation between scientific institutions and private entrepreneurs in the field of developing modern and innovative solutions key to the safety and defence of the state. Financed from resources of the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) the project is realized by a consortium of companies and research institutions (Creotech Instruments S.A., the PAN Centre for Space Research, Scanway Sp. z o.o., the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Aviation, PCO S.A. (a company owned by the Polish Armaments Group)) under the leadership of the Military University of Technology.

Thanks to this synergy, they will be able to construct a complete satellite system of imagery intelligence that consists of satellites, a ground segment for control and obtaining data and a data processing segment. During the realization of the project, a group of technologies that will allow the building of considerably larger satellite constellations will be developed. At the same time, the creation of critical components in Poland will allow for complete control over the imagery acquisition process.

As part of the PIAST project, the company will build and deliver three satellite platforms, fully based on the firm’s original HyperSat standard. The task at hand will also consist in integrating the function of the satellites with optical telescopes and a propulsion system developed specifically for use in this undertaking.

This will be the first commercial implementation of the firm’s platform and directly from the start as a constellation. The end recipient of this project will be the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland.

Completion of the project will take roughly 48 months. The satellites – each weighing around 10 kg – will be placed in space in the year 2024 and will be the first Polish satellites, with the end recipient being the Polish military.

Creotech Instruments is the largest Polish company manufacturing and delivering space technology and specialized electronics and devices, for use in, among other areas, quantum computers, quantum cryptography, or quantum physics or high energy laboratories to the world market. Devices created by the Company have been part of 26 space sector projects, including 10 space missions – 4 of which have been realized for the European Space Agency (ESA). One of the most important Creotech projects now in development is the HyperSat satellite platform, which positions the Company among only around a dozen of companies in the world capable of offering smallsats and entire constellations of smallsats adapted to the client’s needs. In April of this year the company successfully launched its initial public offering, which raised PLN 11,285,000. The funds have been dedicated to continuing development of the EagleEye EOsatellite and raising the technological development of the HyperSat smallsat platform to the highest, technology readiness level. The company plans to create its own offer of modular satellite platforms as well as purchase a third electronics assembly line, which will allow the firm to scale up this activity. Creotech Instruments S.A. is planning to debut on the New Connect market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which is to occur on the verge of the 3rd and 4th quarter of this year.

Telesat is deploying Routing and Switching platforms from Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) for their Telesat Lightspeed terrestrial backhaul network.

Ciena’s routing and switching technology will ensure that Telesat has a modern, cost-effective network that takes advantage of emerging technologies that include network functions virtualization (NFV) and edge computing to efficiently support existing and future customer requirements.

The Telesat Lightspeed network will initially be comprised of 298 advanced LEO satellites that seamlessly integrate with terrestrial networks. LEO satellites operate 25 to 30 times closer to the Earth’s surface than traditional satellites and can process data with ultra-low latency—typically on par with fiber-optic speeds, even to the world’s most rural and remote locations.

Ciena is supplying hardware and software that will provide high-speed, high-capacity connections to governments, telcos, mobile operators, and other enterprise customers for the delivery of 5G, cloud computing, video, and other bandwidth-intensive broadband services.

Telesat will use Ciena’s 3926 and 5170 platforms to provide agile, assured Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF)-compliant services at the company’s points of presence (PoPs), as well as terrestrial connectivity to as many as 50 Earth-based landing stations. The Ciena platforms have advanced quality of service (QoS) mechanisms, including hierarchical ingress metering, that will provide Telesat with fine-grained control of network traffic.

Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller will provide highly effective software control and automation to drive business agility. Additionally, Telesat is using Ciena Services for terrestrial network design, implementation, and testing.

“As the leading provider of aggregated, global Tier 1 carrier connectivity, Ciena’s field-proven routing and switching technology will ensure flexible, reliable connectivity between our Earth station antennas and Points of Presence throughout the world. The seamless integration of on-ground data networks with our advanced Telesat Lightspeed satellites will ensure unmatched speed and performance for our global enterprise and government customers,” said Aneesh Dalvi, Director, Landing Stations and User Terminals, Telesat

“Telesat’s enterprise customers—MNOs, ISPs, aviation, and maritime companies—are seeking high-throughput, super-low-latency connectivity to support delay-sensitive applications like cloud-based services. Telesat Lightspeed, powered by Ciena networking technology on the ground, makes reliable satellite broadband at fiber-like speeds possible,” said Bruce Hembree, Vice President and General Manager, Americas, Ciena

The Space Development Agency (SDA) is seeking input on their Tranche 1 Demonstration and Experimentation System (T1DES) DRAFT RFP.

T1DES will augment the Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) constellation with demonstration and experimental capability. T1DES will leverage the low latency data transfer and Beyond Line Of Sight (BLOS) Command and Control (C&C) infrastructure established by the T1TL program to field and connect additional space vehicles with different mission payload configurations.

T1DES space vehicles (SVs) will be interoperable with T1TL SVs, to include compatible optical communications terminals (OCTs), networking and data routing, and ground system operations. T1DES SVs will host payloads either developed or sourced as part of this solicitation or provided by an external mission partner via the Partner Payload Program (P3). The SVs will be launched into a separate orbital plane via launch services procured by the T1DES Contractor and connected to the T1TL constellation.

The Draft T1DES Request for Proposal (RFP) may be found at this direct SAM.gov link.

To receive Attachment 1 (Statement of Work and Technical Requirements Document) and the Draft T1DES Bidder’s Library, please send an email to osd.pentagon.ousd-r-e.mbx.hq085022r0001@mail.mil with the subject line “SDA Draft T1DES RFP Attachment Request.” Please include your organization’s CAGE code and location in your request.

Requests received from organizations that do not possess a facility clearance of at least Secret will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. SDA will endeavor to respond to all requests in the order that they are received and within one business day of receipt. All feedback should be provided via email to osd.pentagon.ousd-r-e.mbx.hq085022r0001@mail.mil no later than November 08, 2021, at 12:00pm, EST, with the subject line “SDA Draft T1DES RFP Feedback.”

AAC Clyde Space has been contracted by OHB Sweden to deliver their Sirius command and data handling unit worth approximately 545 kEUR (approx. 5.6 MSEK) to ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite.

OHB Sweden is the mission prime contractor for the Arctic Weather Satellite, providing the satellite platform and system integration. AAC Clyde Space received an order earlier in September to deliver a Starbuck power system with a value of 797 kEUR (approx. 8.2 MSEK), hence the total order value of core avionics to the project amounts to 1.3 MEUR (approx. 14 MSEK).

Omnisys Instruments, acquired by AAC Clyde Space in April of 2021, was contracted in March to supply weather sensors to the Arctic Weather Satellite, with a value of 12.2 MEUR (approx. 124 MSEK). The Group has now received orders with a total value of 13.5 MEUR (approx. 138 MSEK) from the satellite project.

The order for the Sirius command and data handling unit was preceded by a comprehensive review and consolidation of the original requirements. AAC Clyde Space is to deliver an engineering model in Q2, 2022, and a flight model in Q1, 2023.

ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite is an initial prototype mission that aims to demonstrate the usefulness of radiometric measurements to improve weather forecasts in the Arctic region. The final solution would involve a full constellation of satellites to provide more frequent measurement, something that cannot be achieved by the larger geostationary satellites already in use to depict the areas.

“Arctic Weather Satellite has become a flagship project for the AAC Group, and we are proud to have such a central role in it. Additionally, the satellite project clearly illustrates how improved weather data can help us to better understand our environment for the benefit of both people and businesses,” said AAC Clyde Space CEO, Luis Gomes.

Since the early 1960s, research rockets have been sent into the Earth’s atmosphere from Andøya, Norway. Now, the Norwegian Government has given the green light to take steps to start new space adventure in the country.

A new spaceport will be built 30 miles south of the existing rocket launch site on Andøya where rockets can lift smallsats into orbit around the Earth. Andøya Space has extensive experience with launching rockets to research atmospheric phenomena and is now taking this additional step into space.

To be able to lift a satellite into orbit around the earth, larger rockets, higher speeds and more space are required than is necessary for a small research rocket. That is why a separate spaceport on Nordmela, Andøya, is being built. The first launch is planned for the second half of 2022. Andøya has both the experience and the geography needed to establish a spaceport.

First, this is where the Norwegian space adventure began. In August 1962, the Ferdinand 1 rocket was launched from Andøya, just five years after the world’s first Sputnik satellite was launched. Since then, more than 1,200 rockets have been launched from Andøya to make atmospheric measurements on behalf of organizations such as NASA. There is already a strong competence environment when it comes to rocket launches, information gathering and security around these activities on Andøya.

Secondly, Andøya has a number of geographical advantages: Andøya is ideally located in the far north of Vesterålen, with large sea areas and relatively little nearby air traffic. This means far safer rocket launches, with larger margins if something should happen to go wrong during launch. Both polar and sun-synchronous orbit can be reached from Andøya.

Traditionally, it has been extremely expensive and time-consuming to build satellites; however, in step with technological development, it has been possible to reduce satellite size and price. Smaller satellites mean lighter rockets and lower costs for launching them into orbit, plus the demand for launch sites is increasing.

When satellites become less expensive to build, more people will make them. There is a queue of satellites waiting for a free space on the large rockets that are being launched.

Traditionally, the owners of these smallsats are unable to select where in space their satellite will end up, or when they will be lifted into orbit. They have to hitchhike with larger satellites and then follow them. Therefore, a market has emerged for launching smallsats into space with relatively small launch vehicles. Then the satellite owners can decide for themselves when and where the satellites will go into orbit.

Norway is one of the great powers in shipping and, early on, used satellite communication to keep in touch with the merchant navy. Today, it is almost inconceivable not to have access to position data from satellite navigation satellites, and modern weather forecasts are almost impossible to create without weather satellites.

The revolution with smallsats means that there are new types of satellites that help all on a more personal level. Networks are expanding and broadband in a cabin via satellite can now be offered without such having to cost an arm and a leg. Experiments are being made to make satellites function as virtual base towers for mobile phones, and solutions are being developed to allow transport companies to keep track of trucks and containers in real time via satellite.

A space port on Andøya will provide jobs in the region, be a boost for the entire Norwegian space sector as well as meet the needs and capabilities of Europe. Locally on Andøya, the establishment will be of great importance, and be a contribution to restructuring and renewal.