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Archives for April 2022

HawkEye 360’s Cluster 4 Satellites Successfully Travel To Orbit

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HawkEye 360 Inc.’s Cluster 4 satellites successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral on April 1.

The trio of HawkEye 360 satellites, each containing an RF payload developed by the company, has established communication with ground control and is set to commence its commissioning process to meet increasing client demand.

Cluster 4 expands HawkEye 360’s existing, nine-satellite constellation, which has collected more than 80 million emitter geolocations since 2019. The newly designed satellites include enhanced antenna functions which allow greater flexibility in detecting and geolocating signals across a wide range of frequencies important to our customers.

This is the fourth set of satellites launched by the company and is slated to achieve initial operating capability in June 2022. HawkEye 360’s Cluster 5 is tested and ready to launch no sooner than June 2022. Together, Cluster 4 and the soon-to-launch Cluster 5 will double HawkEye 360’s on-orbit capacity and significantly expand its collection across the RF spectrum.

Two additional fully funded clusters are scheduled for launch in 2022. These clusters will enable the constellation to have a global revisit rate of less than one hour. This revisit rate is key to further enhancing our ability to monitor global activities and support timely defense, national security, and commercial applications.

“The successful launch of Cluster 4 marks another critical milestone achieved by HawkEye 360. I am proud to see our team continue to improve the cutting-edge capabilities we have on-orbit,” said company CEO, John Serafini. “Each capacity increase and technological advancement to our constellation opens new possibilities for delivering timely, unique insights to our government, commercial and humanitarian clients.”

HawkEye 360 is a Radio Frequency (RF) data analytics company. We operate a first-of-its-kind commercial satellite constellation to identify, process, and geolocate a broad set of RF signals. We extract value from this unique data through proprietary algorithms, fusing it with other sources to create powerful analytical products that solve hard challenges for our global customers. Our products include maritime domain awareness and spectrum mapping and monitoring; our customers include a wide range of commercial, government and international entities.

NanoAvionics’ Smallsats Launched To LEO As Part Of The SpaceX Transporter-4 Mission

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Friday’s SpaceX Transporter-4 mission included three satellites built by smallsat mission integrator NanoAvionics for multiple customers. 

MP42 is NanoAvionics’ largest satellite built and launched so far, based on one of the first, commercially available, modular smallsat buses in the industry. MP42 is a rideshare mission and part of the company’s ongoing program. It’s hosting multiple payloads, including OQ Technology’s “Tiger-3”, adding another satellite to its 5G IoT/M2M (Internet of Things / Machine to Machine) communication constellation, and VeoWare’s RW500 fully integrated reaction wheel. 

Tiger-3 among other satellites stacked on the Falcon 9 rocket awaiting launch. Photo is courtesy of SpaceX.

The two other satellites, launched with the SpaceX Falcon-9 launch vehicle, are dedicated telecommunications and Earth Observation (EO) missions flying onboard NanoAvionics flagship M12P and M6P smallsat buses. 

Also going into orbit was another of Lacuna Space’s IoT (Internet of Things) gateways. The British-Dutch company, headquartered in Harwell, UK, is creating a network to connect low-cost and low power IoT devices globally. Using LoRaWAN, the Lacuna Network extends connectivity to even the most remote areas of the world where conventional connectivity is not commercially viable.

With the launch of its MP42, NanoAvionics has positioned a stepping stone to the firm’s goal to capture a sizeable share of the smallsat market segment. It’s an addition to the company’s end-to-end, smallsat mission infrastructure aimed at constellations, while also covering mission design, production, launch brokering, ground segment and satellite operations. 

By repeating the successful and cost-efficient approach, which the company accomplished with its smallsat bus design, manufacturing and integration, NanoAvionics expects to provide similar cost savings with its microsats.

The MP42 mission also marks the finale of NanoAvionics’ GIoT (Global Internet of Things) R&D project, to provide constellation-as-a-service in a business-to-business setup to existing and emerging IoT/M2M operators. The company established the project together with its consortium partners, KSAT and Antwerp Space, after being awarded dedicated funding by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020, ESA’s ARTES and private investments. The satellite hosts some key enabling technologies developed throughout the length of the GIoT project, including an inter-satellite link and next-generation payload controller.

Vytenis J. Buzas, the CEO of NanoAvionics, said, “The successful launch of our MP42 microsat is a significant milestone in NanoAvionics growth trajectory and a demonstration of our agility. Together with our increasing global production capabilities through NanoAvionics’ facilities in Columbia, USA, Basingstoke, UK, and our new MAIT (manufacturing, assembly, integration and test) facility in Lithuania, we expect to make great strides into the microsatellite market. The baseline architecture of the MP42 and modular design allow customers to receive rapid integration and deploy their spacecraft much quicker compared with other existing solutions, significantly reducing their time-to-market. The number of missions launched, based on NanoAvionics technologies, has grown substantially over the last year and is poised to accelerate in 2022. The company has scheduled to launch a total of 15 satellites in 2022, with six successfully deployed already.”

Boeing’s One Million Square Foot Production Facility For High-Throughput Small Satellites

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Boeing’s 1-million-square-foot El Segundo facility (92,903 square meters) designed for efficiency and rapid delivery timelines will house the small satellite production line.

Boeing unveiled a new high-throughput small satellite production, integration and test facility designed for efficiency and rapid delivery timelines. Housed in the world’s largest satellite factory, Boeing’s 1-million-square-foot El Segundo facility (92,903 square meters), the small satellite production line will be powered by Boeing subsidiary, Millennium Space Systems. 

“Boeing and Millennium are bringing together Boeing’s production expertise, domain knowledge, and manufacturing capacity with Millennium’s agility and rapid prototyping,” said Jim Chilton, senior vice president of Boeing Space and Launch. “We’re scaling and growing to fulfill our customers’ vision for multi-orbit constellations with demand across markets and mission sets.”

The companies are applying advanced and additive manufacturing techniques, including 3D printing entire space-qualified satellite buses, to offer faster cycle times while improving performance.

“Our customers need satellites on-orbit faster than ever,” Chilton said. “Much like an airplane or auto production line, we’re employing lean production principles and advanced manufacturing techniques to accelerate delivery and pass on cost savings to our customers.”

Millennium’s team will staff the small satellite factory, bringing the subsidiary’s proven processes and infrastructure, in addition to environmental test capabilities tailored to small satellites. Boeing will also provide access to extensive environmental and specialty testing capabilities that have qualified some of the most iconic spacecraft, including the first vehicle to make a fully controlled soft landing on the moon and more than 300 satellites.

“Millennium’s culture is rooted in creating innovative ways to revolutionize space,” said Jason Kim, chief executive officer, Millennium Space Systems. “We’re bringing that culture into our facilities, rapidly building large constellations of high-performance small satellites, taking advantage of a footprint that’s larger than two professional hockey rinks.”

Designed to build small satellites for different security levels on the same assembly line, the digitally-defined small satellite factory incorporates model-based systems engineering, digital design engineering, and design for manufacturability.

“Understanding security protocols and how to build secure systems is critical to national security space, and this is an area where Millennium and Boeing excel,” said Kim. “We’re excited to leverage this impressive capability to support our customers’ critical missions.”

Initial operating capability took place in September 2021, and the small sat factory’s full operational capability is expected in late 2022.

SpaceX Sends 40 Various Spacecraft To SSO With Successful Transporter-4 Launch At Canaveral

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The Transporter-4 mission is launched by SpaceX From Cape Canaveral SFS.

SpaceX successfully launched the Transporter-4 via a Falcon 9 rocket to a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The launch window opened at 12:24 p.m. ET, or 16:24 UTC. Falcon 9 flew on a southern trajectory along Florida’s eastern coast and was occasionally visible from the ground.

Falcon 9’s first stage booster previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, and one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the Just Read the Instructions that is droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Transporter-4 is SpaceX’s fourth dedicated smallsat rideshare mission. On this flight are 40 spacecraft, including a variety of smallsats, non-deploying hosted payloads plus an orbital transfer vehicle carrying spacecraft that will be deployed at a later time.