Archives for June 2022

OneWeb, the global space-based communications company, and commercial aviation terminal partner Stellar Blu Solutions (Formerly GDC Advanced Technology. OneWeb and GDC Advanced Technology signed a Joint Development Agreement in November 2021 during the APEX Show) achieved a significant milestone on May 28, when high-speed, low-latency, inflight LEO satellite connectivity to a commercial airliner was successfully delivered. Stellar Blu partnered with antenna technology provider Ball Aerospace to incorporate that company’s electronically steered arrays (ESA) into the terminal solution.

This collaboration realized breakthrough performance on OneWeb’s LEO network. The new Stellar Blu platform, known as Sidewinder, will continue flight testing through the remainder of 2022, with a target for certification and availability in mid-2023.

This first test flight was conducted aboard a Boeing B777-200LR and took off from Fort Worth Alliance Airport (KAFW), in Texas on May 27th at 15:20 UTC and flew for just over one hour delivering the game-changing connectivity experience.

Based on the electronically steered antenna technology developed by Ball Aerospace, the Sidewinder terminal offers a lower profile and is lighter and smaller than existing aviation antennas. It will enable airlines to connect their aircraft, passengers, and crew over OneWeb’s LEO SATCOM network. OneWeb expects this to be a key differentiator as airlines initially embrace and become confident in the benefits and performance of its new LEO technologies.

This test flight validated the installation and integration of the aircraft terminal as well as underscored the performance of the antenna technology. Also verified was the reliability of the connectivity during taxi, take-off, landing and typical aircraft flight maneuvers. As with any test flight, the assessment of performance reviewed expected parameters against vendor specifications, while also instrumenting and verifying on-aircraft impact and operating characteristics.

The Test Flight Crew simultaneously demonstrated the ability to connect Teams calls, 4K YouTube streaming, Netflix, online VR gaming and Nintendo Switch gaming, among other structured performance tests. Maximum speeds of 260 Mbps download / 80 upload (Experimental max throughput, not representative of commercial speeds to packages) and file transfer scenarios of 5 GB were successfully demonstrated in approximately 20 seconds, all while operating at well under 100 ms of network latency.

This maiden flight represented the culmination of several months’ collaboration between Stellar Blu, OneWeb and Ball Aerospace including ground trials and flight tests. Their goal is to achieve certification in mid- 2023.

Ben Griffin, Vice President Mobility, said, “This test flight represents a fantastic milestone for OneWeb. Broadband in-flight connectivity, delivered to a commercial aircraft via low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and an electrically steered antenna (ESA) is now – finally – a reality. Together with our partners Stellar Blu and technology from Ball Aerospace, we are now well and truly on our way to delivering consistently reliable, game-changing, affordable inflight connectivity to commercial aviation users everywhere. This successful flight test demonstrates the power, not only of the OneWeb network, but our industry focused and partnership-led approach to the design, development, and deployment of ground-breaking technologies to connect commercial aviation. A solution designed for the aviation industry, by the aviation industry.”

Tracy Trent, Stellar Blu CEO, highlighting the achievement, said, “This initial testing is more about the integration of the components and accomplishing a safe installation on the aircraft, versus proving the connectivity functionality. That said, we are delighted by the performance of the terminal during the test flight. OneWeb is changing the reality of inflight connectivity now and for the future. Our antenna will harness the power of OneWeb’s low Earth orbit constellation to deliver high-speed, low latency, globally consistent and reliable connectivity for every passenger, without conflict or compromise. We are very confident the Sidewinder terminal will present operators with a purpose-built aviation solution, delivering new breakthroughs for passenger experience, and redefining aircraft operating expectations for reliability and maintainability.”

Rocket Lab is targeting no earlier than 09:50 UTC on June 27th for the launch of CAPSTONE, a dedicated mission to lunar orbit. The launch will occur from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Pad B, on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat will be the first spacecraft to test the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. Researchers expect this orbit to be a gravitational sweet spot in space – where the pull of gravity from Earth and the Moon interact to allow for a nearly-stable orbit – allowing physics to do most of the work of keeping a spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. NASA has big plans for this unique type of orbit.

The agency hopes to park bigger spacecraft – including the lunar-orbiting space station Gateway – in an NRHO around the Moon, providing astronauts with a base from which to descend to the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program.

CAPSTONE will be launched to an initial LEO by Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle and then placed on a ballistic lunar transfer by Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon spacecraft bus.

Unlike the Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and 70s, which took a free return trajectory to the Moon, this fuel efficient, ballistic, lunar transfer makes it possible to deploy CAPSTONE to such a distant orbit using a small launch vehicle. Standing at just 59 feet tall, Electron is the smallest rocket to attempt a launch to the Moon.

This launch is not a recovery mission.

Watch Live: Rocket Lab will be hosting a launch webcast in collaboration with NASA. The webcast will be available approximately 45 minutes prior to the target T-0 time at this direct link and on NASA TV.

Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), has announced that the firm’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Tyvak International SRL, and partners have achieved full, Critical Design Review (CDR) of the Milani spacecraft.

A critical component of the Hera planetary defense mission, Milani will be the European Space Agency’s (ESA) first, deep-space smallsat. Milani will also be the first smallsat to orbit an asteroid. Tyvak International is responsible for Milani’s design, build and mission operations. In this exploration, Tyvak International is joined by a consortium of European industries and research centers from Finland, Czech Republic and Italy.

The world’s first test of asteroid deflection, Hera, will perform a detailed, post-impact survey of the target asteroid, Dimorphos – the orbiting moonlet in a binary asteroid system known as Didymos. NASA’s DART mission will first impact the moonlet.

Following the DART impact, Hera will turn the experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defense technique, using new technologies from autonomous navigation around an asteroid to low gravity proximity operations.

Hera will be humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system and Europe’s flagship Planetary Defender.

Milani, named after Andrea Milani, the pioneer of asteroid risk analysis who came up with the original double-spacecraft DART-Hera concept, is a companion smallsat of HERA, carried by the mothercraft along the journey to the asteroid and ultimately released in the asteroid’s proximity.

Milani’s main instrument will be the ASPECT hyperspectral imager (by VTT, Finland), combining visible and near-infrared wavelengths to survey the surface down to a maximum spatial resolution of one meter.

ASPECT will sift through sunlight reflected from Dimorphos as well as its bigger companion, Didymos, looking for distinctive, mineral absorptions of individual asteroid boulders.

Milani’s secondary payload is called VISTA (Volatile In-Situ Thermogravimeter Analyzer). The instrument (by INAF, Italy) can detect the presence of dust particles smaller than 5-10 micrometers in water and will monitor molecular contamination surrounding the satellite. Finally, laser reflectors (by INFN, Italy) will enable unprecedented gravity field measurements of the asteroid coupled with Hera’s laser range finder.

“Terran Orbital is honored to be selected once again for a contract that will yield unprecedented scientific returns for the global community while propelling Europe’s ambitions in Planetary Defense capabilities,” said Terran Orbital Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Marc Bell. “Tyvak International’s design and construction of the Milani spacecraft will enable the acquisition of extremely valuable information for future asteroid deflection missions. We are thrilled ESA trusted us with this privilege, and we look forward to continuing to design, build, deliver, and operate cutting-edge satellite solutions that make our planet a safer place to live.”

“We are absolutely thrilled by the maturity reached by the Milani spacecraft in such a short time,” said ESA Hera Project Manager, Ian Carnelli. “The capability of Tyvak International, not only to meet this important milestone but to do so while developing new advanced technologies with its partners, is unprecedented. We look forward to continuing this adventure and giving Milani a beautiful ride to Didymos.”

Tyvak International, a Terran Orbital Corporation, is a leading European nano and microsatellite provider, based in Torino, Italy. A front runner in miniaturization and specialized in execution and delivery, Tyvak International is contract Prime of European Space Agency for the Milani mission, coordinating a team of 12 entities, universities, research centers, and enterprises in Italy and across all Europe. Learn more at www.tyvak.eu.

Terran Orbital is a leading manufacturer of small satellites primarily serving the aerospace and defense industries. Terran Orbital provides end-to-end satellite solutions by combining satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations, and on-orbit support to meet the needs of the most demanding military, civil, and commercial customers. Learn more at www.terranorbital.com.

A South Korean satellite has made two-way communication with its ground station, officials said Wednesday, confirming the success of the country’s first-ever, self-powered, satellite deployment project.

South Korea successfully launched the 200-ton Nuri rocket from Naro Space Center in the country’s southern coastal village of Goheung — this was a major milestone in the country’s space program.

The rocket, also known as KSLV-II, succeeded in deploying satellites at a target altitude of 700 kilometers as planned, according to officials.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced a day after the launch that the performance verification satellite successfully made two-way communication with the ground station at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, at 3:01 a.m. on Wednesday.

The communication follows the satellite’s initial contact with South Korea’s King Sejong Station in Antarctica after the launch Tuesday.

“Following the two-way communication with the KARI ground station in Daejeon, Nuri’s satellite deployment capability has been fully confirmed,” the ministry said.

From the latest communication, KARI verified the satellite was functioning properly with its condition intact. KARI also commanded the satellite to sync up its clock with that of the ground station and also activated the satellite’s GPS transmitter.

KARI plans to monitor the satellite and stabilize its position, then release four small cubesats, which are currently joined to the performance verification satellite, one by one, starting in one week.

SpaceX is targeting Friday, June 17th, for a Falcon 9 launch of 53 Starlink satellites to LEO from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The instantaneous launch window is at 12:08 p.m. ET, or 16:08 UTC — a backup opportunity is available on Saturday, June 18th, at 11:47 a.m. ET, or 15:47 UTC.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, and nine Starlink missions.

Following stage separation, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth and land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Watch the live launch webcast starting about 10 minutes before liftoff.

Aerospacelab has unveiled their satellite megafactory commitment, with a yearly production capacity of 500 satellites — this makes this site the largest satellite manufacturing plant in Europe.

This groundbreaking new site, which will be built by Sambrinvest in Charleroi, follows the launch of the company’s Monnet Center facility, located in Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve that can produce as many as 24 satellites a year.

Dedicated to generating positive impact globally by making geospatial intelligence actionable and affordable, Aerospacelab has taken a fully, vertically integrated approach. The team is closely involved in satellite design, prototyping, and hardware testing, producing satellites and constellations for a broad range of applications. With these wide-ranging capabilities, Aerospacelab supports decision-making through satellite intelligence in environment protection, sustainable commodity production, agriculture, infrastructure monitoring, security, and more.

Since its inception in 2018, Aerospacelab has been striving to meet the accelerating demand for satellites in the decade ahead. Propelled by its 40 million euro Series B fundraise in February of 2022, the company is already ramping up satellite production capacity, deploying multiple constellations to establish same-day monitoring of the Earth’s surface, and implementing Aerospacelab’s unique geospatial data fusion analytics capabilities. The first satellites will roll off the assembly line at Aerospacelab’s new megafactory by the start of 2025.

According to Euroconsult, by 2030, more than 1,700 satellites every year worldwide are expected to be launched.

Benoît Deper, CEO and founder of Aerospacelab, said, “We’ve been inspired by the automotive industry where standardized products still have the possibility to be customized for specific needs. We are establishing satellite manufacturing plants, complete with production lines using ‘off-the-shelf’ components. Both at the factory in Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve and at the megafactory in Charleroi, we own and operate all the testing facilities relevant for satellite manufacturing, which promotes the vertical integration that gives us the edge in agility. Ultimately, we are striving to make the ‘Henry Ford moment’ in satellite manufacturing happen.”

ThrustMe has been awarded an ESA GSTP contract to develop and qualify the electric propulsion system NPT30-I2-1.5U.

ThrustMe technology will integrate the GomSpace lead technology demonstration GOMX-5 mission — the satellite will be equipped with several advanced payloads and ThrustMe will provide the maneuverability for orbit raising and end-of-life disposal.

During the last few years, the space industry is going through an important industrial transformation. The large and tailormade satellites, providing unique single point observations, are complimented by smaller, industrialized, “off-the-shelf” satellites that, when operating together in constellations, provide instantaneous multiple-point observation capabilities of Earth or beyond.

In this industrial satellite constellation era, on-orbit propulsion becomes an essential subsystem to close the constellation business models. Additionally, countermeasures of collision avoidance and removal strategies at the end-of-life are vital to avoid risks to all other spacecrafts in the same orbit — it is essential for the sustainability of the industry.

Electric propulsion systems, such as ion thrusters, are a particularly attractive choice due to their very high fuel efficiency and, therefore, their ability to deliver all of the orbital maneuvers required for a constellation satellite. The GomSpace GOMX-5 mission is focused on demonstrating new smallsat capabilities in space for the next generation of LEO constellations. This includes significant increases in payload data downlink communication rates, maneuverability for orbit raising and end-of-life disposal, and satellite position accuracy.

ThrustMe’s highly performant, electric propulsion system, NPT30-I2-1.5U, was selected to guarantee maneuverability for orbit raising and end-of-life disposal as well as satellite position accuracy. The General Support Technology Program (GSTP) is an ESA program to enable the European space industry to develop leading edge space technology.

“The GOMX-5 mission is an extremely ambitious and exciting mission, where ESA through GomSpace and all the other European actors selected for this mission, will demonstrate capabilities never achieved before. We are very proud to take part, and it shows really how European actors are leading the technology revolution that is coming as a result of all the new requirements to make the industrial space era a success,” said Ane Aanesland, CEO and co-founder of ThrustMe.

“We are, of course, very glad to have the support from our space agency, CNES and ESA, through this GSTP ESA contract. Mobility should not be a constraint for high precision missions — developing such a powerful technology, as we do here at ThrustMe, will be advantageous for the entire space community”, said Giulio Coral, head of product development at ThrustMe and project manager of this GSTP contract.

“ThrustMe electric propulsion system NPT30-I2-1.5U will be thoroughly analysed and qualified by ESA experts. Analyzing in detail the technology developed by ThrustMe will give us confidence that the NPT30-I2-1.5U is the optimal propulsion system for this ambitious mission”, said Davina Maria Di Cara, Electric Propulsion Engineer and Technical Officer for this GSTP project from ESA.

ThrustMe is a one-stop shop provider of high performing in-orbit mobility solutions for customer across the globe. It offers a portfolio of disruptive, deeply integrated and smart on-orbit space propulsion solutions design for the new industrialized constellation space era. The company made the world’s first demonstration of an iodine-fueled electric propulsion system in space – an achievement the space industry has tried to reach for 60 years. Now delivering propulsion systems to major constellation players, ThrustMe has set up an industrial production line in the southern outskirt of Paris in France.

GomSpace has been awarded a contract to deliver two, 12-unit, cubesats to the German Space Agency, DLR.

These smallsats will be used for research by DLR’s Responsive Space Cluster Competence Center, RSC3, in Trauen, Germany.

The contract value is 13 million Swedish Krona and delivery is planned for January of 2023.

The formal contract will be completed within the next two weeks.

Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) has announced the successful deorbiting of the 3.5 kg. CanX-7 demonstration smallsat using drag sail technology designed to reduce the time retired smallsats spend in orbit as space debris.

CanX-7 burned up in Earth’s atmosphere in May, just five years after drag sail deployment and roughly 178 years before the satellite would have spent on-orbit without any deorbit technology.

CanX-7 was a 10x10x34cm smallsat built by SFL and funded by Defence Research and Development Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, COM DEV Ltd., and the Canadian Space Agency. The satellite was launched in September of 2016 with a two-fold mission of demonstrating Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) message collection from space for global aircraft situational awareness, and then testing the deorbiting technology developed by SFL.

SFL deployed the four drag sails – each about one square meter in area – on May 4, 2017, with the intent of decreasing the ballistic coefficient of the nanosatellite and using atmospheric drag to accelerate orbital decay. Mission participants observed an almost immediate change in altitude decay rate and continued tracking the orbital decay rate until CanX-7 re-entered the atmosphere on April 21, 2022.

“The SFL drag sail technology developed for nano- and microsatellites is among the only commercially viable deorbiting devices available today, aside from propulsion,” said SFL Director, Dr. Robert E. Zee. “The drag sails performed better than designed, deorbiting CanX-7 in far less time than the maximum 25-year target recommended by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC).”

“Orbital debris is a big concern for the space industry, and the passive de-orbit technology demonstrated on CanX-7 is an advantageous solution for nano- and microsatellites,” said SFL’s CanX-7 Mission Manager, Brad Cotten. “The mission verified that SFL’s lightweight drag sail technology is a more cost-effective and less complex method for deorbiting smaller satellites than traditional propulsion techniques.” Additionally, the deorbiting technology allows smallsats to be launched into a wider range of orbits than would be possible if natural orbital decay were to be relied upon, he said.

According to Dr. Lauchie Scott, defence scientist with Defence Research and Development Canada, the CanX-7 drag sail deployment campaign provided a very rare opportunity to observe a satellite drastically change shape and size while being tracked by ground-based telescopes. This view showed the nanosatellite’s brightness signature during the sail deployment and how its rotational motion evolved while the longer-term space sustainability deorbit experiment continued. Dr. Scott added that this was an outstanding Canadian collaboration to help mitigate risk from space debris.

According to Dr. Brad Wallace, defence scientist with Defence Research and Development Canada, the project successfully proved that UTIAS/SFL’s innovative drag-sail technology can deorbit a spacecraft decades faster than would have happened otherwise and demonstrated Canada’s continued leadership not only in space technology, but also in responsible space stewardship. He added that the lessons learned from the CanX-7 mission will be used to help minimize the number of inoperable spacecraft orbiting the Earth, ensuring that space continues to be used to benefit Canadians and people around the world.

SFL is a unique microspace provider that offers a complete suite of smallsats that satisfy the needs of a broad range of mission types from 3 to 500 kilograms. Dating from 1998, SFL’s heritage includes 61 operational successes and 31 currently under construction or awaiting launch. These missions relate to Earth Observation (EO), atmospheric monitoring, ship tracking, communication, radio frequency (RF) geolocation, technology demonstration, space astronomy, solar physics, space plasma, and other scientific research. In its 24-year history, SFL has achieved more than 194 cumulative years of operation in orbit. These microspace missions have included SFL’s trusted attitude control and, in some cases, formation-flying capabilities. Other core SFL-developed components include modular (scalable) power systems, onboard radios, flight computers, and control software.

OneWeb has released initial findings from the company’s first, OneWeb Connected Passenger Report, an extensive survey of passenger attitudes toward air travel and inflight connectivity (IFC) in the post-pandemic landscape.

To undertake the research, OneWeb partnered with leading independent international research agency, TAG Research, to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative sample was collected in 27, individual, hour-long interviews with frequent flyers across five key groups, including corporate travel bookers, digital nomads, travel bloggers, and young frequent flyers. The qualitative data was obtained through a detailed survey completed by 4,110 individuals from across the US, UK, Singapore and the UAE.

OneWeb is now sharing with the airline industry a complimentary whitepaper featuring the key findings from their research. These timely findings clearly indicate a frustration with current connectivity solutions and provide a clear vision of what passengers really want from airlines, post-COVID.

Post-pandemic, passengers prioritize quality of life more than ever before and find frequent travel to be disruptive to their physical and emotional well-being. Current IFC services add to the stresses of travel for business and leisure passengers alike, and the survey highlights some of these top frustrations, including:

• The prospect of Wi-Fi disconnection in the sky creates undue stress before the flight
• Fifty-nine percent of passengers surveyed rating the current quality of IFC between ‘very poor’ to ‘moderate’ on a 7-point scale
• Younger digital native passengers are less tolerant of current IFC and dismissive of its usability
• Sixty percent of passengers surveyed agree that, while the idea of accessing Wi-Fi in-flight is great, current connections aren’t reliable enough

Ben Griffin, VP Mobility at OneWeb, said, “OneWeb is proud to share the results of this survey with our colleagues across the industry, as we work together to better understand and address the needs and demands of modern air passengers. The Connected Passenger Report sheds light on the shifting sentiment of passengers who are demanding better and more consistent connectivity, while also prioritising wellbeing and sustainability more than ever before. These insights are incredibly important as we look to build solutions and inflight experiences that cater to the digitally demanding and socially conscious passengers of tomorrow.”

Griffin added, “Despite the significant investment airlines are making in their IFC offering, it is clear the current in-flight connectivity experience is not consistently delivering on the needs of today’s connected passenger with a majority of passengers not even taking the time to connect. The flying public have spoken, and these results underscore a huge opportunity for airlines to improve their passengers experience, and loyalty by enhancing their IFC.”

Read the OneWeb Connected Passenger Report at this direct link…