Archives for August 2022

UPDATE 1

Weather has proven to be the undoing of the Blue Origin NS-23 launch, scheduled for today, August 31, in West Texas. The company will advise when a new launch window opportunity is available.

Original posting…

On August 31, New Shepard’s 23rd mission, a dedicated payloads flight, will fly 36 payloads from academia, research institutions and students across the globe — the launch window opens at 8:30 a.m., CDT / 13:30 UTC, from Launch Site One in West Texas.

This Blue Origin mission brings the total number of commercial payloads flown on the vehicle to more than 150. Two of the payloads will fly on the exterior of the New Shepard booster for ambient exposure to the space environment, while 18 of the payloads on this flight are funded by NASA, primarily by the Flight Opportunities program.

Twenty-four payloads are from K-12 schools, universities and STEM-focused organizations, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR), and SHAD Canada STEM Foundation, among others.

This is double the number of education-focused payloads from previous payload flight manifests. In many cases, these payloads expose students as young as elementary school to STEM skills like coding, environmental testing and CAD design often not taught until college.

Among the NS-23 payloads are tens of thousands of postcards from Blue Origin’s nonprofit, Club for the Future, whose Postcards to Space program gives people across the world access to space on New Shepard. The Club’s mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM for the benefit of Earth.

The postcards on this mission come from 19 Club for the Future grant recipients and their partners, including Guayaquil’s Space Society in Ecuador, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, students who participated in STEM NOLA and Kenner Planetarium events in New Orleans, and schools across Kentucky.

This will be the fourth flight for the New Shepard program this year, the first dedicated payload flight since NS-17 in August 2021 and the ninth flight for this vehicle, which is dedicated to flying science and research payloads to space. To date, the New Shepard program has flown 31 humans to space.

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has made a strategic investment, through Accenture Ventures, in Pixxel that is based in Bangalore, India, with a presence in Los Angeles.

Pixxel is building the a high resolution, hyperspectral imaging satellite constellation in order to offer industry AI-powered insights that discover, solve, and predict climate issues at a fraction of the cost of traditional satellites.

Pixxel’s satellites can capture images at hundreds of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum and reveal key data about the health of our planet that is invisible to other satellites. The company’s planned constellation of hyperspectral satellites will reshape how businesses across agriculture, defense, mining, environmental, and other critical industries make decisions on a global level to reduce their environmental impact. The data from Pixxel’s satellites provides 8x more information and 50x better resolution than existing in-market options, according to the company.

Pixxel’s first commercial phase satellites are scheduled to be launched in early 2023, along with the commercial sale of its data. With six satellites flown in a SSO around a 550 km. altitude, Pixxel’s hyperspectral constellation will be able to cover any point on the globe every 48 hours.

With even more satellites scheduled to launch in late 2023, Pixxel will achieve daily global coverage by early 2024. The learnings from the data beamed down by this constellation will provide a global scale perspective of planetary-scale ecosystems and biospheres that will be used to create an AI-informed analysis platform and a digital twin of the Earth.

Pixxel is the latest company to join Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, an engagement and investment program focused on investing in companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies. In addition to funding, Project Spotlight connects emerging technology software startups with the Global 2000 to fill strategic innovation gaps, and offers extensive access to Accenture’s domain expertise and enterprise clients, helping startups harness human creativity and deliver on the promise of their technology.

Accenture’s investment in Pixxel follows a $25 million Series A funding round the company announced in March 2022 and the launch of their first satellite as part of SpaceX’s April Transporter-4 payload. To date, more than 50 customers have signed pre-launch agreements with Pixxel from industries spanning agriculture, oil and gas, mining, and climate sectors.

“We continue to take great interest in startups within the burgeoning space industry, which some have forecasted will reach $1 trillion in revenue by the year 2040[1], and Pixxel is a particularly exciting company sitting at the intersection of space technology and sustainability,” said Tom Lounibos, managing director, Accenture Ventures. “Imagine being able to predict a famine before a crop infestation takes over or stop an oil spill before it endangers delicate oceanic biospheres. Pixxel’s hyperspectral imaging technology has the potential to do just that, and in doing so, could help scientists address some of the world’s most pressing challenges to our Earth.”

“Our investment in Pixxel reflects our ongoing and active engagement with the promising startup ecosystem in India and more such engagements are key for creating solutions that drive real world impact,” said Mahesh Zurale, senior managing director, lead – Advanced Technology Centers in India, Accenture. “With so many aspects of our daily lives being increasingly impacted by climate and sustainability issues, we believe Pixxel’s Earth Health Monitoring can play a crucial role by enabling global organizations to detect potentially damaging events early on and help prevent them.”

“We’re excited to join Accenture’s Project Spotlight and collaborate with Accenture’s innovation labs, business and industry experts, and powerful clients and ecosystem partners across aerospace, science, technology and sustainability,” said Pixxel CEO and co-founder, Awais Ahmed. “Accenture’s global reach and support will help accelerate our ambitious mission to create a health monitor for the Earth and leverage our technology to address some of the most pressing issues facing our planet.”

Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Technology and Operations services and Accenture Song — all powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 710,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities.

Pixxel is building a health monitor for the planet by building and launching the world’s highest resolution hyperspectral imaging satellites. Co-founded by then 20 year olds Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal in 2019, Pixxel has worked with notable organizations such as the Indian Space Research Organization, NASA JPL, and SpaceX among space stalwarts. Pixxel is backed by Lightspeed, Radical Ventures, Relativity’s Jordan Noone, Seraphim Capital, Ryan Johnson, Blume Ventures, Sparta LLC, growX ventures, Inventus Capital, and Omnivore VC among others.

The next 46 Starlink satellites launch for SpaceX is Tuesday, August 30, for a Falcon 9 launch to LEO from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The instantaneous launch window is at 10:40 p.m. PT (5:40 UTC on Wednesday, August 31), and a backup opportunity is available on Wednesday, August 31 at 10:40 p.m. PT (05:40 UTC on Thursday, September 1), if necessary.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, and four Starlink missions.

Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth and land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

Watch the live launch webcast starting about 5 minutes prior to liftoff. 

European-based SATCOM amplifier manufacturer and equipment supplier, SpacePath Communications (‘SpacePath’), will exhibit its new Ka-band, outdoor amplifier offering best-in-class size, weight and power (SWaP) at IBC 2022.

For the first time, SpacePath’s new Ka-band amplifier for the LEO/MEO will be on display at IBC featuring its compact form factor, low weight and high-power output. 

The 385W ultra-linear amplifier offers many advantages over existing product solutions. 

The STA45385P is a single box design which incorporates a wide-mouthed, integrated AC supply with market-leading power efficiency and provides up to 4GHz of bandwidth (27-31GHz) with an NPR of -19dBc @ PLIN (135W). It also features SpacePath’s innovative heat sink design that uses a carbon fin air cooling structure, which is around half the weight of copper-based cooling systems but with similar thermal properties. Additionally, the amplifier provides Ethernet/web-based remote control and removable air intake filters for cost-effective maintenance and added convenience. Optional multi-band BUCs are also offered. 

Providing a critical link in any satellite communications network, the compact and lightweight SWaP design also makes this outdoor amplifier ideal for mounting directly onto the antenna hub.

Colin Bolton, director of business development, said, “Our continuing innovation in customer-led amplifier design is one of the reasons we’ve become a provider of choice in the global SATCOM market. Our latest SWaP-based amplifiers, featuring best-in-class size, weight and power attributes, continue to set new standards in both performance and system functionality.”

SpacePath’s high performance uplink amplifiers cover all mission-critical segments including satellite newsgathering (DSNG), flyaway or truck-based systems, fixed-Earth stations and military satellite communications.

Turion Space has secured U.S. regulatory approval to sell space situational awareness (SSA) services from their first satellite that is scheduled to lauch next year.

SpaceX is slated to fly the company’s Droid.001 satellite on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission, Turion Space CEO Ryan Westerdahl said.

Lithuania-based NanoAvionics built the bus for the satellite, which will provide imagery for Australian on-orbit inspection startup, HEO Robotics, Turion Space’s first customer.

Droid.001’s primary mission, however, is to test imagery capabilities that Westerdahl declined to specify for an SSA business he sees as a stepping stone toward more direct, on-orbit services.

After deploying three to four more SSA-focused Droids by around mid-2024, he said the firm’s plans to test a vision system for autonomous rendezvous operations with one of its spacecraft already in LEO. Westerdahl ultimately envisions a constellation of Droids that can be tasked to provide services as needed. When that mission is over, they would return to their “home orbit” to track objects in space until they are called upon again for another project.

Turion Space has raised $7.5 million in venture capital, the company CEO said covers the firm’s first two satellites, with the second satellite to be deployed in the fourth quarter of 2023, although a launch provider has not yet been identified.

Earlier this year, Turion Space secured four contracts worth a combined $1 million from the U.S. Space Force’s Orbital Prime program, which will support the development of the company’s on-orbit logistics capabilities. Orbital Prime launched last year to focus on emerging on-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing capabilities.

“By 2025, we want to do our first docking and de-orbit demonstration,” said Westerdahl. “We’re an early-stage startup and we don’t necessarily know how big our constellation is going to be yet. All I can tell you with certainty for now is we’re going to build as many as we can, as fast as we can without spending all our money and without going bankrupt. Although we think in-space logistics is a market primed for takeoff, we are prioritizing moving fast and deploying revenue generating assets early to maximize learning and market traction.”

Westerdahl said the startup is using funds raised from government contracts for research and development on the logistics side of its business, as well as finding ways to expand its SSA capabilities.

Money raised from venture capital investors is supporting an SSA-focused commercial business, which would use early satellites that are not going to be focused on space logistics.

Space Norway AS signed contracts with vendors and will immediately start building a radar satellite system optimized for maritime surveillance in Norwegian areas of interest.

The payloads will be developed and built by Norwegian suppliers, while the satellite bus and the radar antenna will be built in the UK. The first satellite will be launched early 2025. In the following years, the plan is to launch a number of radar satellites to establish a constellation. 

The satellite system named MicroSAR is unique in the way it can detect relatively small vessels in a very large area simultaneously. As of today we don’t know about any radar satellite systems with the same mix of capabilities.

Norway’s sea areas are seven times larger than the Norwegian land area. The Arctic and the High North is Norway’s most important strategic area of interest. This puts strong requirements on situational awareness in these areas. AIS (Automatic Identification System) has for many years been used for maritime surveillance. The challenge is that AIS is a system that requires the vessels themselves to send the required and correct AIS Information. Hence, AIS is a system based on cooperation. Today we estimate that 5 % of the vessels either does not send out AIS Information or are transmitting false information. Satellites with a radar, such as MicroSAR, will be able to detect these vessels independent of the use of AIS. MicroSAR satellites will bring an AIS Receiver to correlate radar detections with AIS Information.

The MicroSAR System is optimized for covering Norwegian needs. However, it will also offer and deliver maritime surveillance services in a global market in the same way as other radar satellites in space today, including surveillance of ship traffic, combating illegal fishing, search and rescue and oil spill detection.

Space Norway works closely with the Norwegian Armed Forces who will be the main customer and buy services and products from MicroSAR when in operation.

Space Norway also work in close cooperation with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT). KSAT establishes, operates, and owns the MicroSAR Ground System, using their existing global network. On behalf of Space Norway, they will provide services related to satellite operations and downlink of MicroSAR data. KSAT will also be responsible for marketing and sales of MicroSAR services and products as part of their portfolio, both in a national and an international market.

The Satellite System will be owned and controlled by Space Norway. This gives Norway an important strategic independent capability under national control to cover their needs for maritime surveillance.

Space Norway has signed contracts with the following vendors to build the first MicroSAR Satellite:

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) is a UK company with long experience in building satellites. SSTL will deliver the satellite platform and be responsible for integration of the payloads on board. SSTL will also be responsible for building the radar antenna through their sub-contractor Oxford Space Systems (OSS).

For SSTL this builds on its experience in designing and operating small radar missions which was gained from the NovaSAR-1 spacecraft, a mission strongly supported by the UK Space Agency, which was put into operations in 2018 and continues to serve five major customers around the world. SSTL and OSS have also been working on small radar mission products, and OSS recently announced its wrapped rib SAR antenna also developed with UK government support.

The payloads will be developed and produced by the Norwegian companies WideNorth, Eidsvoll Electronics (EIDEL), Kongsberg Seatex and Norwegian Defence research Establishment (FFI). Hence, the project will also contribute significantly to business development of Norwegian companies.

Space Norway’s current plans are to launch the first satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 as a Rideshare. When establishing a constellation, the satellites will be launched on dedicated launchers. The establishment of Andøya Spaceport may result in future MicroSAR satellites being launched from Norway.

The MicroSAR satellites will follow polar orbits in various orbital planes at an altitude of about 600 km and will weigh about 300 kg.

On Saturday, August 27 at 11:41 p.m. ET, SpaceX launched 54 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This was the second flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission and setting a record for the heaviest payload ever launched by a Falcon 9 rocket that previously launched CRS-24. Each Starlink craft weighs more than a quarter-ton