Archives for September 2022

Gilmour Space Technologies will launch a dedicated rideshare mission into LEO in late 2024.

The venture-capital-backed company is developing Australian rockets that will deliver a variety of spacecraft into LEO and is expecting to launch its first Eris vehicle from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in Queensland, Australia, early next year.

Caravan-1 customers will also have the option of using a standard 15-inch adaptor port, and/or leveraging on Gilmour Space’s modular satellite platform, called the G-Sat, for individual payloads. (Details available on request at launch@gspacetech.com.)

“Called Caravan-1, this mission will provide affordable access to new space customers looking to launch into a mid-inclination orbit at the end of 2024,” said Adam Gilmour, CEO and co-founder of Gilmour Space. “Caravan-1 will launch in 2024 on our upgraded Eris Block 2 rocket (pictured), which will have a lift capacity of one tonne or 1,000 kilograms to LEO — a significant upgrade in launch capability and capacity for our customers. The next few years are going to be a very exciting time for the global space industry, and these missions will help us play our part in supporting and growing the next-generation of satellite and in-orbit technologies that will benefit humanity on Earth and beyond.”

Gilmour Space Technologies is Australia’s leading ,venture-backed ,space manufacturer of launch vehicles and satellite platforms. Headquartered on the Gold Coast in Queensland, the company is developing, manufacturing and launching Australian-made rockets and satellites that will provide affordable access to space to global customers. Since starting its rocket program in 2015, Gilmour Space has developed a real sovereign capability and ecosystem for launch in Australia. It is proud to be backed by some of the country’s biggest investors, including venture capital firms Blackbird and Main Sequence, the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), superannuation funds HESTA, Hostplus and NGS Super; and international investors such as Fine Structure Ventures and 500 Startups.

GomSpace has signed a contract with Unseenlabs to deliver six more satellites.

The contract value is 43 million Swedish Kroner (MSEK), including the authorization to proceed valued at 12 MSEK that started this project (Disclosed on July 7th) — the expected delivery of the satellites are during the second half of 2023.

The satellites will be based on the upgraded platform co-developed with Unseenlabs in an ongoing project and will be significant reinforcement of Unseenlabs fleet of LEO satellites.

“GomSpace is thrilled to continue and expand our relationship with Unseenlabs. Having a customer making several times the decision to work with us is the reward of efforts and partnership. We take it with humility and are even more determined to craft the best possible customer experience to Unseenlabs. Our recently establish GomSpace France company, underlines our long-term commitment to Unseenlabs, French NewSpace ecosystem and France going forward,” said Niels Buus, CEO of GomSpace.

“We are very pleased to strengthen the relationship with GomSpace even further. GomSpace flight proven, high performing platforms and advanced experience in Satellite integration combined with Unseenlabs payloads and unique system and mission expertise are key to success and satisfaction of our rightly demanding customers,” said Jonathan Galic, cofounder, Président and CTO of Unseenlabs.

OneWeb, the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company signed the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC) which ensures serving and retired members of the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force and their families are treated fairly.

Visiting OneWeb’s headquarters in London, Air Marshal Sir Richard Knighton KBE, the Royal Air Force (RAF)’s Deputy Commander Capability and Air Vice-Marshal Lincoln Taylor OBE, Chief of Staff Capability will observe the agreement which will be signed by OneWeb’s CEO Neil Masterson.

By agreeing to the AFC, OneWeb intends to support the Armed Forces community and become recognized by the AFC’s Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) award. 

OneWeb already supports the employment of service personnel through the engagement of a career transition partnership and virtual network initiatives.

OneWeb also pledges to keep jobs open for employees mobilizing and deploying as members of the Reserve and Cadet Forces, in addition to granting leave for personnel taking part in annual training programs every year.

Finally, OneWeb promises to support national military events to show support for the sacrifice of veteran and reservist communities. Examples include Armed Forces Day, Poppy Appeal Day and Remembrance Day.

Billy Bingham Senior Director OneWeb Government and a former Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army said, “OneWeb is especially proud to sign up to the Armed Forces Covenant. Today, circa five percent of our workforce are ex-military personnel who together have accumulated nearly 300 years in service around the globe. We look forward to supporting them and their families in line with the Covenant guidelines.”

On their visit to OneWeb, Air Marshals Knighton and Taylor will also observe a demonstration of OneWeb’s Global Connectivity.

OneWeb’s connectivity features a global constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and ecosystem of multi-domain user terminals, ground gateways and software solutions which enable Government customers to benefit from secure and resilient fixed, on-the-pause and on-the-move communications on land, at sea and in the air.

OneWeb is making significant progress in building its constellation and currently has 428 satellites in Low Earth Orbit, representing almost 70% of its planned fleet. It is already delivering high-speed connectivity to hundreds of customers in remote communities such as in Alaska, Canada and the Nordics. Launches will continue during 2022-2023 to enable the company to offer flexible, reliable and secure connectivity services globally from end 2023.

On September 12th, the Orbital Sustainability Act of 2022 (ORBITS Act) was introduced to the Senate — this bipartisan bill, championed by Senators Maria Cantwell, John Hickenlooper, Cynthia Lummis, and Roger Wicker, would “establish a demonstration program for the active remediation of orbital debris” and “require the development of uniform orbital debris standard practices in order to support a safe and sustainable orbital environment.

The National Space Society (NSS) applauds the U.S. Government’s leadership in orbital debris management. The ORBITS Act strongly aligns with the goals of both the National Orbital Debris Implementation Plan and Space Policy Directive-3. NSS supports this historic effort and urges Congress to pass this bill as soon as possible.

The ORBITS Act has five key sections.

• Section 2 summarizes the relevant Congressional findings. Here, the Act concludes that the growing amount of orbital debris endangers the safety and sustainability of in-space operations. It asserts that space-based applications critical to the U.S. rely on continued and secure access to outer space.

• Section 4 prioritizes Active Debris Removal (ADR), which falls under the remediation pillar of orbital debris management. This section directs NASA, the Department of Commerce Office of Space Commerce (OSC), and the National Space Council to publish an unclassified list of orbital debris that poses the greatest immediate risk to in-space operations and spacecraft. It also establishes a NASA Remediation Demonstration Program to make multiple competitive awards for phased technology development followed by future ADR missions.

• Section 6 requires the National Space Council to update the U.S. Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices with multi-agency collaboration and commercial input.

• Section 7 encourages the Secretary of Commerce to facilitate the development of standard practices for Space Traffic Management (STM) through the OSC. These standard practices would be based on guidelines and best practices used by the U.S. Government and commercial space operators.

NSS supports these provisions, which emphasize remediation, but also include mitigation and STM. It will be important for the debris list to properly characterize risk through comprehensive trade studies. This will guide investments and research and development.

The debris list should also sufficiently internalize cost-benefit analyses. Ideally, the NASA Remediation Demonstration Program will prioritize the ADR of large derelict satellites and rocket bodies. Further, the updated Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices should reflect the crucial ongoing FCC rulemaking proceedings. These proceedings include the following: Mitigation of Orbital Debris in the New Space Age (IB Docket No. 18-313); Facilitating Capabilities for In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (IB Docket No. 22-272); and Space Innovation (IB Docket No. 22-271).

It will be necessary to reassess the adequacy of current deorbiting and “graveyarding” measures within the Post-Mission Disposal (PMD) regime. One important change is shortening the 25 year PMD requirement to the satellite’s operational life, plus five years. Lastly, the STM standard practices should be developed into mandatory shared rules for in-space operations covering deconfliction, safety, right-of-way, and collision avoidance. These STM rules should be unified and codified.

NSS envisions an orbital environment founded upon long-term sustainability. Efforts to address the issue of orbital debris have been a focus of our policy and advocacy work. Orbital debris jeopardizes the safety of spacecraft and crew, the functioning of space systems, and the viability of human activity in Earth’s orbit.

The space sector is critical infrastructure and satellites are crucial to everyday life. Orbital debris has already reached critical mass. Collisional cascading (i.e., the Kessler Syndrome) will eventually happen, even if no more objects are launched into orbit. Creating a sustainable orbital environment requires a comprehensive approach that effectively uses SSA, STM (i.e., norms of responsible behavior), Mitigation, Remediation, and On-Orbit Recycling.

The U.S. Government should continue to increase interagency collaboration in its orbital debris management. It should act in a leadership role, coordinating and directing the commercial sector’s efforts in SSA, mitigation, remediation, and recycling. Likewise, it should outsource research and development, operations, and other space-related activity to the commercial sector where possible. It is also important to foster innovation by providing funding and other resources to these companies and projects. NGOs, including NSS, can further help with technical research, policy development, cost-benefit analysis, and the creation of standards and best practices.

To learn more about NSS’s orbital debris policy program and advocacy, please check out the NSS Orbital Debris Policy Program Summary or browse our Orbital Debris Landing Page. The society hope this next year brings us a step closer to a sustainable space environment.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has delivered its 30^th mission and 150^th satellite to orbit following the company’s latest successful Electron launch Thursday, September 15 at 20:38 UTC.

“The Owl Spreads Its Wings” dedicated mission for Japanese EO company Synspective launched on the Electron rocket from Pad B at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 at 20:38 UTC, September 15, 2022. The mission successfully deployed a single spacecraft, the StriX-1 satellite, to a 563 km. circular Earth orbit where it will join other StriX satellites launched by Rocket Lab in February of 2022 and December of 2020 as part of Synspective’s EO satellite constellation.

“The Owl Spreads Its Wings” is Rocket Lab’s seventh Electron launch this year with a 100% mission success rate for 2022. With today’s 30^th Electron launch and 150^th satellite delivered to orbit, the mission also marked the 300^th Rutherford engine flown to space on Electron. Designed and built by Rocket Lab, Rutherford is the world’s first 3D-printed, electric pump-fed orbital rocket engine. Earlier this month Rocket Lab successfully test fired a reused Rutherford first stage engine for the first time. This is a significant technical achievement as Rocket Lab develops Electron into the world’s first reusable orbital small rocket.

The Electron launch vehicle has become the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually and has delivered 150 satellites to orbit for private and public sector organizations, national security, scientific research, space debris mitigation, EO, climate monitoring, and communications.

Among the Company’s scheduled missions on the 2022 manifest is another attempt at recovering an Electron rocket with a helicopter and the first Electron mission from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 in Wallops Island, Virginia. Rocket Lab has three launch pads at two launch sites, including two launch pads at a private orbital launch site located in New Zealand and a second launch site in Virginia.

IQ spacecom‘s extensive product portfolio for state-of-the-art radio communication solutions is at the 73rd International Astronautical Congress in Paris. The congress opens its doors to the space industry from September 18 to 22.

Made in Germany represents strong standards and reliability in the space industry. The joint presence of German aerospace companies in the German Pavilion at IAC will host 24 companies. IQ spacecom will again be present in the German Pavilion this year and can be found at booth D8C.

IQ spacecom is a known for its small satellite communication with its space-proven technology developed and manufactured in Berlin, Germany. The flexible XLink SDR (Software Defined Radio) platform with its continuous enhancements represents the current product focus. The advanced transceiver was developed in cooperation with the Technical University of Berlin and is used, among other missions, on their TUBIN satellite.

IQ spacecom together with WORK Microwave demonstrate why the compact 0.2 U sized XLink is a match with WORK Micrwave’s AX-60-S02190 ground modem. As one of the first end-to-end CubeSat solutions, it provides seamless satellite communications for both ground and space segments. Since the XLink transceiver now supports DVB-S2 in addition to CCSDS protocols, the German manufactured bundle is even more flexible.

InCommand, the global data relay solution using Inmarsat’s ELERA network as a bundle solution that will be part of the German presentation in Paris. By having the L-band version of IQ spacecom’s XLink SDR transceiver onboard an LEO satellite, the solution enables dynamic, affordable and real-time L-band capacity anywhere for instant control and telemetry of LEO satellites. This new capability will be further developed in partnership with Addvalue, a Singapore-based company offering its experience in providing communications solutions for terrestrial and aerospace applications.

Tesat-Spacecom (TESAT) recently completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) of the company’s Optical Communication Terminals (OCTs) for satellites as part of Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL).

Lockheed Martin, a prime contractor for the agency’s tranche 0 (TLT0) and TLT1 satellites, and the SDA were on site at TESAT for the review. The PDR confirmed the TESAT OCT design and specifications are compliant to the SDA’s OCT Standard Version 3.0 requirements. OCTs use optical technologies to route data traffic between interconnected satellites and will support lower latencies in LEO constellations, a critical improvement for prosecuting time-sensitive targets in today’s wartime environment.

As the primary vendor of OCTs to Lockheed Martin for the SDA Transport Layer Space Vehicles (SV), TESAT was able to leverage qualified hardware to rapidly achieve T1TL PDR. Updates for the T1TL design include moving to the V3.0 OCT Standard as well as optimized volume and mass. TESAT’s high production OCT manufacturing process continues to deliver OCTs enabling SDA to demonstrate Optical Intersatellite Links (OISL) between LEO satellites.

As part of the T1TL PDR event, TESAT escorted Lockheed Martin, SDA and Naval Research Laboratory personnel to the TESAT OCT test facility. This allowed firsthand demonstration of the “test as you fly” processes and tooling used to perform ground validation of space OCTs.

TESAT is investing in significant OCT production increase with the addition of a new production facility on the Backnang, Germany, campus as well as a US based production facility to support US only programs.

“We are proud to host our US customers, Lockheed Martin and the SDA. The personal exchange was an important step to align our activities and to meet customer requirements,” said Thomas Reinartz, CEO at TESAT. “Their pursuit of a standards-based approach enables the production of multiple OCTs and to ensure the implementation of the programs are well positioned. The series production of TESAT makes it possible to implement these requirements and to deliver affordable and reliable OCTs.”

Matthias Motzigemba, Head of Optical Sales at TESAT, said, “The SDA approach for this program is a real boost for optical communications in space as a commonly accepted transmission media. TESAT is supporting by providing reliable, scalable and software defined OCTs that are interoperable with compliant SDA OCT Standard Version 3.0 OCTs. As a result, TESAT is well positioned to provide low, medium and geostationary orbit OCTs for seamless multi-orbit connectivity.”

At TESAT in Backnang, around 1,100 employees develop, manufacture and distribute systems and equipment for telecommunications via satellite. The product range spans from smallest space-specific components to modules, entire assemblies or payloads. As the world’s only provider and technology leader of in-orbit-verified optical terminals for data transmission via laser (OCTs), TESAT has a focus on commercial and institutional space programs.

Speedcast, a leading global communications and network service provider, will begin offering Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency connectivity to its enterprise and maritime customers as part of a deal announced today at The World Satellite Business Week Summit in Paris.

Starlink introduced its enterprise and maritime connectivity services and equipment earlier this year, delivered via the world’s largest constellation of advanced satellites operating in low Earth orbit. From oil rigs and merchant vessels to mine sites and yachts, Starlink allows users to connect from the most remote locations and waters across the world.

Speedcast designs and deploys technology and frequency-agnostic solutions for customers to deliver the highest levels of performance and operational efficiency. The company has been supporting customer trials to demonstrate the capabilities of Starlink as part of a seamlessly integrated service.

“Starlink is an exciting new communications pathway for customers, offering significant diversity and added capacity at a time when remote sites continue to push to the farthest ends of the Earth and when bandwidth demand is ever increasing,” said Joe Spytek, Chief Executive Officer at Speedcast. “As a trusted, agnostic integrator of next-generation technologies for customers, we’re excited to add Starlink to our toolkit to make ubiquitous connectivity a reality for remote operations around the world.”

“We’re excited to provide Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency internet to Speedcast enterprise and maritime customers,” said Jonathan Hofeller, Vice President of Starlink Sales at SpaceX. “This significant leap in connectivity will open even more possibilities for companies to manage operations anywhere on Earth.”