Archives for September 2022

Omnispace and GateHouse Satcom have successfully modeled the performance of 5G new radio (NR) non-terrestrial network (NTN) waveform in an NGSO environment.

The Omnispace 5G NTN system, operating in LEO, will seamlessly integrate with terrestrial networks to deliver a ubiquitous, connected experience for commercial 5G smartphones and IoT devices globally. The Omnispace network will use the company’s 2 GHz spectrum allocation and operate in 3GPP standard band n256, identified for NTN operation.

Omnispace is building a global NGSO network, compliant with 3GPP-defined mobile standards, making it possible to deliver uninterrupted 5G connectivity directly to an ecosystem of mobile devices, applications, and OEM equipment, around the globe.

3GPP Release 17 establishes a global standard for interoperability of devices between terrestrial and NTN networks. The standard is expected to be adopted by device manufacturers and mobile operators to extend the reach of 5G networks and enable expansion into new applications and regions.

“Omnispace recognizes that companies, people and assets increasingly require seamless, real-time connectivity no matter where they might be. We’re very pleased to announce that we’ve achieved this key milestone, through our work with GateHouse,” said Brian Pemberton, Chief Commercial Officer, Omnispace. “Successfully modeling the performance of 5G NR in a non-terrestrial network environment will assist us in optimizing our network architecture and the payload design for our next generation constellation. This achievement provides a preview of what’s to come and demonstrates that our vision of delivering 5G connectivity direct-to-devices everywhere is possible.”

“GateHouse SatCom is proud to have helped to orchestrate this ‘first’ on behalf of Omnispace, and for those looking for a seamless 5G communications experience everywhere. The world’s first truly global 5G network, operating as a 5G NR NTN, will ultimately benefit those looking to achieve one universal connected experience for the global enterprise, consumer or IoT device,” said Thomas S. Jensen, CEO, GateHouse SatCom.

Headquartered in the Washington D.C. area, and founded by veteran telecommunications and satellite industry executives, Omnispace is redefining mobile connectivity for the 21st century. By leveraging 5G technologies, the company is combining the global footprint of a non-geostationary satellite constellation with the mobile networks of the world’s leading telecom companies to bring an interoperable “one network” connectivity to users and IoT devices anywhere on the globe. Device, app, OEM and vehicle manufacturers are invited to contact Omnispace to learn more about prototyping new products, services, and applications on the 5G hybrid network.

For more than 20 years, GateHouse SatCom has provided the satellite communications industry with a range of market-leading software products for commercial, government and military use. GateHouse SatCom offers certified satellite communication and test solutions for software, hardware, and system integration. Since 2019, a significant part of our work has been dedicated to 5G satellite IoT and M2M development in cooperation with international partners.

OneWeb and Arianespace have signed a new agreement that follows the earlier suspension of the launches on September 13, 2022.

Following that suspension of OneWeb’s launches in March of 2022, OneWeb and Arianespace have now reached an agreement pursuant to which performance of the Launch Services Agreement may be resumed in the future. The terms of the settlement are confidential.

Arianespace is supporting OneWeb on its upcoming launches, including the performance of Dispenser Supply Services for two launches to be performed by NewSpace India Limited, part of India’s national space agency, ISRO.

Based on their unique heritage, OneWeb and Arianespace are determined to examine future opportunities together, especially on the Ariane 6 launch vehicle for the second generation of the smallsat constellation.

MDA Ltd. (TSX:MDA) has been selected by Airbus OneWeb Satellites, LLC (AOS) to design and build Ka-band, steerable antennas — the MDA antennas will be integrated into the portfolio of Arrow commercial smallsats manufactured by AOS.

MDA technology has been integrated into more than 350 satellite missions to date, with more than 2,000 antenna subsystems and 3,000 electronic subsystems on approximately 850 satellites currently on-orbit. The antennas for AOS will be built, assembled and tested at MDA’s state-of-the-art, high volume, satellite production facility in Montreal.

“We are pleased to be selected by Airbus OneWeb Satellites to support important applications for space and communications constellations,” said Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA. “This contract represents another opportunity to demonstrate MDA’s best-in-class satellite design and manufacturing capabilities.”

Airbus OneWeb Satellites LLC is a joint venture between Airbus and OneWeb. AOS manufactures satellites for the OneWeb commercial constellation and Airbus customers in Merritt Island, Florida. AOS is producing satellites for Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, Inc., in support of U.S. government programs.

MDA (TSX:MDA) is an international space mission partner and a robotics, satellite systems and geointelligence pioneer with a 50-year story of firsts on and above the Earth. With over 2,400 staff across Canada, the US and the UK, MDA is leading the charge towards viable Moon colonies, enhanced Earth observation, communication in a hyper-connected world, and more. With a track record of making space ambitions come true, MDA enables highly skilled people to continually push boundaries, tackle big challenges, and imagine solutions that inspire and endure to change the world for the better, on the ground and among the stars.

Rivada Space Networks GmbH has joined the EU Secure Connectivity Program.

The need for secure and resilient global connectivity increases with the digitization of the economy and society and increasing geopolitical and cybersecurity threats. The European Commission is proposing an ambitious plan for an EU space-based secure communication system that will ensure worldwide, uninterrupted access to secure and cost-effective satellite communication services for the protection of critical infrastructures, surveillance and crisis management. It will also allow for the provisioning of commercial services by the private sector to enable advanced, reliable and fast connections for all citizens and businesses across Europe.

Rivada Space Networks has submitted its contribution to the Preliminary Market Consultation of the EU Secure Connectivity Program, outlining key attributes of the Rivada Space Network’s laser-linked, LEO constellation architecture that includes global reach, ultra-security, resilience and low latency. Rivada is also proposing their Open Access Wireless Marketplace platform to optimize the efficient use of the multi-orbit infrastructure capacity amongst the member countries and stakeholders in the project.

Clemens Kaiser, Chief Program Officer at Rivada Space Networks, said, “We reviewed the requirements and identified an absolute need to add LEO to this multi-orbit constellation approach, with Ka-band delivering the optimal solution in terms of high-throughput networking.”

Rivada Space Networks Chairman, Declan Ganley, said, “We can ensure extra secure connectivity and the highest data sovereignty as our space network connects any two points in the world via intersatellite laser links, avoiding terrestrial or non-terrestrial infrastructures or the internet. This allows users to communicate through a single global private network running entirely over the constellation without any terrestrial touchpoint other than the user terminals or secure cloud insertion points. The physical separation at the infrastructure level significantly increases cybersecurity and data sovereignty and does so at a global scale. Furthermore, this makes our network disaster resilient since it is independent from any other infrastructure.”

He added, “Security and Open Access are two of the foundational elements of Rivada’s vision of a secure and accessible digital future for all”. “We aim to leverage the strengths of our satellite communication system in combination with our unique, patented Open Access Wireless Market Platform to enable an efficient use of spectrum and facilitate a fair distribution of capacity to member states. We are proud to be joining the EU’s multi-stakeholder Secure Connectivity Programme, mobilizing the space and technology sector to provide an independent and secure communications infrastructure for Europe.”

Vestigo Aerospace has closed a seed funding round with an investment of $375,000 from Manhattan West — NASA will provide a 1:1 match of Manhattan West’s investment through a Small Business Innovative Research Phase II-Extended (SBIR Phase II-E) contract.

The seed funding and the matching NASA SBIR Phase II-E award will enable Vestigo Aerospace to establish the commercial, manufacturing process for Vestigo’s product line of dragsails currently in development. The dragsails are designed to enable the timely deorbit of space vehicles, including cubesats, smallsats and launch vehicle upper stages. Initial sales are anticipated for 2023.

Vestigo’s dragsails offer standardized mechanical and electrical interfaces to the host vehicle, allowing straightforward integration. The dragsails can be deployed on command or via a backup timer, providing reliable deorbit capability even if the host vehicle is inoperative.

Spinnaker dragsails are sized to enable the host vehicle to meet regulatory guidelines for deorbit duration. Currently, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission mandates deorbit from LEO within 25 years of end-of-mission. The FCC offers streamlined licensing, with cost savings in application fees of over $440,000, for commercial smallsats that can deorbit within six years of launch. The FCC has an upcoming vote on September 29, 2022, which is likely to mandate a 5 year deorbit requirement for all satellites.

Prior to the seed round, Vestigo Aerospace funded dragsail technology development through NASA SBIR Phase I and Phase II contracts, and matching funds from Indiana-based Elevate Ventures. The company licensed the dragsail technology through the Purdue Research Foundation of Office Technology Commercialization. The company was a client of the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub whose professionals help Purdue innovators create startups.

“The Spinnaker product line of dragsails addresses the growing need for reliable end-of-mission deorbit capability in order to maintain the sustainability of low-Earth orbit,” said David Spencer, founder and CEO of Vestigo Aerospace. “Bolt-on dragsails represent an ‘ounce of prevention’ approach to the orbital debris problem that, if left unchecked, could halt the growth of the orbital economy.”

Lorenzo Esparza, founding principal and CEO at Manhattan West, said, “At Manhattan West, we are committed to being active investors in emerging spaces, disruptive sectors, and identifying long-term secular shifts developing in the markets. We’re thrilled that our strategic investment in Vestigo will support the company’s development as it establishes its name as a leading player in deorbit systems and the space industry.”

Established in 2019, Vestigo Aerospace has quickly become an industry leader in dragsail technology. Vestigo is committed to preserving the space environment and high-utility orbits through deorbiting SmallSats and CubeSats. For more information, visit: vestigoaerospace.com.

Manhattan West is a global strategic investment firm based in Los Angeles that provides proprietary alternative investments across multiple asset classes including Private Equity, Venture Capital, Real Estate, Private Debt and traditional equity and fixed income portfolios, as well as financial services including business management, tax and planning. To learn more about us, visit manhattanwest.com.

Purdue Research Foundation supports Purdue University’s land-grant mission by helping the university improve the world through its technologies and graduates. Established in 1930, PRF is a private, nonprofit foundation. The foundation helps patent and commercialize Purdue technologies; builds places to encourage innovation, invention, investment, commercialization and entrepreneurship; and makes equity available to students to finance their Purdue education. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at otcip@prf.org. For more information about involvement and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.

Spaceflight will launch four Astrocast 3U spacecraft aboard India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) mission under a commercial arrangement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) — this mission, scheduled for October of 2022, will launch from Sriharikota, India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center, carrying the Astrocast spacecraft as a co-passenger to SSO along with an Indian, national primary, satellite.

This launch represents Spaceflight’s eighth launch on a PSLV and their fourth supporting Astrocast’s smallsat IoT network and constellation. Once this mission is complete, Spaceflight will have launched 16 spacecraft to the Astrocast constellation, which enables companies to track and monitor assets in some of the world’s most remote regions.

Astrocast is a long-time Spaceflight customer. In March of 2022, the Satellite IoT (satIoT) network operator extended its multi-launch agreement with Spaceflight to accommodate Astrocast’s fast-growing, IoT constellation. Spaceflight had previously launched all 12 of Astrocast’s spacecraft into orbit, including demonstration models dating back to Spaceflight’s historic SSO-A mission in 2018 and PSLV-C45 in 2019. The companies most recently partnered and successfully launched an additional five smallsats on SpaceX Transporter-1 in January of 2021.

The uniqueness of Astrocast’s IoT network can be attributed to the fact that its LEO constellation offers users cost-effective, bidirectional communication and modules with long battery life that connect assets moving across its network. The small sized modules and antenna allow systems integrators to place a module on any device, from fishing buoys to container trackers or moving animals. Astrocast’s solution has been designed to minimize the need for human intervention and repair, wherever possible, safeguarding the IoT business case.

“PSLV has long been a reliable and valuable launch partner to Spaceflight and we’re excited to work with NSIL again after the COVID-19 restrictions of the last few years,” said Curt Blake, CEO of Spaceflight. “By having experience working with many different launch providers around the world, we are able to identify missions that meet our customer’s exact needs – whether that’s driven by schedule, cost or destination. As Astrocast builds its network and constellation, we can offer them a range of launch options, flexibility and customization to support their long-term plans.”

“This launch is helping us get closer to accomplishing our mission of building and operating the most advanced and sustainable satellite IoT network,” said Kjell Karlsen, CFO of Astrocast. “Our long-standing relationship with Spaceflight and their access to, and experience with, an extensive portfolio of vehicles has provided us with the flexibility and customization needed to launch our satellites. Assured access to space is critical for us as we grow our network and our partnership with Spaceflight enables us to efficiently build out our constellation.”

2022 has been a year of innovation and leadership for Spaceflight, with successful inaugural launches of its Sherpa-AC and Sherpa-LTC vehicles. Its next notable OTV mission will take place in mid-2023, launching Spaceflight’s Sherpa-ES, a bipropellant, high delta-V OTV, aboard the much-anticipated lunar slingshot mission, GEO Pathfinder. To date, the company has executed more than 50 launches taking more than 450 customer payloads to orbit.

Spaceflight is revolutionizing the business of space transportation through its comprehensive suite of launch services and Sherpa® orbital transfer vehicles. The company provides unprecedented launch flexibility to ensure customers’ smallsats get to orbit exactly when and where they want through a combination of long-standing relationships with a diverse portfolio of launch partners, innovative satellite integration capabilities, including flight and ground support hardware, licensing and logistics management, and extensive mission management expertise. Based in Seattle, Spaceflight has successfully launched hundreds of satellites and is a part of the Mitsui & Co., Ltd. portfolio, operating as an independent, U.S.-based company. For more information, visit http://www.spaceflight.com.

About Astrocast Astrocast SA operates a leading global nanosatellite IoT network, offering services in industries such as Agriculture & Livestock, Maritime, Environment & Utilities to name a few. The Astrocast network enables companies to monitor, track, and communicate with remote assets from anywhere in the world. It relies on superior L-band spectrum through a strategic alliance with Thuraya. In partnership with Airbus, CEA/LETI and ESA, Astrocast developed Astronode S, an ultra-low power and miniaturized module compatible with inexpensive L-band patch antennas. Founded in 2014 by a renowned team of experts, Astrocast develops and tests all its products in-house, from the satellites to the modules. Astrocast is listed on Euronext Growth Oslo and recently announced the acquisition of Hiber.

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) a Govt. of India company under Department of Space is the commercial arm of ISRO. NSIL is involved in various space business activities and launching customer satellites on-board ISRO’s launch vehicle viz. PSLV, SSLV and GSLV-MkIII is one of the key business vertical of NSIL. It has engaged several commercial launch service contracts for launching satellites as co-passengers or as dedicated missions.

Marlink and OneWeb are planning to conduct the first at sea trial of OneWeb’s LEO maritime service.

Marlink’s 30 years of technical experience has them contributing their 30 years of know-how in co-operation with OneWeb and that firm’s technology partners to trial the service to integrate it into Marlink’s hybrid, smart network solutions portfolio.

The maritime test is a significant milestone for OneWeb, as it leverages the company’s LEO connectivity at sea, delivering a high-speed, low-latency and globally consistent experience to all maritime users – even in the most remote sea lanes and maritime communities.

The initial integration and evaluation will take place at Marlink’s Eik teleport (Norway), with installation and on-vessel trial scheduled for Q4 2022. In co-operation with hardware providers Intellian and Hughes Network Systems, Marlink will carry out tests of the OneWeb maritime service validating throughput, latency and quality. Testing of hardware will include review of stability, signal tracking and handover capability.

This represents the first ‘at sea’ maritime trial on OneWeb’s maritime satellite service and includes evaluation of the new user terminal created by Intellian, with a core module from Hughes Network Systems. Capable of performing very fast handovers between satellites passing overhead, the user terminal has been specially designed for the extremes of the maritime environment.

Marlink and OneWeb announced in January of 2022 their intention to collaborate to bring the new LEO service to the customer base onshore and offshore. As an early OneWeb partner, Marlink will integrate OneWeb’s LEO service into the firm’s global, industry-leading, smart hybrid, network solutions alongside GEO, MEO and 4G/5G services to serve its large commercial maritime and offshore markets.

OneWeb is making significant progress in building their constellation and currently has 428 satellites in LEO, representing almost 70% of the OneWeb planned fleet. The company plans to offer a commercial maritime service from January of 2023, already delivering high-speed connectivity to hundreds of customers in remote communities in Alaska, Canada, the Nordics and the North Sea.

Launches will continue during 2022-2023 to enable the company to offer flexible, reliable and secure connectivity services globally from end 2023.

“As a Managed Service Provider of hybrid network solutions across all frequencies and orbits, with customers in all verticals, Marlink has the right expertise and capabilities to help OneWeb prepare its service for the maritime market,” said Tore Morten Olsen, President, Maritime, Marlink. “We believe that OneWeb will be a valuable addition to the Marlink smart network solutions portfolio, providing further choice for our customers with new LEO services.”

“OneWeb’s LEO service will bring a completely new kind of connectivity to maritime users, providing a high level of quality and performance that will deliver a richer, more immersive and terrestrial-like user experience onboard ships,” said Carole Plessy, Vice President of Europe and Maritime, OneWeb. “This is a watershed moment for the maritime connectivity market, together with our trusted partner Marlink the testing and evaluation will ensure that we have a fully robust and reliable service in place when commercial operations begin.”

On Saturday, September 10th, at 9:20 p.m., ET, SpaceX launched 34 Starlink satellites to enhance their constellation, as well as AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 satellite, to orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This was the 14th launch and landing of this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched Crew Demo-2, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, Transporter-3, and now nine Starlink missions.