Archives for 2022

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: KTOS) has engaged in a strategic partnership with Kymeta to jointly develop products and solutions that will enable modern, virtualized, ground systems to better leverage the capabilities of next generation, mobile, satellite antennas.

Among the broader goals of the partnership are to advance the ability of ground systems to support, leverage, manage, and control electronically-steered and multi-purpose antennas to better support the capabilities of software-defined and multi-beam satellites. This effort will initially focus on joint development of a software-defined remote terminal that will support a variety of dynamic satellite connectivity applications, including support for multi-orbit use cases where connectivity to LEO, MEO, and GEO satellites through the same antenna are desirable.

The space industry is immersed in a renaissance, driven by technology breakthroughs such as smallsats, proliferated LEO constellations, software-defined payloads, multi-orbit services, and more. On the ground, commensurate advances in satellite networks are occurring, as witnessed by the growth of ground-as-a-service providers, mobile communications-on-the-move, and virtualized ground systems. These advances at both ends of the space/ground connection mean that satellite systems must come to act more dynamically, adapting on-the-fly to changing needs, conditions, service levels, and business or mission requirements.

The Digitally-Transformed Remote Terminal will combine a Kymeta ESA with a software-defined uCPE (Universal Customer Premises Equipment) based on Kratos OpenSpace technology, all in a unified terminal package. The OpenSpace Platform is the first and only commercially available software-defined and orchestrated ground system that allows satellite and communications operators to advance the digital transformation of their satellite networks.

In order to deliver a solution that dynamically adapts to changes at the space layer while also supporting multiple functions at the network’s edge, the jointly developed products will conform to industry standards, including the IEEE-ISTO Std 4900-2021: Digital IF Interoperability Standard, v1.0 from the Digital IF Interoperability (DIFI) Consortium (DIFI). Both companies believe that common standards are essential for the space industry to realize the opportunities on the horizon and to advance the industry’s integration with the larger global communications infrastructure. Both are founding members of DIFI, an independent organization created to develop and promote standards for interoperability in space and satellite systems.

According to Greg Quiggle, Vice President of Space Product Management at Kratos, “This modem/antenna interface assumes an analog, static, one-for-one relationship at a time when the space layer has evolved to include highly dynamic multi-orbit networks and software-defined payloads. Remote terminals must digitally transform, embracing the unique capabilities of electronically steered antennas (ESA) and universal customer premise equipment (uCPE) to dynamically enable multi-beam, multi-band, and multi-use at the network edge.”

“Kymeta is excited to partner with Kratos, a leader in the space network virtualization revolution, to jointly develop a digital ground terminal that leverages the Kymeta u8 antenna technology,” said Lilac Muller, Kymeta’s Vice President of Product Management. “The Kymeta u8 is a software-defined platform that unlocks the potential of future capabilities in both terrestrial and space-based networks in geostationary and non-geostationary orbits.”

Additionally, Kratos is enhancing their Earth Observation & Remote Sensing Service Chain (EO/RS SC) for their OpenSpace Platform. The new release adds features that enable satellite operators and Ground Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) providers to increase automation, accelerate deployment times and further optimize operating and capital expenditures.

The OpenSpace Platform is the first fully virtualized and orchestrated satellite ground system. Service chains, such as the EO/RS SC, run on the OpenSpace Platform to seamlessly integrate and automate the tasks of service delivery in a fully virtual environment. The new release of the EO/RS SC enables customers to support the current and next generation of EO/RS satellites by providing fully orchestrated Telemetry, Tracking, and Command (TT&C), high-throughput wideband data downlink and packet processing of mission data.

Kratos’ OpenSpace family of solutions enables the digital transformation of satellite ground systems to become a more dynamic and powerful part of the space network. The family consists of three product lines: OpenSpace SpectralNet for converting satellite RF signals to be used in digital environments; OpenSpace quantum products, which are virtual versions of traditional hardware components; and the OpenSpace Platform, the first commercially available, fully orchestrated, software-defined ground system. These three OpenSpace lines enable satellite operators and other service providers to implement digital operations at their own pace and in ways that meet their unique mission goals and business models.

Addressing the intensive bandwidth needs of today’s missions, the EO/RS SC delivers more than a gigabit-per-second of downlink throughput. It does so running solely on commercially available, off-the-shelf x86-based computers without specialized hardware or enhancements. Operators can deploy and reconfigure these service chains in minutes running in public cloud, private data center environments or hybrid cloud environments.

“The new, enhanced capabilities of the OpenSpace EO/RS SC and the ability to orchestrate those functions within the OpenSpace Platform dramatically lower the cost of downlinks, while raising the performance for missions,” said Christopher Boyd, Senior Director of Product Management at Kratos. “Virtual TT&C modems, wideband receivers, and stream processing/recorders are orchestrated as a service chain along with the automated configuration of physical functions such as digitizers and antenna control systems to support fully automated EO sensing mission services from the antenna all the way to post satellite pass processing.”

In its third dedicated rideshare mission with SpaceX, Exolaunch, global provider of launch, in-space logistics and deployment services, successfully integrated and launched 29 small satellites from customers across the globe. The company’s rideshare clusters aboard the SpaceX Transporter-3 mission were an amalgamation of microsats, cubesats (up to 16U) and PocketQubes. The combination of customers from 17 countries across four continents, and an unprecedented number of very sophisticated payloads made it the most technologically rich and geographically spread integration effort for the company yet.

Exolaunch’s rideshare customers’ payloads have top-notch technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT), Maritime Surveillance, Ultra HD Video Streaming, Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) Earth Observation, and Science and Education.

The eclectic company medley incorporated returning customers such as NanoAvionics and ICEYE, as well as many notable new customers such as Sen, Unseenlabs, Lunasonde, NuSpace, FOSSA Systems and Alba Orbital. The companies behind this plethora of satellites are based in the USA, Finland, Great Britain, France, Lithuania, Spain, Scotland, Singapore, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Israel, Nepal, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, and the UAE.
The launch of these 29 satellites brought the total number of satellites sent to space by Exolaunch close to two hundred.

“Never before have we integrated such a variety of satellites for a single mission,” said Connor Jonas, mission director at Exolaunch.  

This mission was also the third in a series of rideshare launches, which Exolaunch is manifesting on Falcon 9 as part of a Multi-Launch Agreement, which the company first signed with SpaceX in 2020 and extended at the end of 2021. For every Falcon 9 launch procured through this agreement, Exolaunch provides an end-to-end solution encompassing comprehensive rideshare mission management, satellite integration, and deployment services. Exolaunch has launched 59 satellites weighing nearly 1,500 kg on SpaceX’s first two record-breaking dedicated rideshare Transporter missions in 2021.  

To maximize payload capacity and cost-effectiveness for their customers, Exolaunch used its recent product addition, EXOport, a flexible multi-satellite adapter designed to optimally accommodate microsats and cubesats on a single Falcon 9 port. Exolaunch also used its proprietary flight-proven separation systems CarboNIX, a next generation shock-free separation system, that to date has successfully separated 24 microsats, and the EXOpod, Exolaunch’s upgraded deployer with a heritage of 139 deployed cubesats.

Michael Tolstoj, mission director at Exolaunch said, “Transporter-3 was another remarkable mission illustrating what our business is all about: Bringing together an unprecedented variety of technology from an ever-growing number of nations to help people shape the future of the planet with their ideas. It shows that our service is recognized by industry leaders as well as a growing base of recurring and new customers. Once again, our team has demonstrated technical creativity paired with a keen sense for the needs of our customers and the zeitgeist of the industry. And this is just the beginning.”

Starting next year, as a result of the entry of the Reliant orbital transfer vehicle into the space tug market, Exolaunch will be able to meet some of the most ambitious requirements of its customers who wish to deploy satellite constellations to custom orbits by adjusting altitude, inclination, LTAN (longitude of the ascending node), and performing orbital phasing. Reliant is designed to deorbit shortly after deployment completion, minimizing the risks of space collisions and mitigating orbital debris. Future generations of Reliant will also be able to perform on-demand active debris removal.

SayariLabs, first Kenyan space company, provider of satellite services and space-based solutions to governments, industries, and academic institutions in Africa and beyond, and EnduroSat, a provider of software-defined smallsats and space services for business and academia, have signed a commercial agreement to launch TAIFA-1 (“one nation” from Swahili), the first Kenyan, 3U, software-defined smallsat.

TAIFA-1 will get to orbit on SpaceX`s Falcon 9 — the launch is scheduled for Q4, 2022.

In the past decade, East Africa has been hit with heavy droughts and wildfires, causing water crisis, and damages of local agriculture and food supplies. TAIFA-1 will be loaded with a hyperspectral, Earth Observation (EO) camera that will capture environmental, wildlife, agricultural and land use mapping, all in the battle to halt the calamities in the region.

EnduroSat and SayariLabs also signed an MOU, which is another milestone for this partnership and the upcoming, joint space projects of the two companies. EnduroSat organized a two-week educational training program, dedicated to space systems and engineering and covering all aspects of mission analysis, design, and space craft assembly for the engineering team of SayariLabs.

“Over the past decades, space and satellite industries have been reserved for the wealthy and mighty. SayariLabs is on a mission of democratizing these industries for all interested players in the African region and in making Kenya a space giant in the next generation. With the advancement of technology this fantasy is quickly becoming a reality. Our partnership with EnduroSat, a leading company in this industry, is a major game-changer and it strengthens our hope and belief of being a major space and satellite solution provider in Kenya, the African region and other parts of the world,” said Aaron Nzau, the Founder and CEO SayariLabs

“I am really proud to have the opportunity to support SayariLabs in their efforts to bring space closer to thousands of people in Kenya. Working alongside their team has been an amazing experience for us and I cannot wait to see the innovations and the positive impact that they plan to have, realized in practice. EnduroSat has been for long time a true believer in open, responsible and accessible space and this is yet another step in this direction,” said Raycho Raychev, Founder and CEO of EnduroSat

EnduroSat provides software-defined smallsats and space services for business, exploration, and science teams. Its focus is on the development of next generation space commercial services and exploration programs. With an annual growth of 250%+, it is one of the fastest growing space companies in Europe. Proud member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), EnduroSat’s team exceeds 100+ talented developers, engineers, and scientists, currently serving more than 120+ clients worldwide. Customers for the Shared Satellite Service include 1) commercial space companies focused on IoT, remote sensing, meteorology, and Earth observation, and 2) research organizations: space agencies, universities, and institutes.

SayariLabs is the first Kenyan space startup company established in 2020 to provide satellite services and space-based solutions to governments, industries, and academic institutions in Kenya, as well as in the African region and other parts of the world. the company’s focus is on being the commercial market leader for satellite manufacture and space exploration activities in Africa and beyond. We are honored to be the first Kenyan satellite manufacturing startup company to be supported by the Kenya Space Agency, and partnering with EnduroSat from Bulgaria, in achieving our first satellite mission – TAIFA – 1. With our team of eight dedicated and talented Kenyan engineers, SayariLabs intends to grow and serve customers in several technology areas including the IoT industry, remote sensing, meteorology, earth observation and build more partnerships with research organizations, academic institutions, and MDA’s (Ministries, Departments and Agencies) within governments.

The Tartan-Artibeus-1 satellite, developed at Carnegie Mellon University, was aboard SpaceX‘s successful Falcon 9 launch of Transporter-3 to orbit on January 13 and was deployed to LEO as part of the Alba Unicorn constellation.

The mission’s goal was to demonstrate the viability of PocketQube-scale nanosatellites that operate reliably without batteries, eliminating the cost and complexity of battery-based power systems in smallsats. The sensor-equipped, 5 cm. cube (1/8 the size of a cubesat) can sense its environment and perform orbital edge computing to process sensor data in a way that is robust to intermittent operation.

During the mission, the satellite collected telemetry data about its operation (power state, stored energy, GPS location) and collected and processed sensor data about its environment using applications such as machine learning and inference. The results were sent back to Earth using a low-power radio.

Falcon 9’s first stage booster previously launched Crew Demo-2, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and five Starlink missions. Transporter-3 is SpaceX’s third dedicated rideshare mission, and on board this launch were 105 spacecraft (including cubesats, microsats, PocketQubes, and orbital transfer vehicles (OTV)).

“Our lab developed the Tartan-Artibeus-1 Satellite, which is what we believe to be the world’s first battery-less PocketQube nanosatellite,” said Brandon Lucia, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. “This project was led by Ph.D. students Brad Denby and Emily Ruppel from my lab and in collaboration with Alba Orbital, our launch services provider.”

“A unique aspect of this mission was that while on orbit, the satellite ran Cote, a physics-based orbital dynamics model and orbital edge computing simulator that we developed, giving the satellite better situational awareness without the need to communicate to earth,” said Lucia. “This battery-less satellite is the first of its kind and we are very excited for the new scientific results enabled by this unique deployment to Earth’s orbit.”

Story by Krista Burns

Xplore Inc. has signed a contract with Orbital Astronautics Ltd. (OrbAstro) to use OrbAstro’s satellite buses for a variety of innovative missions, starting with OrbAstro’s ORB-6 platform — Xplore will fly Earth and astronomical observation imagers, with a first launch scheduled for late 2022.

Xplore selected OrbAstro’s bus as it meets the company’s more complex requirement to fly multiple instruments on a single mission. One way that Xplore maximizes the value of its missions is by collecting a variety of data for its commercial, astronomical and climate research customers.

OrbAstro is highly vertical, having built satellite platforms and all subsystems from the ground up to the requirements of comprehensive satellite and constellation operations. This has allowed the company to compress costs and lead-times substantially, while providing as a baseline, a compelling offering for satellite and constellation operators. Their ORB-class platforms are state-of-the-art, with Ultrascale+ and LPDDR4 based onboard computing, electric propulsion, full ADCS with dual star-trackers, S-band transceiver, and optical communications as standard.

“We are excited to have our first flight underway, and it is wonderful to work with OrbAstro — a collaborative and high-quality supplier helping reduce time and cost in our mission development,” said Lisa Rich, Xplore’s Founder and Chief Operating Officer. “OrbAstro’s turnkey solution enables Xplore to run missions that prove out operations, data acquisition capabilities and customer integration functions. We embrace suppliers and partners capable of moving at the speed of business, as they accelerate our ability to rapidly deliver high-value data to our customers. We know that great innovation is afoot, and we love meeting new suppliers who surprise us with amazing capabilities that give us an edge.”

“Xplore is a highly innovative company that likes to move fast, which is what OrbAstro is all about. They are exactly the sort of company we love supporting,” said Dr. Ash Dove-Jay, CEO of OrbAstro. “Through working very closely with the Xplore team, we were able to quickly create an affordable solution for highly demanding mission parameters.”

As a collaborative company, Xplore is actively seeking incremental offerings and unique capabilities from the innovative suppliers with lower cost, high-quality solutions that are proliferating in today’s global space ecosystem.

Xplore offers Space as a Service®, providing data as a service, sensors as a service and satellites as a service to collect data from space that provides commercial, intelligence and climate solutions for its customers. The company is accelerating hardware development of the Xcraft, Xplore’s high-capability satellite data collection platform at its state-of-the-art 22,000 sq. ft. satellite manufacturing facility in Redmond, Washington. Xplore has multiple flight programs in progress and is currently recruiting space professionals. Openings at their Redmond headquarters include operations and engineering roles. Applicants may visit Xplore’s career page for details. Visit: www.xplore.com/careers.html About OrbAstro OrbAstro

Orbital Astronautics Ltd. is a United Kingdom and New Zealand based space technology company focused on supporting companies looking to directly use satellites for their businesses. Orbital Astronautics is currently maturing a satellite batch production facility targeting constellation markets and is building its own satellite constellation to provide low-latency access and autonomous operations services for customers satellites.

mu Space Corp has been invited to speak at the SmallSat Symposium in Silicon Valley — mu Space will be representing the space industry in Southeast Asia at this internationally renowned event.

Joining the event will allow mu Space to announce the company’s latest updates that include the recently priced mu-B200 satellite at $4 million.

CEO and CTO, James Yenbamroong, will be speaking on the topic of “Smallsat Manufacturing in Mature and Burgeoning Organizations,” a topic mu Space is experienced to speak on, due to the firm’s expertise in being a manufacturing company.

This event takes place from February 8 to 10 at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley. Mr. Yenbaroong will be speaking on February 9th at 11:00 am on the topic mentioned above. The session will revolve around the manufacturing side of the space industry and will focus on the production of satellites.

The invited speakers will be sharing their expertise from their own businesses and experiences regarding smallsat manufacturing. Being a hub for tech companies, those attending the event represent leading aerospace companies throughout the world, including mu Space Corp. This, therefore, gives companies a chance to network with one another and build relationships for the future. mu Space anticipates meeting with partners and clients that will also be attending the event and building new relationships with organizations that attend the event.

AMH Philippines, Inc. and Synspective have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to use SAR technology as part of an integrated and comprehensive approach to mitigate geohazards for infrastructure in the Philippines.

The partnership includes the Land Displacement Monitoring (LDM) service, fully developed and automated by Synspective, and is empowered with AMH’s years of local experience in various projects in transportation infrastructure, energy, property, and mining sectors.

AMH Philippines, Inc., is actively involved in various hazard mitigation and risk reduction projects in the Philippines. The Philippine archipelago, located in the Ring of Fire region and along a typhoon belt in the Pacific, is susceptible to various natural hazards such as earthquakes and rainfall-induced landslides, liquefaction, subsidence, storm surges and flooding.

Synspective is both a SAR satellite manufacturer/operator and a geospatial SaaS provider in Japan. LDM is one such service. Empowered by data science and machine learning, LDM aims to provide insightful analysis through ground deformation patterns on its dashboard. Synspective will promote LDM and its data to address various geohazards in the country and expand its global presence.

These two parties will attempt to mutually leverage the strengths in their respective fields and deliver comprehensive end-to-end geohazard consultation to support local communities that are prone to frequent natural disasters.

AMH President, Jose Carlo Eric Santos, said, “This collaboration with Synspective is very much aligned with AMH’s policy of providing our clients with the best and most responsive engineering solutions. It is our hope that the utilization of SAR technology will contribute to our efforts of helping our clients, and the whole country, build safer and more resilient infrastructure and communities.”

Founder and CEO of Synspective, Dr. Motoyuki Arai, said, “It is a great honor to collaborate with AMH Philippines, Inc. to kick off our new exciting year. This partnership makes sense not only for Synspective’s plan for global expansion of operation but also from the context of leveraging AMH’s proven track record of reputable capability through thousands of local engineering consultations. We anticipate the essence of LDM will be of great value in building safer communities across the Philippines.”

AMH Philippines Inc. (AMH) is an employee-owned, academe-linked, Filipino engineering consulting company based at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. AMH currently has 33 shareholders, 16 of which have involvement as Professors or Senior Lecturers with the UP Institute of Civil Engineering, the UP National Engineering Center and the National Institute of Geological Sciences. The synergy of advanced academic training and professional industry experience has enabled AMH to undertake more than a thousand projects in the past 20 years. Among them are of various scales across a wide range of civil engineering disciplines, including comprehensive site evaluation studies, traditional services such as building systems, civil works/land development design and construction management, and specialized services such as modeling and assessment work for coastal environments and slopes.