The Antaris JANUS-1 smallsat has successfully reached orbit — JANUS-1 rode on the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) SSLV-D2 rocket, which was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre of India under a commercial arrangement with New Space India Limited (NSIL). The satellite features five payloads from a range of global providers and those will be commissioned and begin nominal operations during the coming days.
Additional tech demonstration satellites from Antaris and manufacturing partners Ananth Technologies and XDLINX Labs are planned for 2023, including 6U, 12U and 27U satellite reference architectures.
JANUS-1 is a 6U satellite featuring payload and subsystem technologies from AICRAFT, Morpheus Space, Netra, SayariLabs Kenya, SpeQtral, Transcelestial and Zero-Error Systems (ZES) that will perform Internet of Things (IoT) communications, advanced experimental laser communications, radio communications and machine learning (ML) during orbit.
Antaris SatOS software manages core bus responsibilities while orchestrating multi-tenant payloads and onboard computing — in addition to showcasing secure TT&C (Telemetry, Tracking and Command) protocols with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and ATLAS Space Operations, who are providing ground communications services.
The project was completed in just 10 months from concept to launch readiness with a cost savings of 75% over comparable satellite missions. Based on data captured during the build, Antaris anticipates that future spacecraft missions can be ready for launch in as few as six months.
While the launch marks the start of JANUS-1’s on-orbit mission, the satellite has been ‘in flight’ for months via the company’s unique TrueTwin
digital twinning technology that creates a digital version of the satellite at the start of the project and then integrates with hardware-in-the-loop as hardware becomes available.
“This is a very proud moment for our company and the global space ecosystem,” said Antaris Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Karthik Govindhasamy. “We did something that has never been done before—we designed, built and launched a complex satellite in just months, not years, at a fraction of traditional costs. Our cloud-based platform made this all possible, and we have proven that this software is the future of the satellite industry.”
“We’re so proud of the entire Antaris team and our incredible manufacturing partners,” noted Antaris Co-Founder and CEO, Tom Barton. “Together, we have broken down major barriers that have historically hampered satellite design and production. We hope JANUS-1 will serve as an inspiration to the entire space ecosystem and look forward to partnering with other New Space pioneers who are ready to go fast and work with us to make space easy. Antaris software dramatically simplifies the design, simulation and operation of satellites. We bring New Space thinking to an Old Space world, giving our customers maximum control and flexibility while improving time-to-orbit, reducing costs and optimizing engineering reuse.”