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Archives for April 2023

UPDATE 5: No further delays… SDA’s Tranche 0 mission launched by SpaceX to LEO via Falcon 9 — SDA info regarding the launch

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SpaceX successfully launched the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission via a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, April 2nd., at 7:29 a.m., PT (14:29 UTC).

This national security payload was dispatched to LEO from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California (VSFB).

The first stage booster that supported this mission previously landed (photo below) without problem on LZ-4 at VSFB.

Space Development Agency Tranche 0 satellites launch

The Space Development Agency (SDA) successfully launched the Tranche 0 (T0) of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), the Transport and Tracking Layer satellites that will demonstrate the low-latency communication links to support the warfighter with a resilient network of integrated capabilities, including tracking of advanced missile threats, from low-Earth orbit (LEO).

A SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable, two stage rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, launched the first 10 of the planned 28 satellites. Once completed, Tranche 0 will include 20, optically-connected, data transport satellites and eigh,t optically-connected, missile warning/missile tracking satellites equipped with wide-field-of-view sensors. A second SDA launch of Tranche 0 satellites is scheduled for June.

The launch, originally scheduled for March 30, was delayed out of an abundance of caution to investigate technical issues with the launch vehicle. This T0 Launch carried 10 satellites. York Space Systems provided eight Transport and SpaceX provided two Tracking satellites. To fully populate Tranche 0, York Space Systems and Lockheed Martin will produce 10 Transport satellites each, for a total of 20, T0, Transport satellites. SpaceX and L3Harris will provide four Tracking satellites each for a total of eight T0 satellites. Tranche 0 ground support is provided by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

SDA awarded firm-fixed-price contracts for T0 satellites, resulting in a cost of approximately $15 million per Transport satellite, and is fielding the constellation approximately 30 months after authority-to-proceed on each contract.

The T0 demonstration constellation will fly in two orbital planes at an altitude of approximately 1,000 km. Once on-orbit, the satellites must undergo a period of test and checkout of the bus and mission payloads before demonstrations can begin.

The constellation will serve as the warfighter immersion tranche and support military exercises, including advanced missile tracking tests, in the summer of 2023 and beyond. Tranche 0 will demonstrate the feasibility of the following:

  • Low latency data connectivity
  • Beyond line of sight targeting
  • Missile warning/missile tracking
  • On-orbit fusion
  • Multi-phenomenology ground-based sensor fusion

SDA plans to field the first operational generation of the PWSA, Tranche 1, starting in late 2024. Tranche 1 will include 126 Transport Layer satellites, 35 Tracking satellites, and 12 tactical demonstration satellites (called T1DES). Tranche 1 will be operated by SDA’s groundbreaking space operations centers based heavily on commercial space operations models.

“This is a major accomplishment for SDA and for the whole Department of Defense. It shows that our key pillars, proliferation and spiral development, can deliver for national security space. Through this launch, we’ve demonstrated that SDA can keep a schedule to deliver enhanced capabilities every two years. This revolutionary approach is enabled by growth in the commercial marketplace, allowing the PWSA to move forward to deliver warfighting capabilities in each future tranche.” — Derek Tournear, director of SDA

SDA transferred to U.S. Space Force as a direct reporting unit in October 2022. SDA brings a unique acquisition strategy that enables faster and cheaper capability delivery by designing and rapidly deploying a threat-driven resilient constellation of small satellites in LEO. SDA programs provide an integral part of the national security hybrid space architecture in the areas of communications, data transport, and missile warning.

Previous information postings…

UPDATE 3: SpaceX is now targeting Sunday, April 2 at 7:29 a.m. PT (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available Monday, April 3 at the same time.

Previously:
UPDATE 2: SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Saturday, April 1 for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

UPDATE: Orders came, “Abort, abort, abort,” as the Tranche 0 launch scrubbed at T-3.
SpaceX is now targeting Friday, March 31 at 7:29 a.m. PT (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The next launch attempt is set for early Thursday. The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The space vehicles launched during this mission will serve a part of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a new layered network of satellites in low-Earth orbit and supporting elements that will provide global military communication and missile warning, indication, and tracking capabilities.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff.

Previously:
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, March 30th., at 7:29 a.m., PT, (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to LEO from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday, March 31st., at the same time.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched one Starlink mission.

Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg SFB.

The space vehicles launched during this mission will serve a part of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a new layered network of satellites in LEO and supporting elements that will provide global military communication and missile warning, indication, and tracking capabilities.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff … watch via this direct link…

Unseenlabs to launch their BRO-9 vessel geolocation smallsat

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Unseenlabs, a world radio frequency data and solutions provider for Maritime Domain Awareness, is announcing the coming launch of BRO-9, the 9th satellite of the company’s constellation that is dedicated to the geolocation of all the vessels at sea.

Artistic rendition of the Unseen Labs BRO-9 smallsat, courtesy of the company.

BRO-9 will be launched in April of 2023 as part of the SpaceX Transporter-7 Mission aboard Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California. This launch is a step forward for the development of Unseenlabs.

Unseenlabs provides solutions for maritime surveillance, based on exclusive RF data to allow the geolocation and characterization of any type of vessel anywhere around the globe. Many public and private customers (French Navy, NGOs, marine insurers, etc.) are already using these solutions.

“The launch of BRO-9 is an important milestone for Unseenlabs and our solutions’ ongoing development, the most advanced in the industry. Our one-of-a-kind technology allows our customers to make informed strategic decisions to protect their assets and preserve ocean biodiversity.” — Jonathan Galic, CTO and co-founder of Unseenlabs

“BRO-9 will strengthen our capabilities to detect and track vessels — including uncooperative ones — and to fight against unlawful activities at sea (IUU fishing, smuggling, piracy, marine pollution, etc.). Unlike conventional maritime surveillance systems, our technology is limitless: at any time of the day or night, anywhere on the globe, and in any weather conditions, we can detect all the vessels navigating at sea, even those willing to go uncovered. We are convinced that our solutions offer significant added value to our customers, and contribute to creating safer oceans and seas for all.” — Clément Galic, CEO and co-founder of Unseenlabs

Momentus’ propulsion system completes initial in-space tests

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Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) has successfully completed the initial test sequence on-orbit of the company’s pioneering Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (MET) that relies on solar power and uses distilled water as a propellant.

The MET is the Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle’s (OSV) primary propulsion method that produces thrust by expelling extremely hot gases through a rocket nozzle. Unlike a conventional chemical rocket engine, which creates thrust through a chemical reaction, the MET is designed to create a plasma and thrust using solar power to drive a microwave energy source that heats the water propellant. Momentus has two patents in support of this proprietary propulsion technology. View a video of MET ground testing at this direct link…

The recent MET testing done on-orbit included multiple test firings of the thruster that imparted forces on the Vigoride-5 spacecraft. These forces can change the orbital velocity of the spacecraft, allowing the orbit to be adjusted, changing parameters such as altitude and orbital inclination. This capability will allow Momentus to deliver its customers’ payloads to custom orbits. Momentus plans to demonstrate changes in spacecraft altitude and orbital inclination during the current Vigoride-5 mission.

Artistic rendition of Momentus’ Vigoride OSV on-orbit

The Vigoride OSV’s Attitude Control and Reaction Control Systems also use water as a propellant and were recently tested and fully commissioned. With its water-based propulsion systems, Momentus aims to offer cost-effective, efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly propulsion to meet the demands for in-space transportation and infrastructure services.

“The MET technology is central to our transportation services, empowering us to offer custom and precise orbital deliveries for customers, and we’re encouraged to see initial testing of the technology on-orbit in space performing the way we anticipated from our ground testing,” said . “We’ll be ramping up testing of the MET over the coming weeks as we look to push its performance in space. The Momentus team has worked incredibly hard to get us to this point. That focus will continue as we aim to advance our sustainable propulsion system that meets a market need and offers advantages over traditional chemical and electric propulsion systems. The MET concept has been studied in academia since the 1980s and we saw tremendous opportunity in commercializing it. Many in-space vehicles use Argon and Xenon – which are often sourced from Russia and Ukraine. The use of water as a propellant alleviates the need to lean on foreign vendors for certain kinds of spacecraft. We’ve heard a lot of positive feedback about this point from the U.S. Department of Defense. In the much longer term, MET is an attractive option as water becomes known as a more abundant resource in space and propellant for our future vehicles can be pulled from other resources in the solar system. Water is found on the Moon and other places in the solar system, so as we think about longer term missions our use of water as a propellant offers other advantages.” — Momentus Chief Executive Officer John Rood

UPDATE 4: No further delays… SDA’s Tranche 0 mission launched by SpaceX to LEO via Falcon 9

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SpaceX successfully launched the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission via a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, April 2nd., at 7:29 a.m., PT (14:29 UTC).

This national security payload was dispatched to LEO from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California (VSFB).

The first stage booster that supported this mission previously landed (photo below) without problem on LZ-4 at VSFB.

Previous information postings…

UPDATE 3: SpaceX is now targeting Sunday, April 2 at 7:29 a.m. PT (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available Monday, April 3 at the same time.

Previously:
UPDATE 2: SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Saturday, April 1 for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

UPDATE: Orders came, “Abort, abort, abort,” as the Tranche 0 launch scrubbed at T-3.
SpaceX is now targeting Friday, March 31 at 7:29 a.m. PT (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The next launch attempt is set for early Thursday. The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The space vehicles launched during this mission will serve a part of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a new layered network of satellites in low-Earth orbit and supporting elements that will provide global military communication and missile warning, indication, and tracking capabilities.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff.

Previously:
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, March 30th., at 7:29 a.m., PT, (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to LEO from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday, March 31st., at the same time.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched one Starlink mission.

Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg SFB.

The space vehicles launched during this mission will serve a part of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a new layered network of satellites in LEO and supporting elements that will provide global military communication and missile warning, indication, and tracking capabilities.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff … watch via this direct link…

ISTSat-1 smallsat successfully passes thermal vacuum tests

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ISTSat-1, the first Portuguese CubeSat, has completed its crucial structural qualification and thermal-vacuum tests as part of ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! Program and now it‘s ready for the next destination: space.

ISTsat-1 is the first smallsat designed by students from University of Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico and is part of the second edition of Fly Your Satellite! (FYS), an ESA Education program that gives university students the opportunity to design, build, launch, and operate educational satellites.

ISTsat-1 is one-unit (1U, with dimensions of 10x10x10cm) CubeSat developed to optimize and complement aircraft surveillance systems by demonstrating the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) aircraft detection technology on-orbit. The smallsat contains many components that have been designed and built by the students themselves including structure, onboard computer, electrical system and battery pack, communication subsystem, and even a bespoke ADS-B antenna and receiver.

This has given students a wealth of experience but comes with the inherent additional risks of using in-house solutions. Before ISTSat-1 can undertake this task, it must go through a series of rigorous tests to maximize its ultimate chance of success.

The Portuguese team recently traveled to the CubeSat Support Facility (CSF) in ESEC (Redu, Belgium — photo at the bottom of the story.) to perform the Vibration tests. After successful completion, they traveled again to the CSF to undergo the phase of Environmental Tests in the Thermal Vacuum Chamber (TVAC), which aims at verifying the correct functionality of the spacecraft under space-representative thermal and vacuum environments.

(Photo below: students preparing to put their smallsat through the rigors of the vacuum chamber, as show to the right.)

This is a major milestone for any space object built on Earth, from small CubeSats to large spacecraft.

Bake out was also run on the CubeSat for several hours at more than 50°C to ensure outgassing of any volatile compounds (photo below). The ISTSat-1 was subjected to four thermal cycles in vacuum conditions in order to simulate the environment that the CubeSat will be subject to in space and that it can properly function in such a harsh environment. The test chamber’s window was closed all this time, so the students were unable to see see the satellite hanging inside the chamber, but they could rely only on running remote functionality checks to ensure their satellite was in good health, just as they will need to do after launch.

After the TVAC test is finished, the team must verify the proper functionality of the CubeSat platform and payload and perform a health check along with functional tests of all the subsystems in a reduced form. In addition, the CubeSat Support Facility is a classroom, so throughout the week the students learned about running a test campaign to professional standards with careful support from ESA Education staff.

Ultimately, the students adjusted admirably to performing lab work and responded to the activities requested by the plan commendably eventually yielding to passing a key milestone towards the ISTSAt-1 launch.

Following the travel back to Lisbon the students will be executing a Full Functional Test to verify the correct functionality of their CubeSat in preparation for flight, then, following last arrangement on the PFM, the final Flight Acceptance Review with flight authorities and ESA supervision will be conducted.

UPDATE 3: SpaceX’s third launch delay of SDA’s Tranche 0 mission

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UPDATE 3: SpaceX is now targeting Sunday, April 2 at 7:29 a.m. PT (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available Monday, April 3 at the same time.

Previously:
UPDATE 2: SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Saturday, April 1 for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

UPDATE: Orders came, “Abort, abort, abort,” as the Tranche 0 launch scrubbed at T-3.
SpaceX is now targeting Friday, March 31 at 7:29 a.m. PT (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The next launch attempt is set for early Thursday. The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The space vehicles launched during this mission will serve a part of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a new layered network of satellites in low-Earth orbit and supporting elements that will provide global military communication and missile warning, indication, and tracking capabilities.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff.

Previously:
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, March 30th., at 7:29 a.m., PT, (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to LEO from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday, March 31st., at the same time.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched one Starlink mission.

Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg SFB.

The space vehicles launched during this mission will serve a part of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a new layered network of satellites in LEO and supporting elements that will provide global military communication and missile warning, indication, and tracking capabilities.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff … watch via this direct link…