Archives for July 2023

OneWeb Technologies Inc. has successfully concluded several demos with MITRE and the Department of the Air Force’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communication and Battle Management (PEO C3BM) during the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command “Exercise Northern Edge,” which took place recently in Alaska at the Joint Pacific-Alaska Range Complex (JPARC).

OneWeb Technologies deployed several terminals across the JPARC, including locations in the Gulf of Alaska, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, and at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska. Leveraging parent company OneWeb’s terminals, the company demonstrated high-capacity, low-latency, SATCOM connectivity for afloat and ashore locations and served as a critical linkage for the USAF’s Advanced Battle Management System.

OneWeb Technologies provided an alternate commercial data transport pathway increasing battle network resilience that is key to the service’s Agile Combat Employment concept.

OneWeb Technologies personnel also worked with MITRE to perform initial usability and proof-of-concept testing in early spring in Bedford, Massachusetts, ahead of the Alaska-area exercise. The results of the OneWeb SATCOM testing consistently exceeded available MILSATCOM capabilities in terms of throughput, latency, and availability.

OneWeb Technologies’ expansion of its ground architecture is expected to be complete in early 2024, with access to OneWeb’s full constellation of more than 600 satellites on-orbit, offering global service by the end of 2023. Today, OneWeb Technologies is providing mission-essential services to civil, commercial, and defense customers throughout the northern hemisphere, and will be expanding services in the coming months. Other advanced capabilities are in test and evaluation, and OneWeb Technologies is working with various defense agencies to support specialized and boutique requirements in accordance with its “customer-led, simplicity-first” business model.

“I am proud of the team for what they have accomplished and with the results of these demonstrations. The performance we are seeing from the OneWeb constellation, the OneWeb Technologies secure ground network, and user equipment is the result of hard work, and great partnership with our Department of Defense and Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) customers. SATCOM is the lifeblood of today’s connected, precision military. Without capabilities like OneWeb and OneWeb Technologies, the world is a less secure, less sure place,” said Steen. “I’m honored to be part of enabling our country’s National Security and lifesaving capabilities and am proud to be working with our defense partners around the world.” — Kevin Steen, CEO, OneWeb Technologies

Sidus Space, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIDU) has been awarded a new subcontract to produce hardware in support of Parsons Corporation’s (NYSE: PSN) Launch Manifest Systems Integration (LMSI) contract — under the terms of the agreement, Sidus Space will fabricate a master harness assembly and test cables for Parsons.

Sidus offers more than a decade of expertise in manufacturing mission critical hardware for customers including international and U.S. governments, NASA, and major space and defense prime contractors such as Parsons Corporation. With a proven history of success, space qualification know-how, and a rich legacy of hardware manufacturing, Sidus plays a pivotal role in missions that extend beyond LEO, encompassing destinations such as the moon, Mars and beyond.

Parsons is the U.S. Space Force’s prime contractor leading LMSI, a multi-year contract to integrate and operate rideshare payloads in the national security and other U.S. Government (USG) missions. Parsons is delivering multi-manifest smallsat payload integration solutions to space for USG-owned and sponsored smallsat systems and has integrated payloads for several missions, including the U.S. Space Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF)-5 communications satellite (artistic rendition below) and the joint NASA/U.S. Geological Survey’s Landsat 9 EO satellite.

“Parsons is an industry leader, and we are pleased to further our work on this important U.S. Space Force mission in collaboration with such a notable partner. This latest contract award again underscores our strong position in the space community where we are playing an increasingly vital role as a manufacturing partner with one of the U.S. Space Force’s leading prime contractors.” — Carol Craig, Founder and CEO, Sidus Space

Fleet Space Technologies has expanded its global footprint with its acquisition of rights to new, long-term, frequency filings in Europe — in the firm’s first commercial venture on the European continent, Fleet has purchased the frequency of assets of a Luxembourg-based company, giving the company effective, operational control over an existing frequency filing, adding to its already substantial holding of these mission-critical assets.

A filing provides a claim over spectrum and orbital resources for satellite networks with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Fleet’s newly acquired filing rights have seniority and that means means they will take priority over those that have been submitted more recently. The filings have been brought into use and Fleet will be able to use the new frequencies indefinitely, as long as it maintains a satellite on-orbit capable of using them.

The rapid growth in the global smallsat industry and LEO constellations — such as Fleet’s — has put increasing pressure on the limited radio frequency spectrum available for data transmission. The ITU frequency filing system is designed to support coordination among satellite operators and prevent interference between spacecraft using the shared resources.

In this context, the new frequency filings help secure Fleet’s access to uplink and downlink resources in the targeted frequency band, maximizing service availability to its satellite customers worldwide. Having a presence in Europe will also stimulate the recruitment and exchange of highly skilled talent between Europe and Australia as well as further improve established relationships with the European Space Agency (ESA).

The requirement to incorporate assets from other companies leaving the industry is driven by sustained growth for Fleet across a multitude of sectors. This includes the signing of long-term, satellite aided, critical Earth transition mineral agreements with some of the world’s largest and most innovative miners.

Fleet also confirmed the firm’s first defence contract in April of 2023, signing a AUD$6.4 million contract with Australia’s Defense Space Command, a Series C funding round of $50 million in May and was recently awarded A$4 million Demonstrator Program contract by the Australian Space Agency to harness seismic data at the Moon’s South Pole. This key strategic acquisition will underpin further growth.

“As Fleet Space Technologies company is now providing innovative universal connectivity solutions through its network of satellites across the globe to sectors as diverse as critical mineral exploration and defence. To meet this sustained demand, we depend on access to the shared but limited radio frequency spectrum to operate our services. Securing access to these new frequency filings puts us in a strong position globally and gives us and our customers a real competitive advantage. It also represents another important step in our international expansion, by giving us a commercial foothold in Europe to complement our operations in Australia, USA, Canada and Chile.” — Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO and Co-Founder, Fleet Space Technologies

 Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) announced the launch and orbital deployment of the Telesat LEO 3 demonstration microsatellite at 1:27 UTC, July 18. Carried into orbit from New Zealand by the Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle, LEO 3 is the 13^thsuccessful deployment of an SFL-developed microspace mission in 2023.

Ground control established communications with LEO 3 shortly after launch, confirmed SFL. Having achieved signal acquisition, solar arrays deployment, and successfully passing initial satellite health tests, SFL and Telesat are now testing the full satellite.

SFL built the compact 30-kg LEO 3 spacecraft on its space-proven DEFIANT microsatellite bus for Telesat of Ottawa, Ontario – one of the world’s largest and most innovative satellite operators. Once operational, LEO 3 will provide continuity for customer and ecosystem vendor testing campaigns following decommissioning of Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite.

“SFL is pleased to have been selected by Telesat to develop LEO 3 based on our 25-year track record of building high-performing satellites on time and within budget,” said SFL Director Dr. Robert E. Zee. “LEO 3 is a robust microsatellite that will meet Telesat’s demanding demonstration goals in low Earth orbit.”

Other SFL microspace satellites developed and launched in 2023 include six radio frequency signal detecting microsatellites for HawkEye 360 in the U.S., three greenhouse gas monitoring microsatellites for GHGSat Inc. of Canada, an advanced maritime tracking microsatellite for Norwegian Space Agency of Norway, and two communications CubeSats for a telecommunications company in Canada.

SFL’s 25-year heritage includes 70 operational successes totaling 255 cumulative years in orbit, with an additional 26 satellites under development or awaiting launch. SFL offers a complete suite of nano-, micro- and small satellites, including high-performance, low-cost CubeSats, that satisfy the needs of a broad range of mission types from 3 to 500 kilograms.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) successfully launched their rideshare Electron mission that carried seven smallsats to LEO.

Named the “Baby Come Back” mission, Electron lifted the smallsats from Pad A at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand (photo below), to their assigned orbits.

Rocket Lab is also planning to conduct a marine recovery of Electron’s first stage as part of this mission, with the recovery team aboard the vessel Seaworker.

Payloads aboard the ‘Baby Come Back’ mission include…

• NASA
  NASA’s Starling mission is a four CubeSat mission (built by Blue Canyon Technologies) and are designed to test technologies to enable future “swarm” missions. Spacecraft swarms refer to multiple spacecraft autonomously coordinating their activities to achieve certain goals. Starling will demonstrate technologies for in-space network communications, onboard relative navigation between spacecraft, autonomous maneuver planning and execution, and distributed spacecraft autonomy — an experiment for small spacecraft to autonomously react to observations, paving the way for future science missions.

• Space Flight Laboratory (SFL)
  Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) selected Rocket Lab to launch Telesat’s LEO 3 demonstration satellite that will provide continuity for customer and ecosystem vendor testing campaigns following the decommissioning of Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite.

• Spire Global
  Spire will launch two LEMUR (Low Earth Multi-Use Receiver) 3U satellites carrying Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) payloads to replenish its fully deployed constellation of more than 100 multipurpose satellites. Spire’s satellites observe the Earth in real time using radio frequency technology. The data acquired by Spire’s GNSS-RO payloads provide global weather intelligence that can be assimilated into weather models to improve the accuracy of forecasts. Spire is the largest producer of GNSS-RO weather data, collecting over 20,000 RO profiles a day.

On Saturday, July 15 at 11:50 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 54 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida.This was the 16th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34, Transporter-6, and now 11 Starlink missions.

This was the 16th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34, Transporter-6, and now 11 Starlink missions.

UPDATE 3: On Saturday, July 15 at 11:50 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 54 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida.This was the 16th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34, Transporter-6, and now 11 Starlink missions.

This was the 16th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34, Transporter-6, and now 11 Starlink missions.

UPDATE 2: SpaceX is targeting Saturday, July 15 at 11:50 p.m. ET (3:50 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of 54 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Sunday, July 16 at 11:24 p.m. ET (3:24 UTC).

UPDATE 1: Forty seconds before liftoff on Friday, July 14, SpaceX scrubbed the Starlink 5-15 mission at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. No reason for the scrub was immediately given by SpaceX. The next opportunity for launch is Saturday, July 15, at 12:15 a.m. EDT.

SpaceX is targeting Friday, July 14 at 12:40 a.m. ET (4:40 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of 54 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Saturday, July 15 at 12:15 a.m. (4:15 UTC).

This is the 16th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34, Transporter-6, and 10 Starlink missions. After stage separation, Falcon 9 will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX believes a fully and rapidly reusable rocket is the pivotal breakthrough needed to substantially reduce the cost of space access. The majority of the launch cost comes from building the rocket, which historically has flown only once.

Compare that to a commercial airliner — each new plane costs about the same as Falcon 9 but can fly multiple times per day and conduct tens of thousands of flights over its lifetime. Following the commercial model, a rapidly reusable space launch vehicle could reduce the cost of traveling to space by a hundredfold.

While most rockets are designed to burn up on reentry, SpaceX rockets can not only withstand reentry but can also successfully land back on Earth and refly again. SpaceX’s family of Falcon launch vehicles are the first and only orbital class rockets capable of reflight. Depending on the performance required for the mission, Falcon lands on one of our autonomous spaceport droneships out on the ocean or one of our landing zones near our launch pads.

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

HawkEye 360 Inc. has closed $58 million in new funding which will be used to develop new space systems and expand analytics that support high-value defense missions.

This Series D-1 round was led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) with additional funding provided by Manhattan Venture Partners and existing investors that include Insight Partners, NightDragon, Strategic Development Fund (SDF), Razor’s Edge, Alumni Ventures, and Adage Capital.

HawkEye 360 has 21 satellites on-orbit and plans to move to a new Block 3 satellite architecture, starting with Cluster 14 and beyond. The company is also investing further in artificial intelligence (AI), data fusion, and multi-intelligence orchestration to better extract value from the large amount of RF data being collected. The goal is to simplify analysis for customers.

WilmerHale acted as legal counsel for HawkEye 360 in connection with the transaction. Goodwin Proctor LLP acted as legal counsel for BlackRock in connection with the transaction.

“HawkEye 360 has disrupted what used to be a static defense intelligence domain. The company is the quintessential example of how a commercial operation could service the intelligence needs of the U.S. and our allies. They have built a growing market with government customers and are proof that private-sector innovation and leadership will help enable peace through strength, deter future conflict, and ensure global stability.” — Jared Carmel, Managing Partner and General Partner, Manhattan Venture Partners

“HawkEye 360 continues to make the world a safer place through advanced RF analytics – including addressing maritime, environmental, and national security needs,” said . “We’ve learned much over the past four years delivering data to the most demanding customers in the world. We’ll use this funding to drive our next steps in innovation. It speaks volumes that these leading investment firms are confident in the future of RF geospatial intelligence as a critical defense technology.” — John Serafini, CEO, HawkEye 360 CEO

“We invest in first-class startups that have proven innovative technology, where we can come alongside to accelerate their growth. Governments and commercial customers are asking for better intelligence and, with its full chain of control from orbit to analytics, Hawkeye 360 is leading the way for this new category of RF space-based data.” — Matt Singer, Managing Director, BlackRock