Archives for October 2023

SCOUT Space Inc. has been selected as a subcontractor by Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), the R&D arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in support of the SINTRA (Space Debris Identification and Tracking) program.

Through a competitive Broad Agency Announcement, IARPA’s SINTRA program was awarded to four teams, including one led by SRI International, an independent, nonprofit, research institute behind countless cutting-edge technological advances, as a prime contractor, with support from SCOUT and Leidos.

The SINTRA program aims to revolutionize our nation’s ability to detect, track, and characterize miniature orbital space debris, smaller than 10 cm, which are currently untrackable from the ground. Resulting technologies hold the potential to protect crewed spacecraft and other valuable space assets from these compact threats, which are difficult to detect and track and can cause significant damage. The SINTRA program is anticipated to be a four-year effort.

In July of this year, SCOUT announced the company had successfully completed an oversubscribed Seed round led by Decisive Point, with majority investment by Noblis Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Noblis.

SCOUT will support the SRI team by assessing the space debris environment and how to best achieve widespread space debris monitoring with hosted payloads, incorporating off-the-shelf and in-development sensors focused on detecting both direct and indirect phenomena. The team will conduct trade studies for deploying space-based sensors hosted on future space missions, and will conclude the SINTRA program by testing and delivering an integrated payload to IARPA.

“Space debris detection and tracking is a very hard problem, and characterization is sometimes an entirely different problem which compounds that. There isn’t one catch-all solution available today, so we are leveraging various sensing modalities and core competencies to synthesize a means to proliferate one. SCOUT’s expertise in on-orbit sensing and characterization uniquely positions us to integrate our partners’ RF (radio-frequency) sensing modalities with our own optical systems and enables us to support a framework of distributed on-orbit sensing to better understand space debris. We have assembled a team which shares an amazing spread of in-depth knowledge of this field, and I am proud of that. We are looking forward to working with SRI and Leidos to realize the concept of a ubiquitous space-based debris sensor.” — Sergio Gallucci, Co-founder and CTO, SCOUT, also leading the team’s space-based sensors mission area

“SRI is deeply invested in limiting the dramatic consequences that can occur from space debris collision, including damage to expensive equipment or loss of vital communications. Currently, there are more than 100 million objects larger than 1mm orbiting the Earth; however, less than 1 percent of mission-ending debris are currently tracked. With the objective to integrate sensor data into a robust tracking system, SRI and SCOUT will develop spaceborne sensors to more accurately characterize debris objects.” — Lin van Nieuwstadt, Sr. Research Engineer, SRI International

About SCOUT Space:

SCOUT Space was founded in 2019 with the mission to enable a new era of space safety and transparency. SCOUT’s in-space products and services, first launched in June 2021, allow spacecraft to see and understand things around them. The orbital distributed sensor network developed by SCOUT will significantly improve Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and ensure responsible use of the space environment. The company is a Techstars, MassChallenge, and venture-backed startup with ongoing government and commercial contracts. SCOUT holds the Established® 2021 Startup of the Year® title. For more information, visit www.scout.space.

AAC Clyde Space has won a GBP 0.902 million (approx. SEK 12.1 million) order for a 3U satellite that is scheduled for delivery in Q4 2024.

The satellite will be equipped with a VDES (VHF Data Exchange System) payload. VDES was developed to meet the increasing need for data communication between maritime users, providing faster data transfer rates with greater integrity than current VHF data link systems.

Capella Space Corp. has doubled the size of its office space and manufacturing floor by moving into a new, 32,000 square foot facility at 397 South Taylor Avenue, Louisville, Colorado, across town from Capella’s previous office — this new space will be able to accommodate more than 150 employees.

Capella is a vertically integrated, data provider that owns a satellite constellation wholly designed, manufactured and operated in-house within the United States. The new facility accommodates a growing team in Colorado and will support the accelerating demand for the launch of new synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, with more office space and a larger floor for satellite manufacturing, assembly, and testing.

Capella first established its presence in Colorado in 2017, shortly after it was founded, to make 24/7, all-weather insights more accessible to governments and commercial industry around the world. Since then, Capella’s business has rapidly grown with awards for a Commercial Radar Contract from the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a Multi-Year Blanket Purchase Agreement from NASA, and a contract for Proliferated Low Earth Satellite-Based Services awarded by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency through the U.S. Space Systems Command.

“Capella is driven by a culture of rapid iteration and agile innovation that has quickly outgrown our previous office in Colorado. We provide customers across business sectors with reliable information that enables deeper understanding of the world for better decision making, and our new space will enable us to rapidly manufacture and deploy more satellites to meet the growing demand for timely and reliable SAR imagery.” — Payam Banazadeh, Founder and CEO, Capella Space

Astroscale Japan Inc. (“Astroscale Japan”), a subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc. (“Astroscale”), has been selected by the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (“MEXT”) for that agency’s Small and Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to develop an on-orbit inspection demo mission that will image and diagnose a large, defunct satellite in space.

The MEXT-funded project is divided into three phases and Astroscale Japan will receive up to JPY 2.69 billion (approximately 18 million) for Phase 1 and up to JPY 12 billion (approximately $80 million) in total for all three phases. Mission development will start this month, with a maximum term of up to March of 2028.

The SBIR program was established to promote research and development for Japanese startups and organizations engaged in advancing innovative technologies, and to facilitate the smooth implementation of results through government support. The call for application was announced in July of 2023, and Astroscale Japan was selected in the space category for its “Development and Demonstration of Technologies and Systems for Removing Satellites and Other Objects from Orbit” project under the “Development and Demonstration of Technologies Required for Space Debris Reduction” theme.

The MEXT-funded mission will further advance Astroscale’s heritage Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) capabilities, in addition to inspection and characterization capabilities for a diverse range of active spacecraft and large debris objects in space. Astroscale Japan will launch a similar mission later this year that will inspect and characterize a spent upper stage rocket body.

Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) is the world’s first attempt to safely approach, characterize and survey the state of an existing piece of large debris through RPO. During this mission, ADRAS-J is designed to rendezvous with a Japanese upper stage, demonstrate proximity operations, and gather images to assess the rocket body’s condition, including spin rate, spin axis and condition of the structure.

A key challenge of missions is that unprepared objects, such as spent upper stages and defunct satellites, do not provide any GPS data, meaning the precise location and orbital position needed for an RPO mission is not available. Once deployed to a precise orbit, Astroscale’s servicer spacecraft will first use ground-based observation data of the client’s approximate orbital position to approach the client from longer distance, then switch over to its own sensors for a safe close approach and inspection of the client.

These missions will demonstrate the most challenging RPO capabilities necessary for on-orbit services, including debris removal.

QuantX Labs recently joined forces with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) through Airbus Australia, to bolster their space knowledge and skillsets, a collaboration set to propel Australian quantum technology into space.

QuantX Labs quantum advancements to new heights through its KAIROS mission, which culminates in the launch into LEO and demo a nexgen optical atomic clock that promises to advance space-based, PNT (position, navigation and timing) capabilities.

The optical atomic clock, which was initially developed at the Institute of Photonics and Advanced Sensing at the University of Adelaide and supported by funding from the SmartSat CRC, will now undergo crucial developments to become space-ready. This evolution will be guided by the expertise of SSTL’s proficient system engineering team and propelled by the Australian Space Agency‘s Moon to Mars Demonstrator program.

A noteworthy benefit of this partnership is SSTL’s role as a provider of space systems engineering as well as a conduit to uplift the skill set of QuantX Labs engineering team, advancing Australia’s space technology and advancing the skills base in the space sector. QuantX Labs quantum expertise with SSTL’s deep space heritage in previous programs with European Space Agency (ESA) and involvement in NASA’s GNSS program, will form the foundations required to instigate groundbreaking advancements in PNT services for Australia.

The culmination of this collaborative effort is slated for early 2026, when QuantX Labs will launch and demonstrate its precision timing technology in low Earth orbit. A rigorous journey of testing and preliminary launches is planned over the coming years to validate the reliability and performance of the innovative quantum technologies in the space environment.

“QuantX Labs is thrilled to announce its collaboration with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), a global leader in small satellite technology and systems engineering consulting. This collaboration adds a crucial layer of expertise to our KAIROS mission, providing confidence that we will deliver robust engineering solutions and unparalleled reliability as we venture into space.” — Professor Andre Luiten, Managing Director of QuantX Labs

“SSTL is delighted to be collaborating with QuantX Labs, bringing our world-renowned space engineering expertise to support QuantX Labs next-generation optical atomic clock and the KARIOS mission.” — Clive Oates, Head of SSTL, Australia

“The Australian Government has identified quantum as a critical technology in the national interest. QuantX Labs’ quantum clock technology has the potential to transform the positioning, navigation, and timing services that underpin our daily lives, and we’re proud to provide support through the Australian Government’s Demonstrator Program. By drawing on SSTL’s extensive space engineering expertise to help get its quantum clock into orbit, QuantX Labs will be able to start developing valuable space heritage.” — Enrico Palermo, Head of the Australian Space Agency