Archives for December 2023

Sidus Space (NASDAQ: SIDU) has completed environmental testing of LizzieSat prior to the satellite’s upcoming launch on the SpaceX’s Transporter-10 mission.

Environmental testing was completed by NTS Orlando where the LizzieSat Flight Unit underwent random, vibration testing. The LizzieSat satellite for this mission is currently being prepared for shipment to the launch site and the focus is now on mission operations in anticipation of the launch.

The upcoming LizzieSat launch is a catalyst to the execution of Sidus Space’s high-margin revenue Data-as-a-Service offering. Customers for this launch include NASA, Mission Helios, Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) data customers, and multispectral imagery consumers for detection of methane gas and vegetative stress.

“We expect the launch of LizzieSat will provide us with the opportunity to continue to expand our high-margin revenue streams, driven by the sale of both data and payloads on future missions. We anticipate the enhanced capabilities of these satellites will provide space infrastructure, as well as critical data, to create a high margin, rapidly scalable business model. The Company is continuously working to secure agreements to provide additional annual recurring revenue while on-orbit.” — Carol Craig, Sidus’ CEO and Founder

L3Harris completed its Critical Design Review (CDR) and Production Readiness Review (PRR) for 16 missile tracking satellites that will be part of the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 1 Tracking Layer (T1TRK) program.

The CDR milestone demonstrates that L3Harris’ design will meet the mission requirements, while the PRR provides L3Harris with the SDA’s approval to begin the full production process. These major milestones move the program closer to achieving the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) – a resilient, layered network of military satellites in LEO.

Hypersonic missiles are the most destabilizing kinetic weapons in our adversaries’ arsenals due to their dim flight profiles, varied launch points and high maneuverability. To deter their use and, when needed, to defeat them, the United States requires a resilient sensor platform to remove the veil from their flight paths. 

The cornerstone of L3Harris’ Tranche 1 Tracking Layer (T1TRK) are infrared sensors and advanced algorithms that detect, track and fuse threat data which is provided real-time to the warfighter across a meshed network using both optical and RF communications. From the ground, the space vehicles can be commanded to a range of pointing modes that provide additional insight into threat tracks. The program includes supporting ground, operations and sustainment throughout its life.  

To meet launch schedule commitments, L3Harris started fabrication of critical sub-assemblies well before the CDR. With the CDR and PRR in the rearview, the team has successfully transitioned to the assembly and integration phase, coordinating closely with more than 20 major subcontractors and dozens of suppliers who provide critical parts for the satellites and the ground systems.

It’s a challenge that L3Harris’ Director of Program Management Bob De Cort understands well. He’s leading the team that’s designing and developing 16 missile-tracking satellites for the program. 

Aligning closely to De Cort’s often-repeated mantra of “iterate, integrate, repeat,” the L3Harris T1TRK team recently steered the project through the two crucial milestones. Slated for launch in 2025, the satellites feature advanced technology designed to counter the fastest most maneuverable hypersonic missiles. 

“L3Harris is working in lockstep with the SDA to get these critical capabilities on-orbit and into the hands of the nation’s warfighters as quickly as possible,” De Cort said. “The SDA takes a fundamentally fresh and different approach than traditional defense contracting. Rather than investing schedule and funds in single point solutions, the SDA acquisition plan breaks from tradition to use spiral development leveraging interoperable commercial technologies to deploy tranches of satellites every couple of years. Our recent success at CDR and PRR show that we are the leading partner within SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, demonstrating not just missile warning and tracking but the beyond line of sight targeting that the warfighters need to enhance America’s strategic deterrence from space.”

Building on a Heritage and Leaving a Legacy

De Cort views T1TRK as a critical, transitional step toward achieving the SDA’s vision for a PWSA. The journey began with Tranche 0, under which L3Harris developed four prototype wide field of view satellites for SDA and one prototype medium field of view satellite for the Missile Defense Agency.  Those five satellites are ready to be hosted on the Missile Defense Agency’s launch in the near future.

“The combined technology launch of SDA and MDA satellites will maximize warfighter immersion opportunities, allowing them to view the same test articles at the same time from the same orbit,” De Cort says. “We use the phrase ‘building on our heritage and leaving a legacy’ to summarize that we’re bringing the best technologies and lessons learned from Tranche 0 forward while investing to develop algorithms, software, cyber security solutions, facilities and testing processes that will provide enhanced resilient capabilities and put them on orbit even more quickly to prepare for future tranches.” 

Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. is set to equip all vessels in its fleet with Space X’s Starlink satellite internet service.

Since the introduction to the market of Starlink’s Global Maritime service earlier this year, OSG’s IT department has worked to substantially complete installation of Starlink equipment on every vessel in the fleet of OSG and ATC, with full installation expected by year end. OSG marks this advancement as part of the Company’s commitment to a new era of seamless connectivity for seafarers on board all OSG vessels.

The availability of Starlink allows seafarers to enjoy high-speed internet access even in the most remote maritime locations, staying connected with loved ones via video calls, accessing streaming services and social media, and attending to personal matters while at sea.

“Our crew identified this as important, and we listened. The goal of the Starlink install was to enhance vessel communications and improve our crew’s ability to connect with family and friends. Our seafarers are the greatest asset we possess, and we are glad to support them on this. Our investment in the Starlink technology represents a major step forward in our industry and highlights our commitment to improving the quality of life for our crew members while they are at sea. The implementation of this service will further position OSG as a forward-thinking organization in the maritime industry. In addition to the benefits that Starlink provides to OSG’s crew, the availability of reliable, high-speed internet access while our ships are traveling across the globe will permit seafarers to better manage their vessels and communicate with shoreside staff.” — Patrick O’Halloran, OSG’s Chief Operations Officer,

Tata Advanced Systems Limited (“TASL”) and Satellogic Inc. (NASDAQ: SATL) recently announced their collaboration for establishing and developing local space technology capabilities in India — this collaboration is but a first step in TASL’s satellite strategy and a significant milestone for Satellogic as the company enters the Indian defense and commercial market.

The project will commence with comprehensive training, knowledge transfer, and local assembly of optical sub-meter resolution EO satellites, the first of which is planned to be launched as TSAT-1A. The focus will be on manufacturing satellites and developing imagery in India for national defense and commercial applications, toward which TASL is commissioning a satellite AIT plant at its Vemagal facility in Karnataka, India.

TASL and Satellogic will collaborate on the development of a new satellite design and work together to integrate multiple payloads on a single satellite that will generate a diverse range of data over India.

This contract marks Satellogic’s second Space Systems customer, following an agreement with an international space agency.

“Space is important to TASL not just as a business but also due to its culture of precision that will help other activities in TASL. We are pleased to announce our collaboration with Satellogic, a company with best-in-class technology and an entrepreneurial mindset. Additionally, TASL will also work with local SMEs for payloads and other technologies to bolster India content.” — Sukaran Singh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, TASL

“One of our core values at Satellogic is accessibility. This collaboration will accelerate space capacity building for one of the largest nations in the world with the goal of enabling the advancement of commercial space capabilities and greater access to critical information for a range of applications such as security, sustainability, and energy. It’s a great example of what’s possible via the Satellogic Space Systems program.: — Emiliano Kargieman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder at Satellogic

Tyvak International — together with its project partners — have announced the successful achievement of the Test Readiness Review of the Milani spacecraft.

A critical component of the Hera planetary defense mission, Milani will be the European Space Agency’s (ESA) first, deep-space, nanosatellite. Milani will also be the first such smallsat to orbit an asteroid. Tyvak International is responsible for Milani’s design, build, and mission operations. In this exploration, Tyvak International is joined by a consortium of European industries and research centers from Finland, the Czech Republic and Italy.

As part of the world’s first test of asteroid deflection, following the successful impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft on asteroid Dimorphos, Hera will perform a detailed post-impact survey turning the experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defense technique. To achieve its objectives Hera will be using new technologies from autonomous navigation around an asteroid to low-gravity proximity operations. Hera will be humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system and Europe’s flagship Planetary Defender.

Milani, named after Professor Andrea Milani, the pioneer of asteroid risk analysis who came up with the original double-spacecraft Don Quijote mission concept from which the DART-Hera missions were derived, is a companion nanosatellite of Hera, carried by the mothercraft along the journey to Didymos, and ultimately released in its proximity.

Milani’s instruments are the ASPECT hyperspectral imager (by VTT, Finland), the VISTA (Volatile In-Situ Thermogravimetre Analyzer) dust detector, and the Navigation Camera developed by Tyvak International with the collaboration of Politecnico di Milano for Image Processing algorithms. Finally, laser reflectors (by INFN, Italy) will enable unprecedented gravity field measurements of the asteroid coupled with Hera’s laser range finder.

The next main step for Milani Satellite is the execution of the Environmental Test Campaign at Laboratorio di Qualifica Spaziale of CIRA (Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali, Capua, Italy), after which it will return to Tyvak for the last tests and verification. Milani will be delivered to ESA in early 2024, to support the Hera electromagnetic compatibility test campaign and extensive System Validation Tests (SVTs), involving the mission ground segment as well.

Tyvak International is part of the Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) and the company’s Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Marc Bell, said, “Terran Orbital is proud of Tyvak International’s successful achievement of the Test Readiness Review,” said “We are honored by the trust placed in Tyvak International by ESA, and we look forward to continuing to design, build, deliver, and operate cutting-edge satellite solutions for missions, like Hera Mission.”

“We’ve always been proud to be part of such a challenging mission and the Test Readiness Review is a crucial milestone for the program”. In the last months we assembled the satellite and saw it taking shape day after day; It was a very exciting and emotional phase for me and the whole team.” — Tyvak International’s VP of Programs and Milani Program Manager Margherita Cardi.”

“Admiring the Milani spacecraft fully integrated brings lots of emotions that pay off the tens of thousands of hours of cutting edge engineering efforts,. Tyvak International has proved unprecedented commitment to bring this project from blueprints to reality, we can’t wait for the environmental test campaign to be completed and start testing with the Hera spacecraft. One step closer to Didymos.” — ESA Hera Project Manager, Ian Carnelli

New Shepard will carry 33 science payloads to space. This 24th flight and 13th payload mission for Blue Origin will fly on Monday, December 18th. The manifest includes the aforementioned number of payloads and 38,000 Club for the Future postcards from students around the world.

The NS-24 launch window opens at 8:30 AM CST / 14:30 UTC from Launch Site One in West Texas and the webcast starts at T-20 minutes at BlueOrigin.com.

This mission will bring the number of payloads flown to space on New Shepard to more than 150 — more than half of the payloads on this flight are developed and flown with support from NASA. Others come from K-12 schools, universities, and STEAM-focused organizations.

The program has also completed six astronaut missions and flown 31 humans above the Kármán line. From an environmental standpoint, nearly 99% of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear, and parachutes. New Shepard’s engine is fueled by highly efficient liquid oxygen and hydrogen. During flight, the only byproduct is water vapor with no carbon emissions.

UPDATE 2
With a round of applause from the Rocket Lab control center at Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, the firm’s Electron rocket successfully lifted off with the iQPS GEO payload and headed for space.

UPDATE 1
Rocket Lab will launch the TSUKUYOMI-I synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for Japan-based Earth imaging company the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS). The company is now targeting no earlier than December 15, 2023, UTC, with a two hour, daily window.

Due to inclement weather conditions, Rocket Lab has rescheduled the Electron launch of the iQPS GEO payload to late Thursday (December 14th) from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.

The Moon God Awakens’ is scheduled to launch from Pad B at Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand and will carry a single satellite for iQPS. Named after the Japanese God of the Moon, the QPSSAR- 5 satellite “TSUKUYOMI-I” is a synthetic-aperture radar satellite that will collect high-resolution images of Earth.

The satellite will join another iQPS satellite on-orbit that will ultimately be a 36-satellite constellation capable of monitoring Earth at specified points every 10 minutes.

This mission will be Rocket Lab’s 10th launch of 2023, exceeding the firm’s previous annual launch record of nine. ‘The Moon God Awakens’ will be Rocket Lab’s 42nd Electron launch, overall.

An FAA-licensed spaceport, Launch Complex 1 can provide up to 120 launch opportunities every year. From the site, it is possible to reach orbital inclinations from SSO through to 30 degrees, enabling a wide spectrum of inclinations to service the majority of the satellite industry’s missions to low Earth orbit.

Located within Launch Complex 1 are Rocket Lab’s private range control facilities, two 100K satellite cleanrooms, a launch vehicle assembly facility which can process multiple Electrons at once, and administrative offices. Operating a private orbital launch site alongside its own range and mission control centers allows Rocket Lab to reduce the overhead costs per mission, resulting in a cost effective launch service for satellite operators.

In addition to Launch Complex 1, Rocket Lab operates an additional launch site, Launch Complex 2, at the Mid- Atlantic Regional Spaceport within NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Launch Complex 2 can support up to 12 missions per year. By operating two launch complexes in two hemispheres, Rocket Lab provides customers with flexible, responsive launch opportunities.