Brightline recently announced the company is the first passenger rail service in the world to offer Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency broadband service.

The implementation of Starlink on board its trains is part of Brightline’s digital transformation which focuses on a guest-first experience to elevate each traveler’s unique journey. Brightline selected to partner with Starlink, which is engineered and operated by SpaceX, to demonstrate its commitment to innovation and sustainability paired with cutting edge technology that will set the stage for a better connected passenger rail service around the world.

Starlink’s internet connectivity is available on Brightline’s fleet of trains servicing South Florida between Miami and West Palm Beach. The service will soon include the new, five-train fleet to service Orlando this summer – for a total of 10 trains between South and Central Florida. Starlink internet is complimentary for all Brightline guests.

Starlink delivers high-speed, low-latency internet to users all over the world and is made possible via the world’s largest constellation of highly advanced satellites operating in a low orbit around the Earth. Its constellation of satellites orbit the planet at about 550km, and cover the entire globe with significantly lower latency — around 25 ms vs 600+ ms. Traditional satellite internet services come from single geostationary satellites that orbit the planet at 35,786 km with only 1 roundtrip signal to Earth per every 70 round trip signals by Starlink. As a result, Starlink has the capability to provide a seamless connection, making it possible to support everyday uses of WiFi including streaming, online gaming, video calls or other high data rate activities through even the most rural areas.

Starlink has already provided internet services to residences, businesses, and transportation providers in the aviation and marine industries, with Hawaiian Airlines, Royal Caribbean Group, and Carnival Corporation among its customers. Brightline will be its first venture into the railroad and passenger rail industry.

Brightline recently announced the unveiling of its Orlando Station with ticket sales launching in May. Reaching top speeds of 125 mph, Brightline will open its Orlando Station this summer connecting major city pairs including West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura and Miami. For more information on Brightline Orlando, visit www.gobrightline.com/orlando.

"Brightline will be the first train sets in the world to use the Starlink system. This really speaks to what we represent - an innovative passenger rail provider paving the way for high-speed rail in the U.S. Brightline is working with some of the best tech teams around the globe and our partnership with Starlink will elevate our brand to the stars.”
— Kevin T. McAuliffe, Chief Technology and Digital Innovation officer at Brightline

“As the first rail service in the world to adopt Starlink, Brightline continues to lead the way in the industry. We’re excited to work with Brightline and provide Starlink to their entire fleet, which will enable all of Brightline’s passengers to access high-speed, low-latency internet that is critical in our modern age – whether you’re finishing up work during your commute, staying connected with friends and family, or simply streaming a movie.”
— Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX Vice President of Starlink Commercial Sales

LiveEO has engaged in a partnership with Capella Space and will integrate all-weather, 24/7 SAR imagery from Capella Space into the company’s advanced, analytics platform to transform the monitoring of assets, such as railways, buildings, pipelines, and other infrastructure, and will enable timely insights for disaster response.

This collaboration will enhance the LiveEO Rapid Response Insights (RRi) product, enabling informed storm response for infrastructure and utility managers. LiveEO’s Rapid Response Insights can reduce restoration response time to a mere 10 hours, by delivering precise damage locations directly from orbit to maintenance managers, based on Capella SAR data.

As the Earth experiences increasingly frequent and severe storms, innovations such as RRi are crucial for building climate resilience in our societies. Integrating Capella SAR data into its successful Vegetation Management (VMi) product, LiveEO will enable its customers to detect and assess changes in vegetation encroachment rapidly, thanks to advanced artificial intelligence.

By becoming a certified Capella Analytics Partner, LiveEO will have access to a range of exclusive program benefits that can be leveraged to further expand analytical capabilities, increase customer value and accelerate product development. These benefits include open access to Capella’s imagery archive for research and development, and both product and sales collaboration.

"We are excited to have found a partner in Capella Space who shares our vision of automated, scalable end-user applications based on SAR data. An API-first approach, combined with best-in-class SAR imagery, will unlock the potential of SAR to solve problems that seem unsolvable today."
— Daniel Seidel, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of LiveEO.

“We are thrilled to welcome LiveEO as the first certified Capella Analytics Partner to help unlock advanced solutions to respond to the growing severity of disaster events and environmental challenges today. This partnership will enable Capella Space and LiveEO to address these challenges head-on with novel, automated solutions.”
— Payam Banazadeh, Founder and CEO of Capella Space

Aviosonic Space Tech‘s patented DeCAS (Debris Collision Alert System) for tracking and re-entry footprint prediction extends Europe´s satellite deorbit system and this sail system — ADEO — is already a leading device for quickly deorbiting almost all satellites, thereby preventing spacecraft from becoming new space junk. As ADEO is a sail, it does not produce any pollution itself, chemical or otherwise. This sail, in its next version, will be transparent and absolutely non-reflective.

Munich based HPS, a medium sized company with a subsidiary in Romania and a total headcount of 80, has invested — together with several institutional and industrial partners — 12 years of development and qualification into ADEO and is now ready to take another leap forward by joining forces with Aviosonic Space Tech.

Aviosonic Space Tech owns the patented DeCAS system for on-orbit/de-orbit tracking and re-entry footprint prediction of space vehicles. DeCAS is a 1U mm system that always maintains a constant link with a ground operation center allowing precise information on satellite position, as well as the calculation of the re-entry footprint in real time, with the aim of collision avoidance between satellites, satellites and aircraft as well as to alert government agencies. The technical characteristics and modularity allow DeCAS to be installed on any space vehicle and offers different services, depending on mission requirements.

”The integration between DeCAS and ADEO allows the creation of a unique product on the market capable of strongly implementing the safety of space operations both during orbital and decommissioning re-entry phases, even in the event of failure of the hosting satellite. This safety information is also needed by the Air Traffic Management System. The collaboration between Aviosonic Space Tech and HPS is the demonstration that in order to guarantee safety during space operations, an international cooperation between SMEs is necessary.”
— Prof. Piermarco Martegani, CEO of Aviosonic Space Tech

“ADEO has all the facts on its side: first, all space industry badly needs a deorbit device like ADEO, since the faster the sail opens free orbit positions, the longer we can keep space as a sustainable surrounding. And, from second to infinite: ADEO combines TRL9 and flight heritage, offers a comprehensive range of models, beats economically as well as ecologically any other type of deorbit device, also it is already in serial production at HPS. And now we even join forces with the two outstanding innovators in their fields, and others will join, underlining once again what´s at the core of ADEO: 100 percent European, 100 percent SME, 100 percent sustainability in space – and exactly what Europe wants for Iris2.”
— Ernst K. Pfeiffer, CEO, HPS

SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 successfully launched 56 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit on Sunday, May 14 at 1:03 a.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The batch of 56 Starlink satellites tie the record for the heaviest payload ever launched by a SpaceX rocket, matching the figure on four previous Falcon 9 missions with a full load of Starlink spacecraft.

The mission is numbered Starlink 5-9 in SpaceX’s launch sequence making today’s total half of SpaceX’s 32 launches this year dedicated to the Starlink broadband network. SpaceX says each Starlink launch adds more than a terabit per second of capacity to the constellation.

Following stage separation, the first stage landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Tday’s launch totals 4,447 Starlink satellites SpaceX has sent into orbit.

This is the eleventh flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, mPOWER-a and three Starlink missions.

CesiumAstro , provider of active phased array communications technology for space and airborne systems, was selected by Raytheon Technologies to provide its Vireo active electronically scanned array (AESA) RF communications payload for integration into seven space vehicles supporting Space Development Agency’s (SDA’s) Tranche 1 Tracking Layer.

CesiumAstro’s Vireo payload will be the first Ka-band, multi-beam communications system operating in SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Using next-generation AESA technology to create multiple steerable, shapable beams, Vireo is a step change from legacy, single-beam systems optimized for connecting to single, static ground stations. The system’s groundbreaking modular slice-based design and software-defined backend will set a new standard for resilient, low-latency, high-volume data transport to simultaneous users.

“With the recent launch of Tranche 0, SDA is setting a new pace of innovation and deployment,” said Shey Sabripour, founder and CEO of CesiumAstro. “We are proud to provide the first AESA for the PWSA, enabling multi-beam RF mission data support for the warfighter.”

Raytheon’s space vehicles are part of Tranche 1 Tracking Layer, SDA’s first operationally capable set of low-Earth orbit (LEO) infrared missile warning and missile tracking satellites. When deployed, the constellation will integrate with the Transport Layer’s low-latency meshed communication network, enabling conventional and advanced missile tracking from LEO.

“These types of missions require speed and resilience,” said David Broadbent, president of Space and C2 at Raytheon Intelligence and Space. “By integrating AESA technology as part of our overall solution, we are setting an unprecedented standard, allowing for the swift transfer of critical information and giving our military forces a decisive advantage.”

CesiumAstro designed the Vireo system to support a wide range of defense and commercial missions. Vireo’s reconfigurable architecture allows for rapid deployment with maximum flexibility.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded a contract to Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) subsidiary, ExactEarth Ltd., to deliver preparatory work for implementation phases of a wildfire monitoring satellite.

The contract is the initial step toward CSA’s planned WildFireSat mission, which aims to monitor all active wildfires in Canada from space on a daily basis to support wildfire management, provide Canadians with more precise information on smoke and air quality conditions, and more accurately measure the carbon emitted by wildfires.

Spire will partner with OroraTech for the contract. The two firms have previously worked together on the successful launch of OroraTech’s wildfire detection and monitoring mission on a Spire satellite in 2022.

Global wildfire losses from 2018-2022 totaled $69 billion, according to Munich Re. Canada spends around $1 billion every year fighting wildfires, with indirect costs estimated to be several times higher due to resulting property destruction, infrastructure damage, evacuations, health-related expenses and wider economic losses across business sectors such as forestry, energy and tourism.

In 2016, the Fort McMurray wildfire alone led to a total cost of around $9 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster in Canadian history. The mission will benefit the country’s forestry industry, wildfire managers, emergency services and Canadian communities, all of which are frequently impacted by wildfires.

OroraTech created the first global wildfire intelligence service for commercial and institutional customers. OroraTech partnered with Spire Space Services to launch its first payloads, a thermal infrared camera and data processing unit, on a Spire 6U satellite.

With more than 150 satellites built and launched over a decade of operations, Spire was able to help OroraTech validate their initial concept quickly and cost-effectively and demonstrate its functionality in the orbital environment, handling not only the satellite platform but also taking care of integration and providing access to the company’s ground station network. All of which has enabled OroraTech to advance towards its plan to provide data insights to its customers every 30 minutes and within 3 minutes from detection at any place on Earth, while also demonstrating the range of applications supported by Spire across Earth observation wavebands in addition to its radio frequency expertise.

The Canadian Space Agency’s contract is further testament to the use of cutting-edge satellite technology to improve wildfire monitoring and early detection methods. Data can be captured from remote areas of the world and processed quickly to identify current and future risks.

The design and implementation of WildFireSat is anticipated to commence in spring 2024, with the project expected to be delivered in 2029.

“We are delighted to be collaborating with OroraTech on another exciting project, building upon the momentum generated from our previous mission together. At Spire, we have a strong track record of demonstrating the benefits that space can bring to life on Earth, and I can’t think of a more important and critical application than protecting our environment, people and property from destructive wildfires. We look forward to supporting the Canadian Space Agency on this important issue.”
— Frank Frulio, General Manager of Spire Space Services

CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) has been awarded a further contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) under ESA’s ARTES Core Competitiveness program, with the support of the UK Space Agency, to expand the development of its Dynamic Predictive Routing (DPR) tool. The tool uses machine learning to enhance the routing of traffic in dynamic networks in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), especially those incorporating laser inter-satellite links (ISLs). This enables operators to increase revenue by optimizing network fill factor and improve customer satisfaction by responding more quickly to changing user demands.

During the first phase of work, CGI successfully demonstrated that its machine learning-based routing tool for satellite planning was more effective than the current state-of-the-art tools. The CGI tool allows a satellite operator to implement a standards-based Software Defined Network across the space and ground networks, with a machine learning-enabled central controller and on-board agents controlling virtual routers on the satellites. This new phase of work will formally demonstrate the achievable performance on space-qualified hardware under realistic network loading conditions.

CGI continues to work with TESAT-Spacecom, a market leader in the field of telecommunication payloads and laser communications, to develop this project. The DPR project builds on CGI’s end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator platform, called CGI AccelerateAI360, together with a series of solutions for the global satellite communications marketplace which form the CGI Autonomous Satcom Solutions (AUTSS) program.

Jaime Reed, Vice President for CGI’s UK and Australia Space Data Platforms and Applications, said, “Dynamic Predictive Routing continues to demonstrate the utility of applying machine learning techniques to some of the most difficult problems in satellite communications planning. With this ongoing development we will help satellite operators achieve market-leading results with a proven solution, based on CGI’s ability to master end-to-end network control and optimization.”

Dietmar Schmitt, Head of Technologies and Products Division at ESA, added, “We are proud of our longstanding collaboration with CGI and pleased to continue to work with them on the DPR project.”

For more than 40 years, CGI has delivered complex, mission-critical space software systems for clients across Europe, Australia, Asia and North America, from supporting satellite navigation, communications and operations, to space-enabled applications.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has signed a deal to launch NASA’s Starling mission, a multi-CubeSat mission to test and demo autonomous swarm technologies, as well as automated space traffic management for groups of spacecraft in LEO.

The four Starling smallsats have been manifested on an Electron commercial rideshare mission scheduled for lift-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand during Q3 of this year. Rocket Lab will deliver the satellites to space within three months of the contract signing.

The Starling mission is 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 explore technologies for in-space network communications, onboard relative navigation between spacecraft, autonomous maneuver planning and execution, and distributed science autonomy.

NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate manages the Starling project. The program is based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. Starling joins a growing list of NASA missions launched by Rocket Lab since 2018, including the ELaNa-19 educational CubeSat program, the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon, and two dedicated Electron launches for the NASA TROPICS mission.

“Electron has been delivering rapid and reliable access to orbit for NASA since 2018 and we’re delighted to continue that strong heritage with the Starling mission. Starling has the potential to revolutionize the way science is done in orbit and we’re immensely proud to make that possible.”
— Peter Beck, Rocket Lab Founder and CEO

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) and Oxford Space Systems (OSS) have confirmed a partnership to build and launch an OSS Wrapped Rib antenna mounted to an SSTL CarbSAR satellite.

The In Orbit Demonstration mission advances both companies’ abilities, with OSS gaining space heritage, and SSTL building its ability to integrate capability from new suppliers. The work has been jointly funded by OSS, SSTL, Airbus Defence and Space, the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF — HM Government’s corporate venturing arm for national security and defence technologies) and the MoD, and is proving a ground breaking Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) concept that may be of significant interest to UK defence intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) strategies in the near to medium term future.

Surveillance, change detection and “big data” analytics applications are driving interest in spaceborne SAR data, to support day/night and all-weather imaging at a rate faster than can be achieved with any individual satellite. This drives demand for much smaller radar satellites that can be launched within a limited launch volume in groups, however it is still desirable to retain a large antenna for better quality imagery.

Having a large, scalable, stowable and lightweight, reflector antenna provides a number of benefits in designing small radar satellites for particular applications. A reflector antenna can also significantly simplify the radar electronics, making it ideal for implementing radar on much smaller spacecraft such as SSTL’s CarbSAR platform.

The Oxford Space Systems Wrapped Rib Antenna for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) enables high resolution imaging from smallsat EO missions, irrespective of weather conditions or daylight. These antennas deploy carbon-fiber ribs from a central hub to form a 3m diameter parabolic dish supporting a high performing metal mesh reflector surface.

This UK developed, antenna technology has a uniquely compact, stowed configuration and achieves a highly, cost-efficient performance when deployed in orbit. The antenna has successfully completed an extensive ground based test program, including a radio frequency (RF) test campaign and is now ready to demonstrate its performance in orbit.

Carbonite is the latest in a long range of 100 kg. class smallsat platforms that SSTL has been building in Guildford, UK, since the early 1980’s. Carbonite-1 launched in 2015 was an innovative development mission based on a commercially available optical telescope.

The range was always designed to be multi-sensor and has evolved to feature a standard set of core platform avionics available now with either a high resolution optical, medium resolution multi-spectral, mid-wave infra-red or SAR payload. CarbSAR — delivering high-resolution, X-band SAR imagery — sees the SAR electronics embedded with the standard Carbonite satellite core avionics in an elegant combination with the stowable OSS antenna.

“This In Orbit Demonstration mission will allow us to build on our relationship with SSTL and accelerate our product development and industrialization program for the game changing Wrapped Rib SAR antenna. The support of NSSIF is a huge vote of confidence in the technology and the capability of Oxford Space Systems to support future UK requirements. I am delighted that the antenna for the IOD mission is being built in our newly commissioned facilities that will establish our production capability for future export sales.”
— Sean Sutcliffe (CEO, Oxford Space Systems)”

“Announcing a new satellite mission is one of the most exciting things we get to do here at SSTL. And that excitement is amplified when the mission in question is CarbSAR, a variant of our Carbonite range, and a mission part-funded by our Shareholder Airbus Defence & Space. CarbSAR is a compelling UK success story on its own, as well as a necessary step towards the bigger spacecraft required for the UK’s Space ambitions. The integration of our latest generation 100Kg Satellite platform and SAR electronics with OSS’s revolutionary wrapped rib antenna is a mission we will be very proud to launch.”
— Andrew Cawthorne, Business Development Director of SSTL

About the companies

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) is at the forefront of space innovation delivering customisable complete mission solutions for Earth observation, science, communications, navigation, in-orbit debris removal and servicing and exploration beyond Earth infrastructure. Since 1981, SSTL has built and launched 71 satellites for 20 international customers, as well as providing training and development programs, consultancy services, and mission studies for ESA, NASA, international governments and commercial customers. SSTL is well known for innovative missions such as the CARBONITE satellites, the NovaSAR S-band radar imaging satellite and the RemoveDEBRIS space debris removal technology demonstrator.

Oxford Space Systems is a venture capital backed, growth stage space technology business founded in 2013 with a vision to be the global leader in deployable antennas for Space. The company continues to grow rapidly in response to commercial contracts secured and currently employs over 70 staff. Oxford Space Systems moved into its own custom-built facility on the Harwell Campus in October 2018. Oxford Space Systems has established a metal mesh manufacturing facility at their Harwell Science and Innovation Campus base, manufacturing foldable surfaces for their reflector antennas. The project, backed by the European Space Agency — ESA ARTES Core Competitiveness programme, will enable the company to meet the growing market demand for high-specification antennas. In January 2023 Oxford Space Systems opened a new manufacturing facility in Abingdon, Oxfordshire to support its ambitious growth plans. The primary objective of this new facility is to scale up internal capability to manufacture composite materials and components for deployable antennas. This will accelerate the company’s industrialisation plan to deliver batches of antennas for customers’ satellite constellation programs.