Archives for June 2024

Two Terran Orbital space vehicles added to multi-participant rapid IV IDIQ contract vehicle

June 6, 2024 by editorial

Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) has expanded the firm’s capabilities under NASA’s long-standing, multi-participant, Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV (Rapid IV) Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract.

NASA has on-ramped two additional space vehicle platforms, which could position Terran Orbital as a premier partner for the space agency, offering a wider range of solutions for diverse missions. Terran Orbital has been an existing awardee under this contracting vehicle since 2020 through its Tyvak Nano-Satellite subsidiary, with two space vehicles already eligible for NASA task orders. The Rapid IV awards have a shared potential ceiling of $6 billion amongst all contractors selected.

Terran Orbital has added their Nebula and Ambassador micro space vehicle platforms to the existing offerings of 6U Triumph and 12U Renegade CubeSats under the Rapid IV On-Ramp III contract. This comprehensive portfolio (4) of flight-proven space vehicles empowers government agencies with a faster and more efficient path to execute their missions.

The Rapid IV program simplifies the acquisition process for U.S. government agencies. This multi-award IDIQ contract allows for the issuance of Firm Fixed Price delivery orders to eligible participants, streamlining procurement of space vehicles and payload space for upcoming missions.

“We are honored to expand our role in NASA’s critical space endeavors,” said Marc Bell, Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer at Terran Orbital. “By offering a broader selection of space vehicle solutions, Terran Orbital empowers government agencies to efficiently execute their missions. This streamlined approach allows for faster space vehicle delivery, accelerating scientific discovery and national security advancements.”

Rocket Lab completes second launch for NASA’s PREFIRE and Ice climate science mission

June 5, 2024 by editorial

***Photo captured by Satnews from Rocket Lab video stream.***

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) a global provider of launch services and space systems, today successfully completed the second of two Electron launches for NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) climate change-focused mission, completing a turnaround of two launches within eleven days.

‘PREFIRE and Ice’ lifted-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand at 3:15pm NZST on Wednesday June 5^th, 2024, deploying the second of two satellites for the PREFIRE mission to a 525km orbit. The first mission, ‘Ready, Aim, PREFIRE’, was successfully launched days earlier on May 25^th, 2024 from the same launch pad, demonstrating Rocket Lab’s ability to launch consistently and in quick succession to meet customer mission requirements.

With both satellites now in orbit, they will crisscross the Arctic and Antarctic to study heat lost to space from the Earth’s polar regions. Heat loss measurements collected by the PREFIRE mission will help to improve climate and ice-loss models to better predict Earth’s ice, sea level, and weather changes. The mission is expected to operate for 10 months.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, says, “I’m proud of the team for delivering back-to-back mission success for NASA on Electron once again. Quickly deploying both satellites to orbit within eleven days of each other demonstrates our team’s skill and experience, allowing NASA to maximize PREFIRE’s time in space collecting important climate change data. We’re a long-trusted launch partner for NASA’s biggest small satellite missions, and it’s a privilege to continue supporting innovative science missions like PREFIRE.”

Electron has now delivered 185 satellites to space across all its launches, with today’s mission being Rocket Lab’s 49^th Electron launch overall and seventh mission of 2024. Electron remains the United States’ second-most frequently launched rocket annually and one of the most frequently launched rockets globally.

Details for Rocket Lab’s 50^th Electron launch will be released in the coming days.

Rocket Lab launches first of two NASA climate change satellites

“Today we successfully launched the first of two back-to-back launches for NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) climate change-focused mission.”

The following announcements are from both Rocket Lab and NASA.

After a slight delay at T-12 minutes due to ‘ground winds’, Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB), a provider in launch services and space systems, today launched the first of two back-to-back launches for NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) climate change-focused mission.

‘Ready, Aim, PREFIRE’ lifted-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand at 7:41 pm NZST on May 25^th, 2024. The launch deployed the first of two satellites for the PREFIRE mission to a 525km circular Low Earth Orbit. Now that the first satellite has been successfully deployed, the second will follow on another dedicated Electron launch in just a few days. The launch date for the next mission, ‘PREFIRE and Ice’ will be confirmed early next week.

Rocket Lab’s ability to launch dedicated missions to precise orbits on demand is critical to the success of PREFIRE. The mission requires two separate satellites to follow similar trajectories but along different paths to overlap with each other every few hours near the Arctic and Antarctica and capture accurate heat loss measurements. Both PREFIRE satellites are equipped with a device called a thermopile, similar to sensors found in household thermostats, to measure heat loss at far-infrared wavelengths which have never been systematically measured before. This data collected by the PREFIRE mission will help to improve climate and ice models and provide better predictions of how the planet’s sea level and weather are likely to change in the future.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck, says, “Missions like PREFIRE demonstrate the unique benefit of Electron – dedicated launch for small satellites to precise orbits on precise schedules. We’ve demonstrated this back-to-back launch capability for NASA once before with the TROPICS mission and we’re excited to deliver it once again for PREFIRE. Climate change-focused missions like this are essential to understanding and safeguarding the future of our planet. It’s a privilege to support them on Electron.”

Today’s successful mission was Rocket Lab’s 48^th Electron launch overall and sixth launch of 2024.

NASA’s statement regarding launch of small climate satellite to study Earth’s poles

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 1 at Māhia, New Zealand at 7:41 p.m. NZST May 25, 2024 (3:41 a.m. EDT) carrying a small satellite for NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission.
Rocket Lab

The first of a pair of climate satellites designed to study heat emissions at Earth’s poles for NASA is in orbit after lifting off atop Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand at 7:41 p.m. NZST (3:41 a.m. EDT) on Saturday.NASA Launches Small Climate Satellite to Study Earth’s Poles

The agency’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission consists of two shoebox-size cube satellites, or CubeSats, that will measure the amount of heat Earth radiates into space from two of the coldest, most remote regions on the planet. Data from the PREFIRE mission will help researchers better predict how Earth’s ice, seas, and weather will change in a warming world.

“NASA’s innovative PREFIRE mission will fill a gap in our understanding of the Earth system – providing our scientists a detailed picture of how Earth’s polar regions influence how much energy our planet absorbs and releases,” said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division in Washington. “This will improve prediction of sea ice loss, ice sheet melt, and sea level rise, creating a better understanding of how our planet’s system will change in the coming years — crucial information to farmers tracking changes in weather and water, fishing fleets working in changing seas, and coastal communities building resilience.”

Ground controllers successfully established communications with the CubeSat at 8:48 EDT. The second PREFIRE CubeSat will set off on its own Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in the coming days. Following a 30-day checkout period during which engineers and scientists will make sure both CubeSats are working normally, the mission is expected to operate for 10 months.

At the heart of the PREFIRE mission is Earth’s energy budget — the balance between incoming heat energy from the Sun and the outgoing heat given off by the planet. The difference between the two is what determines the planet’s temperature and climate. A lot of the heat radiated from the Arctic and Antarctica is emitted as far-infrared radiation, but there is currently no detailed measurement of this type of energy.

The water vapor content of the atmosphere, along with the presence, structure, and composition of clouds, influences the amount of far-infrared radiation that escapes into space from Earth’s poles. Data collected from PREFIRE will give researchers information on where and when far-infrared energy radiates from the Arctic and Antarctic environments into space.

“The PREFIRE CubeSats may be small, but they’re going to close a big gap in our knowledge about Earth’s energy budget,” said Laurie Leshin, director, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Their observations will help us understand the fundamentals of Earth’s heat balance, allowing us to better predict how our ice, seas, and weather will change in the face of global warming.”

The mission’s CubeSats each carry an instrument called a thermal infrared spectrometer, which use specially shaped mirrors and sensors to measure infrared wavelengths. Miniaturizing the instruments to fit on CubeSats necessitated downsizing some parts while scaling up other components.

“Our planet is changing quickly, and in places like the Arctic, in ways that people have never experienced before,” said Tristan L’Ecuyer, PREFIRE’s principal investigator, University of Wisconsin, Madison. “NASA’s PREFIRE will give us new measurements of the far-infrared wavelengths being emitted from Earth’s poles, which we can use to improve climate and weather models and help people around the world deal with the consequences of climate change.”

NASA’s Launch Services Program, based out of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in partnership with NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder Program is providing the launch service as part of the agency’s Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract.

The PREFIRE mission was jointly developed by NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. NASA JPL manages the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate and provided the spectrometers. Blue Canyon Technologies built the CubeSats and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will process the data the instruments collect. The launch services provider is Rocket Lab USA Inc. of Long Beach, California.

Rocket Lab readies back-to-back launches for NASA’s climate change research mission

**NASA’s PREFIRE mission requires two satellites to be deployed to precise orbits one after the other, demonstrating Electron’s highly responsive launch capability**.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) global provider in launch services and space systems, announced it is preparing two back-to-back Electron launches to deploy NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission.

The two dedicated missions will each deploy one satellite to a 525km circular orbit from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The first mission – named ‘Ready, Aim, PREFIRE’ – is scheduled to launch no earlier than May 22, 2024. The launch date of the second mission – named ‘PREFIRE And Ice’ – will be scheduled to take place within three weeks of the successful deployment of the first PREFIRE mission. The missions will be Rocket Lab’s 48^th and 49^th Electron launches overall and its sixth and seventh launches of 2024. The launch will broadcast live at www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream

NASA’s PREFIRE mission is a climate change-focused mission that will systematically measure the heat, in the form of infrared and far-infrared wavelengths, lost from Earth’s polar regions for the first time. Extreme storms, flooding, and coastal erosion are examples of weather outcomes that are influenced by climate conditions in the Arctic and Antarctica. Once deployed to their separate orbits, the two PREFIRE satellites will criss-cross over the Arctic and Antarctica measuring thermal infrared radiation – the same type of energy emitted from a heat lamp – that will make climate models more accurate and help predict changes caused by global warming. PREFIRE consists of two 6U CubeSats with a baseline mission length of 10 months.

“Helping climate scientists better understand climate change means they need precisely located measurements of Earth’s polar heat loss, which NASA’s PREFIRE mission is setting out to achieve, and helping the PREFIRE mission achieve its science objectives means its satellites need precise and accurate deployments to their locations in space,” says Rocket Lab Founder and CEO, Peter Beck. “It’s these types of missions where Electron really thrives as the leading launch provider for dedicated small satellite missions. We have an excellent track record of delivering NASA’s payloads to exactly where they need to go and when they need to, and we’re looking forward to adding to that tally further with these next back-to-back launches.”

PREFIRE is the latest to join Rocket Lab’s list of NASA science and technology missions launched on Electron in recent years. These include the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon launched by Electron and deployed by a Rocket Lab Explorer spacecraft bus; two back-to-back Electron launches for the TROPICS mission in May 2023; the recent NASA Starling mission launched on Electron; and NASA’s ACS3 mission launched last month on a rideshare mission.

Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company with an established track record of mission success. They deliver reliable launch services, satellite manufacture, spacecraft components, and on-orbit management solutions that make it faster, easier, and more affordable to access space. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron small orbital launch vehicle, the Photon satellite platform, and the Company is developing the large Neutron launch vehicle for constellation deployment. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle has become the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually and has delivered 180+ satellites to orbit for private and public sector organizations, enabling operations in national security, scientific research, space debris mitigation, Earth observation, climate monitoring, and communications. Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft platform has been selected to support NASA missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as the first private commercial mission to Venus. Rocket Lab has three launch pads at two launch sites, including two launch pads at a private orbital launch site located in New Zealand and a third launch pad in Virginia. To learn more, visit www.rocketlabusa.com.

The Launch of a Rocket Lab Knight

June 5, 2024 by editorial

Being born in Invercargill, the capital city of New Zealand’s South Island, the Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Lab is now Sir Peter Beck, having just been appointed by King Charles III as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Peter has also been presented with the Gold Medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society, Meritorious Medal from the New Zealand Division of the Royal Aeronautical Society and Cooper Medal and Pickering Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand. In addition, in recognition of Peter’s outstanding contributions to aerospace, entrepreneurship and technical innovation, he was appointed as an adjunct professor in aerospace engineering by the University of Auckland. Sir Peter Beck is the President and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of the company.

His once, rather small rocket firm is now an impressive industry leader in the launch of satellites and related products for firms situated across the globe and the company posts an impressive valuation of $2 billion in the stock market.Rocket Lab employs more than 1,800 professionals and is only bested by Elon Musk’s SpaceX as far as the firm’s prolificity of launches.

Sir Beck’s firm has launched more than 1,700 missions for companies resident all over the world and such have included the James Webb Space Telescope for NASA; to solar power for spacecraft, star trackers, composite structures, reaction wheels, separation systems, radios and more.

Rocket Lab operates facilities in Virginia, New Mexico and Maryland in the U.S., Toronto, Canada, with headquarters in New Zealand. The latest successful launch for the company, as of this writing, occurred on May 25th with the launch of two, NASA PREFIRE satellites.

Mission completed for ESA’s OPS-SAT laboratory

June 4, 2024 by editorial

A collage of images taken by the camera onboard ESA's former OPS-SAT mission — *A collage of images taken by the camera onboard ESA’s former OPS-SAT mission*

Launched on December 18, 2019, ESA’s OPS-SAT was tasked with opening up the world of spacecraft operations to the widest possible audience. The smallsat’s founding principle was to provide a fast, no-charge, non-bureaucratic experiment service for European and Canadian industry and academia.

It brought experimenters from companies, universities and public institutions across Europe and beyond into heart of ESA’s ESOC mission control center and helped them prove that their new ideas were up to the challenge of flying in orbit.

Flying ESA’s most capable and flexible onboard computer, OPS-SAT showed us what future satellites will be capable of as they begin to carry more advanced equipment.

OPS-SAT was the first fully ESA-owned and operated CubeSat. A small, low-cost, innovative and open mission was unusual for ESA mission control, which typically flies Europe’s largest and most complex spacecraft around Earth and across the Solar System.

During OPS-SAT’s four and a half years in orbit, the mission went from strength to strength, allowing 134 teams from 26 different countries to execute over 284 different experiments.

***OPS-SAT Mission Team wins SpaceOps Award***

“Many experiments built on top of one another, and so the satellite became even more capable as time went on,” said David Evans, OPS-SAT Space Lab Manager at ESA. “OPS-SAT was a research lab: innovations and improvements made by one experiment could often be harnessed by others. If one team worked out a better way to operate the spacecraft’s camera, the next could use that to improve their new artificial intelligence algorithm for image processing, for example.”

OPS-SAT was the first satellite open to use by the public. It hosted experiments on AI and interplanetary internet and tested new software, some of which is now already in use by much larger missions. It was the first to conduct a stock market trade in orbit; the first to demonstrate that CubeSats can provide life-saving support during search and rescue activities; the first to demonstrate an active cybersecurity attack in orbit, and much more.

In 2023, the mission received international recognition when the OPS-SAT team shared the SpaceOps Outstanding Achievement award with the team behind NASA JPL’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter.

OPS-SAT's final image — ***OPS-SAT’s final image***.

OPS-SAT was impacted by the recent unexpectedly strong increase in solar activity that began in early 2024. The resulting increase to the drag experienced by the satellite caused it to begin an early descent into the atmosphere and, on May 22nd, the OPS-SAT chapter in space closed.

Teams from ESA and the organizations running the final experiments on OPS-SAT fought hard to maintain communication with the spacecraft as increasing drag threatened to steal away control at any moment. They worked night and day to wrap up the mission’s final activities, doing their very best to squeeze out the final drops of science and technology return.

The University of Oxford, UK, the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and others successfully completed experiments in the mission’s final few days, with Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) completing the mission’s final experiment just 24 hours before contact with the satellite was lost for good.

“As the satellite descended through the atmosphere, it became much harder to control. The OPS-SAT Mission Control Team and the teams from our experimenters all worked long hours to close out as many of the remaining experiments as possible before the end,” said Evans. “I was particularly happy to see us complete the experiment from Protostar Labs. It involved the in-flight reconfiguration of the on-board Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), which is normally regarded as a high-risk procedure that can take months. However, they pulled it off within just a few days and with just 48 hours left on the mission clock. It was also a perfect example of an OPS-SAT experiment. OPS-SAT is all about lowering barriers and providing access to space for new entities. Protostar Labs are a NewSpace company from Croatia – a nation with a young space industry – and are exactly the kind of team that OPS-SAT was developed to support.”

As a CubeSat with a size and a mass comparable to a piece of aircraft carry-on luggage, there were no risks associated with OPS-SAT’s atmospheric reentry and burn up. But the reentry itself offered a rare chance to gather valuable data.

Little information about what exactly happens to spacecraft as they fly through the lower levels of Earth’s atmosphere is known. Understanding how a satellite behaves during its final moments is important for improving how we model and ensure the safety of atmospheric reentries.

With the support of the global radio amateur community, the OPS-SAT team was able to gather and process telemetry from receivers all around the world. These data are now being analyzed, but already promise to provide interesting new insights.

“During the final contact with the satellite as it flew over Australia, we were surprised to see very little internal heating. It must have gone from normal temperatures to burn up in the final few minutes. The impact on the satellite’s attitude was more dramatic. As the drag increased, the satellite started spinning like a top about one axis but then re-stabilized itself. How and why this happened is something we will have to look into.”

During the mission, as the number of experimenters increased, the team at ESOC began to spend the majority of their time providing what became the OPS-SAT Space Lab service, which included providing assistance to the experimenters, performing dry runs on the ground, and of course ensuring the safe execution of the experiments in space.

In addition to opening up the experience of ESA mission control to the wider world, OPS-SAT also opened mission control up to the agility, innovation and new ideas of university and industry teams. The concept proved so successful for all involved that ‘OPS-SAT’ will now give its name to a family of future missions that have all agreed follow the principles of the OPS-SAT Space Lab experiment service.

The OPS-SAT concept has been adopted by the ESA ARTES ScyLight Strategic Program Line for a mission dedicated to testing new optical and quantum communication technologies, called OPS-SAT VOLT. It was designed with in-flight experimentation in mind and 50% of the mission’s time will be allocated to experiments coordinated by the OPS-SAT Space Lab. The UK Space Agency have invested 13 million euros in VOLT, and Craft Prospect will serve as the project’s prime contractor.

Other proposed missions include OPS-SAT ORIOLE, a joint Hungarian-Estonian proposal to ARTES Scylight, and CYBERCUBE, a cybersecurity demonstration mission managed by the ESA Security Office, that will allow OPS-SAT Space Lab experimentation once the principle aims of the mission have been achieved.

The OPS-SAT Space Lab service will continue to provide an important and mutually beneficial bridge between ESA, industry and universities across Europe and beyond, for many years to come.

Sateliot to launch four satellites with SpaceX in July to enter commercial phase

June 4, 2024 by editorial

Sateliot will launch four satellites for its 5G-IoT constellation on SpaceX’s Transporter-11 mission — the launch is scheduled for July and the satellites will fly aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The company, which is deploying the first LEO satellite constellation with 5G standards for IoT and 100% global coverage, will commence its commercial phase with these satellites. It has already secured €200 million in recurring revenue contracts from more than 400 clients in 50 countries worldwide.

Sateliot plans to deploy more satellites by 2025. To achieve this, the company is engaged in talks with national and international space industry players and investors to close its € 30 million Series B funding round. Since its inception in 2018, Sateliot has raised €25 million, including €6 million from Banco Santander. Sateliot’s business plan projects revenues of €500 million in 2027 and €1 billion in 2030, with an EBITDA margin of over 60%.

Each of the four CubeSat 6U satellites that Sateliot will launch in July represent an investment of half a million euros. They measure 20 x 10 x 35 centimeters, roughly the size of a microwave, and weigh 10 kilograms. They will orbit at about 600 kilometers altitude and have a lifespan of over five years.

Their technology, which will provide connectivity to more than eight million devices already subscribed to the service, is democratic and accessible, open to various use cases for SMEs, public administrations, and large companies.

Jaume Sanpera, CEO and co-founder of Sateliot, said, “With this launch, the company enters a new dimension that will allow Spain to lead IoT connectivity on a global scale.”

Neutron Star Systems + RFA sign agreement for demo mission

June 3, 2024 by editorial

Neutron Star Systems UG and Rocket Factory Augsburg AG (RFA) have jointly signed an agreement for launching a demonstrator mission into LEO.

RFA will launch Neutron Star Systems demonstrator mission in Q3 2023 on the RFA ONE launch system. This mission will demonstrate a key subsystem for Neutron Star Systems disruptive electric propulsion system called SUPREME (SUperconductor-based Readiness Enhanced Magnetoplasmadynamic Electric propulsion). The mission will focus on advancing technology readiness level on one of the most important subsystems of SUPREME thruster technology.

Jörn Spurmann, Chief Commercial Officer, said, “We are happy to support Neutron Star System’s in-orbit demonstration mission with our rideshare program on the RFA ONE launch systems. Their propulsion system has the potential to disrupt satellite propulsion, and we are proud to enable this endeavor.“

Manuel La Rosa Betancourt, Chief Executive Officer, said, “Neutron Star Systems is committed to secure the development of this technology in Europe and to the strengthening of the vibrant German space ecosystem. By demonstrating this capability we do not only advance the TRL of SUPREME but also make a contribution towards Europe’s non dependence and leadership in enabling technologies objectives.”