Archives for 2024

Startical, the company created by ENAIRE (Europe’s fourth-largest air navigation services provider), and Indra will use a satellite produced by Kongsberg NanoAvionics to test the systems of the company’s future constellation of more than 270 smallsats that are set to provide air traffic services from space.

Startical has chosen NanoAvionics’s MP42 microsatellite bus, weighing approximately 110 kg, for a series of tests lasting six months. The mission will assess the performance of the smallsat’s VHF radio communication systems and the ADS-B surveillance systems directly from space. The test satellite will become operational in 2025.

NanoAvionics will be tasked to provide the bus, integrate the payload, and to launch and execute the first mission operations to enable Startical’s experts to manage the ATM systems onboard.

Startical will carry out these tests in the wake of the International Telecommunication Union’s approval last December of the use of the aeronautical communications band from space – a historic milestone and a definitive boost for this pioneering project and a milestone for the aviation world, the company said.

J. Enrique González Laguna, CEO of Startical, said, “Our goal is to become the main global provider of air traffic management technology in the space segment and a market leader in satellite surveillance and voice and data communications services. Our constellation will call on highly innovative and distinctive technological solutions, including the incorporation of pioneering links between satellites and the use of artificial intelligence to make controlling them easier. Partnering with NanoAvionics will provide us with satellite technology and market-leading experience and allow us to test our new technology. This in turn will open new markets and services for us. They understand our requirements, have the skills to perfectly integrate our technology into their satellite bus and operate it from the ground.”

Žilvinas Kvedaravičius, CEO of NanoAvionics, said, “This is an excellent opportunity for us at NanoAvionics to become Startical’s partner. We will bring our leadership and expertise in small satellite technology, which will be ideally complemented by Startical’s advanced vision of air traffic management. We are committed to this mission and we will strive to demonstrate the capabilities and ongoing reliability of our small platform and mission services geared towards the customer. We are striving to speed up the deployment and lifespan of our systems in space in order to move New Space initiatives such as Startical on to their next phase of development. Bringing performance standards to the industry requires the robust quality and procedural assurance to which we are dedicated.”

About Startical
Startical is a public-private initiative for satellite technological innovation created by ENAIRE and Indra. The goal of Startical is to develop and deploy a constellation of small satellites at low altitude to enhance air traffic management with a global service vision across the entire planet. Startical aims to build and launch a satellite platform that will expand surveillance and communication coverage with aircraft, especially over vast oceanic or remote areas without coverage from ground-based air navigation infrastructure systems. Startical will be the first satellite platform for air navigation that includes, alongside aircraft position surveillance services (ADS-B), a VHF radio communication system between the controller and the pilot compliant with aeronautical standards. This represents a differentiating factor compared to similar initiatives. These new services will enhance safety, capacity, efficiency, and punctuality of flights, providing clear benefits for both airlines and passengers.

About Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics)
Kongsberg NanoAvionics is reshaping the space economy with our standardized small satellite platforms. We offer efficient, cost-effective satellite products and services that help organizations launch their space missions swiftly. Since 2014, over 120 projects in 50 countries have trusted us for our experience, technology and higher return on their satellite investment. We’re a globally local team of close to 300 international professionals with dedicated facilities in Lithuania, the United States, and the United Kingdom. As part of Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace since 2022, we’re further strengthening our commitment to robust, innovative, secure and reliable space solutions.

The U.S. Space Force’s Small Launch and Targets Division at Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico, part of Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Assured Access to Space (AATS) program executive office, has issued a solicitation to on ramp additional launch providers to the Orbital Services Program (OSP)-4 Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. Periodic on ramp opportunities ensure all eligible launch providers within one year of their initial orbital launch are included in OSP-4 mission competitions.

OSP-4 is executed as part of the Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP). It allows for the rapid acquisition of launch services to meet mission requirements for payloads 400 pounds or greater, enabling launch within 12-24 months from task order award. Task orders under the contract can be tailored to meet more demanding timelines for Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) missions or other needs. The contract has a $986 million ceiling with ordering through October 2028. The Space Force will compete each mission ordered under the contract among the IDIQ awardees.

This is the second OSP-4 on ramp opportunity. SSC initially awarded the OSP-4 contract in 2019 followed by the first on ramp in 2021. While there is not an upper limit on the size or performance of launch systems available on the contract, OSP-4 missions are typically structured with an emphasis on small launch capabilities.

There are currently 10 launch providers on the contract: ABL Space Systems, Aevum, Astra, Firefly Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, Relativity Space, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance (ULA), and X-Bow.

“The OSP-4 contract has been a valuable arrow in the quiver of the Space Force’s full spectrum launch arsenal since 2019, serving as a complement to the National Security Space Launch program,” said Lt. Col. Justin Beltz, chief of SSC’s Small Launch and Targets Division. “Small launch brings a great deal of responsiveness and flexibility that opens exciting possibilities for future missions. There have been both opportunities and challenges in the small launch industry over the past couple of years, which make it more important than ever that we bring in emerging industry solutions. OSP-4 launches like last year’s groundbreaking VICTUS NOX mission highlight how impactful these capabilities can be.” 

Astranis has developed a new partnership with Orbith, a fast-growing, Latin American ISP and the company will provide a dedicated MicroGEO communications satellite for Argentina. 

This new partnership with Orbith is a great opportunity to expand the company’s services to another fast-growing market and to work with a local partner who deeply understands the communications needs of the Argentinian people.

Orbith provides a variety of communications services for customers across Latin America: from hospitals, to schools, to businesses, to consumers and beyond. Their growing foothold in the market has been built on the back of fractional capacity rentals from the existing large players — but both availability and price have held them back from expanding their footprint in countries like Argentina.

The Orbith satellite will launch in 2025 as part of Astranis’ third launch. With this program, the company’s next two full launches of MicroGEO satellites are are already committed.

Airbus has been awarded a contract to design and build the GRACE-C twin spacecraft by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL (Pasadena, California). This new mission of NASA and the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will strengthen the more than 20 year long partnership between the USA and Germany to ensure uninterrupted measurement of the Earth’s gravity field, which started in 2002 with GRACE and continues with GRACE Follow-On, launched in 2018.

During its five year nominal mission lifetime, the GRACE-C Mission (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment-Continuity) will continue the series of measurements observing how Earth’s groundwater, oceans, ice sheets, and land shift, month-to-month, by measuring changes in the planet’s gravity field.

GRACE-C consists of two identical satellites flying around 200 km apart at an orbit altitude of 500 km with an inclination of 89 degrees. Each satellite will measure approximately 3 x 2 x 1 meters and weigh around 600 kg. Launch is planned no earlier than late 2028 from the USA.

Like its predecessors, the GRACE-C mission is designed to precisely measure small distance changes between the satellites due to gravity variations, with an unprecedented precision down to the micron. As the pair of satellites circle the Earth, areas of slightly stronger gravity (greater mass concentration) will affect the spacecraft’s positions and hence the distance between them. The extremely precise microwave ranging system will detect these changes and enable the mapping of Earth’s gravity field with unmatched accuracy.

Over the months and years, the comparison of these gravity maps, or the evolution of mass concentrations, will enable scientists to assess the global water balance, including groundwater tables and ice sheets, and the influence of climate change. It will also provide insights into deep and surface currents in oceans and ocean height contributors.

GRACE-C is a rebuild of the two GRACE Follow-On satellites with upgraded avionics based on state-of-the-art technology and the joint U.S.-German Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI), already flown on GRACE Follow-On as an experimental payload, now being the main ranging instrument.

The mission is based on a NASA/DLR interagency partnership: German contributions are funded by the Federal German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action as well as the Federal and Ministry of Education and Research. The optical bench of the LRI instrument is built by SpaceTech GmbH in close cooperation with the Max Planck Institute Gravitational Science (Albert Einstein Institute).

Airbus Defence and Space in Friedrichshafen will design, build and deliver the satellites to the launch site, including Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) support for NASA/JPL. The mission will be operated by the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) of DLR.

Alain Fauré, Head of Space Systems at Airbus, said, “It is amazing to think that, without looking down at Earth, two satellites more than 200 km away from each other, can tell us how quickly our ice sheets are melting. In environmental monitoring, continuity is key. The valuable data provided by the previous GRACE missions is testament to their success and it is great news that Airbus continues to be part of this international mission providing the tools to measure how our climate is evolving.”

Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), signed a contract with European Space Agency (ESA) to deliver an end to end solution for the LEO-PNT (Low Earth Orbit Positioning Navigation and Timing) orbit demonstrator.

This contract includes the space (five satellites to be launched), ground and users segments, the on-orbit operations (including deorbiting), the launch, the test user segment, experimentation and service demonstration in different industries representative user environments.

This constellation will work in combination with Galileo and other satellite navigation systems to provide guaranteed centimeter location accuracy, robustness, resistance against jamming and spoofing as well as low latency (very fast acquisition).

LEO-PNT will, thereby, allow to serve emerging applications as high level autonomy cars including persistent coverage in dense urban areas, unmanned aerial and maritime vehicles or 5G/6G ground telecommunication network synchronization.

Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) will collaborate with NVIDIA to advance AI-driven weather prediction — through this collaboration, Spire’s Radio Occultation (RO) data and proprietary data assimilation (DA) capabilities will be integrated with NVIDIA Earth-2 Cloud APIs to leverage AI to accelerate climate and weather predictions.

The field of weather prediction is changing rapidly due to advances in AI. Spire’s multipurpose constellation of satellites, using RO technology, offers unmatched global coverage of precise vertical profiles of temperature, pressure, and humidity across the globe, including under-observed areas and remote regions. By combining this dataset and Spire’s proprietary DA analysis, with NVIDIA’s advanced AI platforms and APIs, this collaboration aims to usher in a new era of accuracy in weather forecasting.

Through this collaboration, Spire aims to deliver differentiated forecast products that are computationally infeasible using traditional NWP models. This includes rapidly updating global forecasts extending into the sub-seasonal timeframe, large ensemble systems capturing the entire range of possible weather outcomes, and generative AI downscaling models resolving fine forecast details over local areas.

These capabilities will significantly enhance Spire’s core products, such as the DeepVision weather risk mitigation platform, maritime route optimization, and renewable energy power forecasts. The Company will provide its customers in various sectors, including energy, commodity hedging and trading, maritime, aviation, supply-chain, insurance, transportation, defense and more, with lower latency, extended lead times and heightened forecast accuracy.

The NVIDIA Earth-2 platform includes the physical simulation of numerical models like ICON and IFS; neural network models such as FourCastNet, GraphCast, and Deep Learning Weather Prediction through the NVIDIA Modulus framework; and data federation and visualization with NVIDIA Omniverse technologies. Earth-2 aims to provide a path to simulate and visualize the global atmosphere at unprecedented speed and scale.

Spire’s suite of weather and climate solutions, including its recently launched High–Resolution Weather Forecasts, DeepVision platform, global weather forecasts, proprietary data sources like ocean winds and soil moisture, and additional atmospheric weather datasets, aims to serve customers across various industries, including energy, logistics, utilities, agriculture and more.

“As our world grapples with dynamic shifts in climate, anticipating and mitigating the impact of extreme-weather events poses escalating challenges for companies, individuals, and communities,” said Michael Eilts, general manager of weather and climate at Spire. “Aligning Spire’s proprietary data and unmatched global weather coverage with NVIDIA’s cutting-edge technology and expertise positions us to markedly elevate the accuracy of weather prediction. This collaboration will help ensure our customers are not just informed but empowered to proactively address the evolving climate landscape.”

About Spire Global, Inc.
Spire (NYSE: SPIR) is a global provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, offering unique datasets and powerful insights about Earth so that organizations can make decisions with confidence in a rapidly changing world. Spire builds, owns, and operates a fully deployed satellite constellation that observes the Earth in real time using radio frequency technology. The data acquired by Spire’s satellites provides global weather intelligence, ship and plane movements, and spoofing and jamming detection to better predict how their patterns impact economies, global security, business operations and the environment. Spire also offers Space as a Service solutions that empower customers to leverage its established infrastructure to put their business in space. Spire has nine offices across the U.S., Canada, UK, Luxembourg, Germany and Singapore.

Umbra has announced the forthcoming release of imagery from the firm’s tandem pair of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) smallsats.

Umbra is set to provide customers with bistatic SAR data later in 2024. The monumental launch of Umbra’s first tandem pair of satellites, Umbra-07 and Umbra-08, aboard the SpaceX Transporter-9 mission on November 9, 2023, marked a significant leap in SAR imaging.

With eight satellites currently on-orbit, Umbra plans to deploy the remaining satellites in its licensed, 32-satellite constellation in strategically designed pairs. Operating satellites in a cluster formation facilitates multi-static collection and other integrated operations, offering distinctive phenomenology and inherent resilience.

This innovative approach opens the door to various applications, including Intelligence Surveillance Recognizance (ISR) capability, elevation modeling, imaging resilience, and the implementation of moving target indication techniques.

Umbra’s development of the technology necessary to automate formation flying and multi-static data processing has been dramatically accelerated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) over the past year, which selected the company as a partner for its Distributed Radar Image Formation Technology program.

With the unique ability to capture images at day/night, all-weather capable, Umbra’s SAR satellites are indispensable for monitoring change. Umbra’s high-performance SAR satellites deliver the highest quality SAR data at unprecedented volumes and area density, enabling the U.S. Government, its allies, and commercial partners with actionable, all-weather insights.

Jason Mallare, Vice President, Global Solutions, said, “The ability to operate spacecraft in coherent pairs is an important step in unlocking the novel promises of cluster operations. The scaling up from one to many, with highly affordable individual satellites, enables clustered flight with the potential for proliferation of truly resilient systems that offer tremendous traditional and full spectrum capabilities.”

About Umbra
Umbra is a vertically integrated space technology company that offers intelligence data as a service to commercial and government customers. Our cutting-edge products help customers solve complex business, environmental, and security challenges. Umbra is founded, funded, built, and operated in the USA with headquarters in Santa Barbara, California, and has a presence in Austin, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

Exolaunch has signed a multi-launch agreement (MLA) with SATORO Space, a commercial satellite manufacturer that specializes in smallsats — this MLA encompasses a strategic partnership between Exolaunch and SATORO Space to deploy at least three satellites through 2025, marking a significant collaboration in advancing the global, commercial, space industry.

Under the terms of the MLA, the first launch occurred on SpaceX’s Transporter-10 mission, which launched SATORO’s IRIS-F1 satellite on March 4, 2024, from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Using Exolaunch’s EXOpod Nova containerized satellite deployer, IRIS-F1 was successfully deployed and will conduct a scientific on-orbit verification mission with an automatic identification system (AIS). Subsequent launches will follow, extending the agreement through the end of 2025.

Initially, what began as a single launch agreement for SATORO Space, under the expertise of Exolaunch, has evolved into a comprehensive, multi-launch commitment that extends to future rideshare missions. This expansion underlines the confidence and trust that SATORO Space places in Exolaunch’s team, mission management capabilities, and reliable, flight-proven hardware.

SATORO Space, a spin-off from the prestigious National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), is a direct outcome of successful collaborative efforts between academia and industry and brings a wealth of expertise in building small satellites. SATORO is poised to emerge as a preeminent commercial satellite manufacturer in Asia, contributing to the region’s growing presence in the global space industry. With Exolaunch’s flight heritage in launching more than 390 satellites across 26 missions, this collaboration will enable and ensure seamless deployment and mission success for SATORO Space’s satellites.

“We are pleased to announce this multi-launch agreement with SATORO Space, highlighting the synergies between our launch mission integration capabilities and their expertise in smallsat manufacturing,” said Kier Fortier, managing director of Exolaunch USA. “We are especially thrilled and privileged to have successfully deployed the IRIS-F1 satellite, and look forward to a successful partnership, contributing to the advancement of space exploration, innovation, and commercial satellite technology. This partnership reflects our commitment to making space accessible, supporting emerging players in the NewSpace industry, and providing flexible and reliable launch solutions to meet the evolving needs of our global customers.”

Exolaunch (Germany, USA) is a global leader in launch mission integration and deployment technologies. With a decade of flight heritage and over 390 satellites launched across 26 missions to date, Exolaunch leverages industry insight to tailor turnkey solutions that meet customer needs and respond to market trends. Exolaunch fulfills launch contracts for industry leaders, the world’s most innovative start-ups, research institutions, government organizations, and international space agencies. The company develops and manufactures its own flight-proven and industry-leading small satellite separation systems, with the fastest-growing heritage on the market. Exolaunch is committed to making space accessible to all and to promoting its safe, sustainable, and responsible use.

OQ Technology Group has launched two, new, LEO satellites — TIGER-7 and TIGER-8 built by Nanoavionics — aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket rideshare mission Transporter-10 — this comes after three months from the successful launch of the Tiger-5 and 6 satellites on Transporter-9.

The two satellites separated successfully from the upper stage of the rocket and were deployed into orbit 57 minutes post launch. Both satellites are 6U sized smallsats carrying “cell tower” NB-IoT payloads. Contact with both satellites has been established few hours after launch using Nanoavioncis ground station in Vilnus.


The two satellites join OQ 5G NTN IoT satellite constellation which has a total now of 10 satellites. This concludes the OQ Technology LEO batch-1 satellites of for the firm’s constellation. The company has been on a fast track to launch many satellites since last year to complete its batch 1 that can provide global narrowband IoT coverage to many clients and applications.

The 5G satellite market has been growing rapidly with many users shifting from proprietary solutions to standard 3GPP protocols. OQ is a front runner globally in offering LEO satellite narrowband communication for machines and the internet of things. The company has already provided Satellite NTN connectivity to oil and gas customers and is expanding into other verticals such as agriculture and maritime.

Omar Qaise, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of OQ Technology, said, “We are very happy of this milestone which was a corner milestone of our 2022 Series-A fundraise: Putting 10 satellites in orbit to have good level of coverage anywhere in the world. We are ready now to acquire more customers and grow our revenue and prepare the launch of our batch-2 satellites, OQ is the fastest growing and largest LEO NTN NB-IoT 3GPP standard satellite constellation.”