editorial

Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) has named Jonathan Siegmann as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development — he will lead Terran Orbital’s investor relations, M&A and venture efforts among other development initiatives.

Most recently, Mr. Siegmann served as Research Analyst and Portfolio Manager for Fidelity Management and Research Company. Coverage responsibilities included all North American aerospace, defense, and new space companies both public and private. Prior to Fidelity, Jonathan held various positions of increasing responsibility at BASF Corporation from 1998-2007. He received a BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and is a Chartered Financial Analyst® holder from the CFA Institute.

Mr. Siegmann will report to Terran Orbital Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Marc Bell, who said, “I am pleased to welcome Jon to the Terran Orbital team. He brings significant investor expertise from his distinguished career at Fidelity leading the Aerospace and Defense sector coverage. Jon will play a critical role as we execute our investing and capital market strategy. We are excited to have Jon join the team and are looking forward to his contributions as Terran Orbital continues to grow.”

Terran Orbital is a leading manufacturer of smallsats, primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries. Terran Orbital provides end-to-end satellite solutions by combining satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations, and in-orbit support to meet the needs of the most demanding military, civil, and commercial customers. Learn more at www.terranorbital.com.

Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) has named Jonathan Siegmann as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development — he will lead Terran Orbital’s investor relations, M&A and venture efforts among other development initiatives.

Most recently, Mr. Siegmann served as Research Analyst and Portfolio Manager for Fidelity Management and Research Company. Coverage responsibilities included all North American aerospace, defense, and new space companies both public and private. Prior to Fidelity, Jonathan held various positions of increasing responsibility at BASF Corporation from 1998-2007. He received a BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and is a Chartered Financial Analyst® holder from the CFA Institute.

Mr. Siegmann will report to Terran Orbital Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Marc Bell, who said, “I am pleased to welcome Jon to the Terran Orbital team. He brings significant investor expertise from his distinguished career at Fidelity leading the Aerospace and Defense sector coverage. Jon will play a critical role as we execute our investing and capital market strategy. We are excited to have Jon join the team and are looking forward to his contributions as Terran Orbital continues to grow.”

Terran Orbital is a leading manufacturer of smallsats, primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries. Terran Orbital provides end-to-end satellite solutions by combining satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations, and in-orbit support to meet the needs of the most demanding military, civil, and commercial customers. Learn more at www.terranorbital.com.

Recently, SWISSto12 introduced their new name — HummingSat — as well as the logo for the company’s smallsat telecommunications product line — HummingSat operates in GEO at 36,000 kilometers above the Earth and brings a new solution to connect society with modern technology.

This new satellite product line and the first protoflight model are in development and construction under a Partnership contract between ESA and SWISSto12 for delivery by SWISSto12 of a satellite to an operator acting as the anchor commercial end-customer with a planned launch date in 2025.

A HummingSat is significantly smaller than conventional GEO telecommunication satellites and, therefore, benefits from a rideshare launch strategy. Despite its small size, the satellite powers a highly capable telecommunications payload with approximately 2kW of power, which is enabled by SWISSto12’s unique 3D printed Radio Frequency products and systems. HummingSat provides satellite operators with a bespoke and competitive solution for delivery of regional or gap-filling services as well as economic replacement of ageing satellites.

Emile de Rijk, CEO of SWISSto12, said, “SWISSto12 is proudly investing in the HummingSat product line since several years, I am now thrilled to see it has matured to become a competitive offering for satellite telecommunication operators. Our first satellite is now fully launched in its design and construction, and we aim at making reuse of this development to commercialize our HummingSats based on a standardized platform along with optimized payloads to best service each one of our customers.”

The name is inspired by the Hummingbird (or Colibri), small and agile by nature, as the company’s smallsat will be once the spacecraft is deployed and operational.

RAL Space’s Speqtre smallsat has passed a major milestone in its journey to space. The mission, which will demonstrate quantum key distribution (QKD) from space, has passed its critical design review (CDR) — the team can now build and test a full model of the satellite. New and impactful technology

QKD enables a way of encrypting data communications so that it cannot be hacked, even by future quantum computers. UK leadership in this area will help to open access to a global market thought to be worth up to $15 billion (£11.5 billion) over the next ten years.

Speqtre is being developed by the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s RAL Space in the UK and SpeQtral, a quantum communications company in Singapore.

The satellite platform is being designed and supplied by ISISPACE in the Netherlands.

Transferring quantum keys via satellites will enable governments and companies to secure information transfers over the internet, including for backbone networks, critical infrastructure and financial institutions, over globe-spanning distances. This global coverage is difficult and costly to achieve with ground-based fiber infrastructure.

While the technology to transfer quantum keys on the ground is relatively mature, it is more challenging to make it small and robust enough to work in the harsh conditions in space and provide a reliable signal back to the ground. Speqtre will test this technology, qualifying it for use in space and helping to get it ready to be used more widely by commercial operators.

The UK and Singapore are bringing together their expertise in space technologies. RAL Space is leading the mission with overview of the space components and are also delivering the optical payload that will beam QKD signals to Earth. SpeQtral is providing the QKD hardware.

In a radically different approach from traditional space missions, the Speqtre team are bringing together off-the-shelf products with brand new technology through an experimental development process. This will enable this state-of-the-art mission to get from the drawing board and into the orbit more quickly and at a lower cost than comparable missions.

The UK Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy is investing £5 million in the project. The UK government is supporting quantum projects, including Speqtre, as part of the National Quantum Technologies Program which is designed to accelerate the translation of quantum technologies into the UK marketplace and open opportunities for British businesses to unlock new capabilities that can make a real difference to our everyday lives.

The mission is due to launch in 2024 and will test distribution of quantum keys to both a ground station run by RAL Space at the Chilbolton Observatory​ in Hampshire, and to a ground station in Singapore.

Following the successful completion of the critical design review, the teams will build the first model of the satellite and put it through initial engineering tests. RAL Space are developing the optical ground station at Chilbolton Observatory which will be used by Speqtre and to track and communicate with a range of other satellites.

The Speqtre mission is being complemented by a similar mission, also with RAL Space involvement, led by the Quantum Communications Hub at the University of York. This spacecraft will demonstrate UK-developed quantum key distribution technologies.

Andy Vick, Disruptive Space Technology lead at RAL Space and UK Principal Investigator for Speqtre said, “Speqtre is taking a new and agile approach to developing space hardware which is scary to this very risk averse industry. This review was an opportunity to get an unbiased view of our approach from a team of experts. I’m delighted that we have passed this critical milestone and developing Speqtre is proving to be cheaper and faster than traditional space projects. This is an extremely exciting mission, both because it will demonstrate impactful new technology but also because of the way we are developing it. This is a template for future space projects to help us bring innovative ideas to fruition more quickly.”

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 8:44 p.m., EDT, Thursday, July 14th, to launch the agency’s next investigation to monitor climate change to the International Space Station. The mission — NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) — will fly aboard SpaceX’s 25th commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to deliver new science investigations, supplies, and equipment for the international crew, including a new climate research investigation.

Live coverage will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website, with prelaunch events starting on Wednesday, July 13th.

Dragon will carry more than 5,800 pounds of cargo, including a variety of NASA investigations such as EMIT, which will identify the composition of mineral dust from Earth’s arid regions and analyze dust carried through the atmosphere from deserts to see what effects it has on the planet, further advancing NASA’s data contributions to monitoring climate change.

Other investigations include studying the aging of immune cells and the potential to reverse those effects during postflight recovery, a cubesat that will monitor cloud top and ocean surface temperatures which could help scientists understand Earth’s climate and weather systems, and a student experiment testing a concrete alternative for potential use in future lunar and Martian habitats.

Arrival to ISS is scheduled for approximately 11:20 a.m. EDT on Saturday, July 16th. Dragon will dock autonomously to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module, with NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines monitoring operations from the station.

The spacecraft is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before returning to Earth with research and return cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.

Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd.’s SPOT Gen4 satellite messengers will be deployed by Thailand Marine Department to provide safety and security for all travelers on and around the island of Phuket.

Phuket and surrounding islands typically welcome 20,000 visitors daily. As part of a major government program to revitalize tourism, it is envisaged that several thousand SPOT Gen4 units will be deployed. A pilot deployment is already underway.

The SPOT Gen4 devices are at the heart of the solution provided by Ship Expert Technology, a leading Globalstar Value Added Reseller partner dedicated to the maritime sector.

The Thailand Marine Department is committed to help accelerate the recovery of the tourism industry which is so crucial to the country’s economy.

Phuket has recently been opened for vaccinated Thai and foreign travelers, with no need for quarantine. This development is expected to give Thai tourism a much-anticipated boost. Tourism has suffered from the impact of Covid-19 but also from high-profile criminal incidents whose victims included foreign tourists.

A further major benefit of the SPOT Gen4s is they will help authorities and first responders improve the speed and effectiveness of emergency rescue operations if a vessel capsizes or sinks, or if a passenger has a medical emergency.

This project is the first milestone in a major new partnership between Globalstar and Thaicom Public Company Limited (SET Thailand: THCOM), Asia’s largest independent satellite operator.

“Globalstar is the ideal partner for Thaicom,” said Patompob (Nile) Suwansiri, Thaicom’s Chief Executive Officer. “Today, government and industry are coming together in Thailand to deliver on our common objective to support the tourism industry, so fundamental to our economy, and our shared commitment to enhance communications capability in our region through advanced satellite communications. Our collaboration with Globalstar will be a major driver on the roadmap to revitalise tourism, and also to develop new communications solutions which will benefit businesses and communities.”

At the end of March, Thaicom and Globalstar inked an agreement which will see the two satellite operators collaborate to develop and operate ground station facilities at Thaicom’s Teleport Center in Pathumthani Province for Globalstar’s LEO satellite constellation. The infrastructure and services of the ground station will support Globalstar services in the region. The partners will commercialize safety and security services and solutions to support tourism as well as the region’s maritime industry.

Local government regulations have been introduced which mandate that all tourists in Phuket must carry a tracking device at all times, onshore or on water. Every tourist is to be registered and provided with a SPOT Gen4 by one of a pool of government-certified official tourist guides. Phuket visitors are required to use their SPOT devices to check in with their guides on completion of any day trips or excursions, with SPOT service fees incorporated into the excursion package price.

SPOT Gen4 was chosen in recognition of the device’s ability to ensure always-on connectivity, regardless of the availability of other communications networks. Only satellite communications can provide reliable, 24/7 ubiquitous coverage. As part of the selection process, a solutions evaluation tender process took place, involving numerous government agencies. Competing propositions involved satellite communications and other network technologies. SPOT’s coverage and economical price were influencing factors, according to Ship Expert Technology CEO, Kirk Viaimal. He said, “We are delighted to work in partnership with Globalstar and Thaicom to help the Thailand Marine Department support the country’s travel sector.”

In an emergency, with the press of SPOT’s one-touch SOS button, an alert is instantly transmitted to Marine Services, the government authority responsible for maritime safety, along with the user’s GPS location coordinates. Depending on the incident, the Thailand Coastguard or local police authority is engaged and rescue operations are initiated.

SPOT Gen4 is the newest member of Globalstar’s award-winning SPOT device family, enabled by Globalstar’s satellite fleet in LEO. SPOT features easy-to-use buttons that can be flexibly configured to send pre-programmed messages, with options for transmission types. To date, SPOT devices are credited with more than 8,500 rescues worldwide.

One of the leading specialist SATCOM providers in the region, Ship Expert Technology offers a dedicated tracking platform with many features and options that meet the needs of marine users. Ship Expert Technology’s customer base extends beyond Thailand into Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

“We’re very proud to support the government of Thailand with its initiative to help keep visitors safe on Phuket and other islands,” said Mark O’Connell, General Manager, EMEA & APAC, Globalstar.

Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) has successfully completed the NASA CAPSTONE satellite’s first TCM burn (TCM-1)

As the first statistical maneuver of the mission, TCM-1 is designed to clean up expected dispersions from the launch vehicle injection – enabling CAPSTONE to continue its pathfinding lunar journey in support of NASA’s Artemis program.

Terran Orbital Guidance Navigation and Control systems perfectly performed the maneuver as designed by Advanced Space.

The maneuver was designed based on navigation information collected by the Deep Space Network and processed by the Advanced Space flight dynamics team.

Terran Orbital’s Mission Operations Center commanded the burn and processed the post-burn telemetry. Optimized for precise maneuvers, TCM-1 is the first maneuver executed by the CAPSTONE spacecraft using its onboard propulsion system.

The maneuver was designed to be approximately 20 m/s. Initial radiometric-based reconstruction suggests TCM-1 achieved approximately 19.85 m/s, which represents a deviation of approximately 0.75 % — well within expectations and predictions. At the time of maneuver execution, the spacecraft was approximately 465,000 km. from the Earth.

Prior to the maneuver, the spacecraft was on a trajectory that would take it approximately 1.2 million km. from the Earth. With the completion of TCM-1, the spacecraft is now targeting a trajectory that will take it approximately 1.4 million km. from Earth.

Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) has successfully completed the NASA CAPSTONE satellite’s first TCM burn (TCM-1)

As the first statistical maneuver of the mission, TCM-1 is designed to clean up expected dispersions from the launch vehicle injection – enabling CAPSTONE to continue its pathfinding lunar journey in support of NASA’s Artemis program.

Terran Orbital Guidance Navigation and Control systems perfectly performed the maneuver as designed by Advanced Space.

The maneuver was designed based on navigation information collected by the Deep Space Network and processed by the Advanced Space flight dynamics team.

Terran Orbital’s Mission Operations Center commanded the burn and processed the post-burn telemetry. Optimized for precise maneuvers, TCM-1 is the first maneuver executed by the CAPSTONE spacecraft using its onboard propulsion system.

The maneuver was designed to be approximately 20 m/s. Initial radiometric-based reconstruction suggests TCM-1 achieved approximately 19.85 m/s, which represents a deviation of approximately 0.75 % — well within expectations and predictions. At the time of maneuver execution, the spacecraft was approximately 465,000 km. from the Earth.

Prior to the maneuver, the spacecraft was on a trajectory that would take it approximately 1.2 million km. from the Earth. With the completion of TCM-1, the spacecraft is now targeting a trajectory that will take it approximately 1.4 million km. from Earth.

GomSpace has received an authorization to proceed (ATP) from Unseen Labs to initiate production of key products for an upcoming satellite project.

The ATP value is 12 MSEK. The products are expected to be ready by the close of 2022. 

The purpose of the ATP is to ensure availability of specific products that currently have long lead times, due to the current worldwide shortage of semiconductor components.