NASA has initiated a new mission to help humanity better understand Earth’s dynamic atmosphere – specifically, ice clouds that form at high altitudes throughout tropical and sub-tropical regions. The PolSIR instrument (Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer) study such ice clouds to determine how and why they change throughout the day. This will provide crucial information about how to accurately simulate these high-altitude clouds in global climate models.

The investigation consists of two identical CubeSats — each smallsat is just a little over a foot tall — flying in orbits separated by three to nine hours. Over time, these two instruments will observe the clouds’ daily cycle of ice content.

The award is for for lifecycle costs no more than $37 million, which does not include launch costs. The radiometer is an Earth Venture instrument — lower-cost instruments with a targeted research goal, which typically catch a ride along with another mission or commercial satellite in order to minimize launch costs.

The Earth Venture class also focuses on providing frequent flight opportunities, so innovative science investigations can be flown relatively quickly, generally within five years or less. Missions like this provide key targeted research opportunities, which help us improve our understanding of what’s driving change in the entire Earth system.

The mission is led by Ralf Bennartz, principal investigator at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and by Dong Wu, deputy principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

NASA Goddard will provide the project management team that builds the two instruments, while science operations will be conducted by the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The two spacecraft will be built by Blue Canyon Technologies in Lafayette, Colorado.

“Studying ice clouds is crucial for improving climate forecasts – and this will be the first time we can study ice clouds in this level of detail. Every NASA mission is carefully chosen to better understand our home planet.”
— Nicola Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington

“Understanding how these ice clouds respond to a changing climate – and then, in turn, contribute to further changes – remains one of the great challenges to predicting what the atmosphere will do in the future. The radiometers, which measure the radiant energy emitted by clouds, will significantly improve our understanding of how ice clouds change and respond throughout the day.”
— Karen St. Germain, who leads NASA’s Earth Sciences Division

Rivada Space Networks and OKAPI:Orbits have extended their partnership, which will secure the responsible use of space-based technologies.

OKAPI:Orbits is providing satellite mission-analysis tools, including analysis and implementation of Collision Avoidance and De-orbiting strategies. The agreement brings together Rivada Space Networks’ interconnected high-speed, LEO satellite network and OKAPI:Orbits’ Space Traffic Management Software-as-a-Service solution.

Rivada’s LEO constellation will offer access to a secure satellite network with pole-to-pole reach, offering end-to-end latencies similar to, or better than, terrestrial fiber. The RSN satellite architecture combines inter-satellite laser links with advanced onboard data routers to create an optical mesh network in space. It will deliver ultra-secure and highly reliable global connectivity for business operations in the telecom, enterprise, maritime, energy and government services markets. The first satellite launch is set for 2025, with global service starting in 2026.

“With our program already up and running with Terran Orbital and SpaceX to manufacture and launch the satellites and with Aalyria for the management of the software-defined network, we are moving ahead to ensure the sustainability of the constellations. Our partnership with OKAPI:Orbits demonstrates our commitment to the responsible and sustainable use of space.”
— Clemens Kaiser, Chief Program Officer with Rivada Space Networks

“Orbital networks are the future. Space Traffic Management ensures the safety and security of satellite operations and the future of in-orbit infrastructure operations, which is especially important in a time of a growing number of assets in space. RSN sets an industry-leading example in using space responsibly and applying the highest standards in terms of space sustainability and debris mitigation.”
— Kristina Nikolaus, CEO and Co-founder of OKAPI:Orbits

Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has won a €235 million contract from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to design, develop and qualify a spacecraft for a dedicated In-Orbit Servicing (IOS) demonstration mission. Thales Alenia Space is leading a Temporary Grouping of Companies regrouping Leonardo, Telespazio, Avio and D-Orbit.

The mission will be developed in the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), with support from the Italian Space Agency. The demonstration mission will operate in low Earth orbit (LEO) and is set to be launched by 2026.

A growing number of satellites are now circling the Earth to meet a wide range of requirements, from geolocation and connectivity, to weather forecasts, environmental monitoring and much more. Thales Alenia Space is therefore developing in-orbit servicing solutions to address the evolving needs of satellites in orbit.

“We are delighted that the Italian Space Agency chose the team of Thales Alenia Space, Leonardo, Telespazio, Avio and D-Orbit to carry out this ambitious project that will make space more sustainable,” said Massimo Claudio Comparini, Senior Executive Vice President, Observation, Exploration, and Navigation at Thales Alenia Space. “This mission reflects the skills and experience of established players in complex space projects, coupled with the more agile approach provided by emerging space companies. By working together they will generate synergies that ensure the future viability of the space sector, while also developing all-Italian technologies to support the growth of the country’s space industry.”

The demonstration mission will test enabling technologies for future on-orbit servicing missions by performing a wide range of robotic operations on satellites already in orbit: refueling, component repair or replacement, orbital transfer and atmospheric reentry.

These operations will be executed thanks to a dexterous robotic arm, developed by Leonardo in collaboration with SAB Aerospace, the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT).

Telespazio, together with Altec, will be in charge of the demonstration mission Ground Segment design, development and validation.

Space logistics company D-Orbit will manage all activities related to the target satellite platform, which is based on the company’s proprietary ION (In Orbit Now) platform, as well as the refueling system, with the transfer of a fluid from the servicer satellite to  the target satellite.

Avio will carry out the design and development activities of the Orbital Support and Propulsion Module for the orbital stages.

In Orbit Servicing vehicles represent a real paradigm shift, since they will introduce unrivaled system scalability and flexibility by providing in-orbit maintenance and upgrade possibilities — also changing the whole approach to satellite design. To meet this challenge, industry will call on its unrivaled multidisciplinary expertise spanning from launchers, satellite infrastructure, robotics, sensing, artificial intelligence up to atmospheric reentry systems.

Thales Alenia Space is the European leader in in-orbit servicing, a new approach to space based on smarter, more innovative missions that make space more sustainable, as reflected in Thales Alenia Space’s “Space for Life” vision.

This Italian demonstration mission confirms Thales Alenia Space’s leadership in in-orbit servicing, following the contract signed with the European Commission last year for the EROSS IOD program.
 

Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) has revealed that their Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3 (PTD-3) satellite enabled a successful 200 gigabits per second space-to-ground optical link.

The NASA satellite hosts the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload, funded by NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) and developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

With a transmission rate of multiple orders of magnitude faster than current state-of-the-art satellite communications, this technology enables spacecraft to downlink several terabytes of data to the ground in a single, ground station pass. This breakthrough has the potential to revolutionize the space-based Earth Observation (EO) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) industries, among others, by offering a space-demonstrated solution to the data throughput bottlenecks that have historically limited their capabilities.

Previously, Terran Orbital aided TBIRD’s data transmission of 1.4 terabytes of test data to a single ground station in a pass that lasted less than five minutes – a record breaker at the time in terms of both speed and data transmission quantity. The 200 gigabits per second space-to-ground optical link broke this record.

“The completion of the 200 gigabits per second link is both monumental and record-breaking. Terran Orbital is honored to have worked alongside NASA on this groundbreaking mission and is grateful to MIT Lincoln Laboratory for creating the payload. We look forward to working with NASA and MIT Lincoln Laboratory on future satellites as we continue to make record-breaking in space commonplace.”
— Marc Bell, Terran Orbital Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer

SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, May 10 at 1:09 p.m. PT (20:09 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of 51 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. If needed a backup opportunity is available on Thursday, May 11 at 12:55 p.m. PT (19:55 UTC).

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 and one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff.

CesiumAstro was selected by Raytheon Technologies to provide their Vireo active electronically scanned array (AESA) RF communications payload for integration into seven space vehicles that are supporting the 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.

Raytheon’s space vehicles are part of Tranche 1 Tracking Layer, SDA’s first operationally capable set of 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.

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

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

“These types of missions require speed and resilience. 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.”
— David Broadbent, president of Space and C2 at Raytheon Intelligence and Space

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with offices in Broomfield, Colorado; El Segundo, California; and the United Kingdom, CesiumAstro builds high-throughput, software-defined, phased array communications payloads for airborne and space platforms, including satellites, missiles, UASs, and more. CesiumAstro’s full-stack, multi-mission hardware and software solutions enable a range of commercial, civil, and defense objectives. CesiumAstro provides full in-house design, manufacturing, and testing capabilities based on the ISO AS9100 standard.

On Thursday, May 4th., at 3:31 a.m., ET, a Falcon 9 launched 56 Starlink satellites to LEO from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This was the seventh launch and landing for this Falcon 9, first stage booster, which previously launched CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb 1, SES-18 and SES-19, and now three Starlink missions.

This mission’s first stage successfully landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Mynaric (NASDAQ: MYNA) (FRA: M0YN) recently entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of CONDOR Mk3 terminals to Loft Federal, a subsidiary of Loft Orbital.

​Loft Federal was selected to produce, deploy and operate ​NExT — the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Experimental Testbed​ — and will use the terminals to support secure and reliable communications.​ Terminal deliveries​ are​ primarily scheduled for the first half of 2024​. ​The order announced today was received in late 2022 and was already accounted for in the previously disclosed optical communications terminal backlog as of December 31, 2022.​ ​

NExT – SDA’s Experimental Testbed will demonstrate warfighter utility of emerging mission partner satellite payloads prior to potential incorporation in future tranches. The program will leverage the low latency data transfer and Beyond Line-Of-Sight (BLOS) command and control (C&C) infrastructure established by the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture to field and connect additional space vehicles with different mission payload configurations.

Mynaric’s CONDOR Mk3 optical communications terminal is specifically designed as a key communication and data transfer system built for mass deployment as part of government and commercial satellite constellations and offers full compatibility with the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) interoperability standard. It has previously been selected by Northrop Grumman for the SDA’s Tranche 1 Transport and Tracking Layers.

Additionally, Capella Space ordered the terminal for commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, by WARPSPACE for a satellite data relay network and others. It’s predecessor, the CONDOR Mk2, was recently delivered to Telesat Government Solutions as part of the DARPA Blackjack program. In addition, Mynaric was named a key development partner for Phase 1 of DARPA’s Space-BACN program extending the company’s success in the U.S. Government satellite communication market.

“We look forward to working with Loft Federal on this key U.S. Government project and demonstrating the advantages of laser communications for transmitting high volumes of critical data when and where it is needed. Laser communications technology is critical to the network infrastructure in the proliferated low earth orbit environment and beyond and we applaud the U.S. Government for leading the adoption of the technology.”
— Tina Ghataore, Chief Commercial Officer of Mynaric

“​The CONDOR Mk3 terminal enables us to provide reliable performance on Longbow, our turnkey satellite platform. By using technologies like these that are commercial and produced at scale, we can deliver fast and simple operations on orbit for SDA NExT.”
​​— John Eterno, General Manager at Loft Federal

Science Applications International Corp. (NYSE: SAIC) and GomSpace Group AB (GOMX) signed a strategic partnership to provide government and commercial customers in the Americas with new space-based mission capabilities leveraging CubeSat’s and SmallSats. This partnership combines SAIC’s expansive mission domain knowledge, engineering, software, and integration capabilities, with GomSpace’s spacecraft technologies to achieve best-in-class solutions that can be rapidly deployed.  The partnership will also deliver system elements such as software products, spacecraft components, fully integrated spacecraft, reliable in-orbit services and mission operations. SAIC becomes the exclusive U.S. integrator of GomSpace satellites and licensed product distributor, services reseller and space vehicle and mission integrator for GomSpace’s U.S. Government customers.

The agreement, a Memorandum of Understanding, was signed at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, by David Ray, SAIC Senior Vice President of Space, and Frank Tobin, Executive Chairman of GomSpace North America. 

“I am delighted to enter into this strategic partnership with SAIC”, says Carsten Drachmann, CEO of GomSpace, “SAIC is heavily investing in space capabilities and systems integration for critical missions like space domain awareness, autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations, and in-orbit servicing, This in combination with GomSpace’s extensive flight heritage in the SmallSat market, creates a very strong and competitive value proposition to both commercial and government customers in the US and across the Americas”.

Both companies have made recent advancements in space capability. SAIC is investing in a Space Systems Development Center within its 300,000 square foot Integration Facility in Charleston, South Carolina. The facility will perform payload, CubeSat, SmallSat, and launch rideshare integration in a single continuous flow. 

GomSpace’s experience in designing and manufacturing satellite components and integrated satellite solutions pairs well with the space systems integration and government mission expertise of SAIC. The companies are developing a joint technology road map which will accelerate them toward the future development of exciting new space capabilities. 

Astrocast has concluded Heads of Terms for an investment agreement with Thuraya Telecommunications Company, the mobile satellite services subsidiary of the UAE’s flagship satellite solutions provider, Al Yah Satellite Communications Company PJSC (“Yahsat” or “the Group”), the UAE’s flagship satellite solutions provider.

The transaction will be in the form of a convertible loan valued a $17.5 million and marks Thuraya’s first investment in a LEO satellite constellation. As part of the agreement, both parties will also look to extend a technical cooperation agreement for another four years that was originally entered between Astrocast and Thuraya in 2019.

Astrocast operates a leading, global, smallsat IoT network with a focus on enabling low power, wide area connectivity solutions across core industries that include Transportation and Logistics, Oil & Gas, Utilities, Mining, Forestry, Agriculture, and Maritime. The agreement with Astrocast aims to strengthen Thuraya’s positioning in the IoT market and help expedite the execution of the company’s strategy for satellite enabled IoT.

“We look forward to working together with Astrocast to execute this strategic investment which highlights our continued belief in the outsized impact of the IoT sector for the space and satellite industries. We are pleased to further strengthen our relationship with Astrocast as we mutually explore ways to expand our service offering across GEO and LEO assets to unlock greater growth potential. Through this agreement, we are committed to enabling innovative solutions in the Maritime, Energy, Logistics, Transportation, Mining and Agriculture industries.” — Ali Al Hashemi, Group Chief Executive Officer of Yahsat.

“We are delighted to have secured this agreement with Thuraya, as we anticipate their support and expertise in guaranteeing Astrocast’s success in the low-power narrowband IoT market in the future. Our partnership with Thuraya has been solid for the past four years, and their continuous support is incredibly important to us. In addition, collaborating on creating new products and applications and leveraging the Thuraya distribution network will expedite the expansion of our customer ecosystem.”— Fabien Jordan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Astrocast.