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GHGSat will be launching six additional satellites in 2023 — the first three are GHGSat satellites, named Mey-Lin (C6), Gaspard (C7) and Océane (C8) and they will travel into orbit this spring onboard SpaceX’s Transporter-7 rideshare mission.

GHGSat’s satellite methane sensors have set the standard for performance with an industry-leading combination of low detection threshold and high resolution. The timely and frequent insight the monitoring constellation provides is used by industry, governments and financial services worldwide to proactively drive reductions in emissions.

The demand for data is increasing as awareness of the benefits of addressing methane emissions continues to grow, and nations turn their focus to meeting the commitments made as part of the Global Methane Pledge. With 12 spacecraft in orbit by the end of the year, GHGSat will be doubling its capacity to make more than 1.5 million facility measurements in 2023.

Named after the children of GHGSat team members, as per company tradition, Mey-Lin, Gaspard, and Océane completed testing in December and will travel to their launch site in California later this month. All three proprietary payloads feature the same proven, patented high-resolution interferometer currently on-orbit, tuned to precisely detect and measure the specific ‘signature’ of methane in the atmosphere.

GHGSat-C9, C10, and C11 are hosted payloads currently in the final stages of assembly and testing, and will soon be shipped for integration with third-party satellites, as announced on September 15 of last year. GHGSat-C10 is the world’s first commercial CO2 hosted payload, reaffirming GHGSat’s leadership position in the monitoring of greenhouse gases at industrial facilities from space.

An announcement regarding launch dates will follow in due course.

Stephane Germain, CEO at GHGSat, said, “Every year since our demonstrator satellite Claire was launched in 2016, we’ve pushed the boundaries of emissions monitoring from space. We are driven by our ambition to fight climate change by continuing our role as an independent purveyor of the best methane emissions insight in the world, and as a trusted partner to industry, government and financial services customers. The new satellites mean we can dramatically ramp up the number of locations and emissions we can monitor worldwide, including increasing daily monitoring over key oil and gas production sites.”

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted, subject to conditions, the application of Kuiper Systems LLC (Kuiper) for modification of its license for a non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellation providing fixed-satellite service (FSS) and Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) using Ka-band radio frequencies.

Specifically, the FCC grants Kuiper’s request for approval of its updated orbital debris mitigation plan, thereby satisfying a condition of the agency’s action in 2020 conditionally granting Kuiper’s request to deploy and operate their NGSO system.

This action will allow Kuiper to start deployment of its constellation in order to bring high-speed broadband connectivity to customers around the world. In granting the Amazon Kuiper Systems modification, the FCC considered the issues raised by interested parties in the record.

These issues include, but are not limited to, collision risk, post-mission disposal reliability, completion of satellite design, and orbital separation.

To address these and other issues, the agency requires Kuiper to comply with a series of conditions — to learn more, access the downloaded FCC Order and Authorization document at this direct link.

NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) awarded Blue Origin’s New Glenn the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) contract.

ESCAPADE is part of the NASA Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program; it is a dual spacecraft mission to study Mars’ magnetosphere.

ESCAPADE is a twin-spacecraft, Class D mission that will study solar wind energy transfer through Mars’ unique hybrid magnetosphere.

Providing launch service for ESCAPADE is a task order under NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract.

Blue Origin was on-ramped to the NASA VADR launch services Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract on January 26, 2022, with a five-year period of performance.

“ESCAPADE follows a long tradition of NASA Mars science and exploration missions, and we’re thrilled NASA’s Launch Services Program has selected New Glenn to launch the instruments that will study Mars’ magnetosphere,” said Jarrett Jones, senior vice president, New Glenn, Blue Origin.

Blue Origin was founded with a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. Blue Origin envisions a time when people can tap into the limitless resources of space and enable the movement of damaging industries into space to preserve Earth, humanity’s blue origin. Blue Origin is working today to create that future by developing reusable launch vehicles and in-space systems that are safe, low cost, and serve the needs of all civil, commercial, and defense customers. Blue Origin’s efforts include flying astronauts to space on New Shepard, producing reusable liquid rocket engines, developing an orbital launch vehicle with New Glenn, building next-generation space habitats, and returning to the surface of the Moon. These endeavors will add new chapters to the history of spaceflight and move all of humanity closer to that founding vision.

AccelerComm and TTP are jointly formulating a high-performance, 5G, LEO Regenerative base station for deployment on LEO satellites. The project combines expertise and IP from the two companies and additional technology from partners to propose a dedicated 5G regenerative gNodeB¹ solution tailored to support high-performance 5G services in the challenging environment of a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN).

In a typical LEO deployment, one satellite covers a wide geographical area, using a large number of beams to cover a multitude of subscribers. Terrestrial gNodeB products of similar scale are not designed to deal with this unique LEO deployment challenge. Also, any gNodeB platform for space applications will be highly constrained in size, weight, and power and must be able to work in the hostile space environment.

The joint AccelerComm TTP LEO Regenerative base station solution will be designed to meet the growing demand for satellite-based eMBB (enhanced Mobile Broadband) and IoT (Internet of Things) services. This makes it an ideal solution for businesses and organizations that need to connect people and devices in remote locations, or for governments looking to provide internet access to all citizens.

The solution will support a large number of beams and high subscriber density and will be delivered on a space-hardened platform optimized for low-power and size. It includes a range of advanced developments in beam-to-cell mapping, beam forming and NTN beam-management.

The O-RAN compliant gNodeB leverages AccelerComm’s LEOphy, a Layer 1 modem that delivers enhanced performance for low-earth orbit satellite communications. LEOphy boasts the lowest error rates, with dedicated features to overcome the specific challenges of NTN channels, such as high path losses, differential delays, doppler shift, long propagation delays, and rapid fluctuations in signal amplitude and phase caused by atmospheric effects. As a result, it ensures a high-reliability link without resorting to lower coding rates and low-order modulation schemes, thereby maximizing spectral efficiency.

“For satellite 5G to be truly successful, there are a number of performance and efficiency challenges which have to be overcome. Solving these requires building on the existing 3GPP technologies to create a tailored solution built to deal with the unique challenges,” said Rob Barnes, Chief Marketing Officer at AccelerComm. “There has been an explosion in interest around combining satellite and traditional mobile communications systems with the iPhone 14 launch and the T-Mobile Starlink announcement. “However, for satellite 5G to be truly successful, there are a number of performance and efficiency challenges which have to be overcome. Solving these requires building on the existing 3GPP technologies to create a tailored solution built to deal with the unique challenges of operating around a thousand kilometres from earth, at speeds of over 7km per second, all while dealing with power and resource constraints. We are delighted to be working with our partner TTP to develop this high-performance solution which will open up a whole new market for delivering 5G services from space.”

“TTP is pleased to partner with AccelerComm to define a highly scalable and low power gNodeB solution, that will enable LEO operators to efficiently deliver 5G NTN services,” said Adrian Hillier, TTP’s Head of Next G. “A 5G NTN LEO regenerative gNodeB deployment presents unique challenges when compared to Terrestrial gNodeB. In order to serve the number of beams and support the density of subscribers required, the gNodeB will have to be heavily optimized and tightly integrated with the overall payload functionality.”

¹A 5G Base Station uses New Radio (NR) technology and is referred to as a gNodeB (gNb). gNodeB radios features Software Defined Radio (SDR) with various MIMO options including 2×2, 4×4, 8×8 and Massive MIMO options for higher capacities. Options for 5G deployment in Sub-6GHz bands as well as Millimeter Wave (mmWave) bands are available. — https://www.5gradio.com

Comments are due no later than 2:00 pm PST on March 11, 2023

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center invites review and comment on the draft of its Suborbital/Hosted Orbital Flight and Payload Integration Services 4 solicitation.

The new solicitation will replace contracts for existing services and seeks to add new capabilities – including hosting payloads in orbit and flying NASA researchers on suborbital flights – which will expand opportunities for a wider range of commercial companies to participate.

The purpose of this solicitation is to acquire space on commercial flights for space technology payloads, along with payload integration services. The objective is to fly these payloads aboard platforms that fly at high altitudes, offer reduced gravity, or provide other relevant environments required to test the technologies and advance their readiness for use in future space missions.

In addition to hosting payloads, contractors may provide space for NASA personnel to fly as researchers aboard those suborbital platforms capable of supporting human flight.

This contract will be managed by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, in collaboration with the agency’s Small Spacecraft Technology program, with the flights and other services solicited available for NASA internal use across the agency as well as for other government agencies.

Interested respondents can view the full draft solicitation online. Potential offerors are encouraged to comment on all aspects of the draft solicitation, including the requirements, schedules, proposal instructions, and evaluation approaches, as well as any other programmatic elements associated with performance of the work.

The current planned release date for the final Request for Proposal (RFP) is on or about March 23, 2023, with proposals due approximately 30 calendar days later. The anticipated contract award date is July 15, 2023, with an August 1, 2023, contract effective date. These contracts will replace the existing Flight Opportunities indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts when those expire.

Comments are due no later than 2:00 pm PST on March 11, 2023.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”) has released two, new, high-performance space systems products designed to increase the availability of essential satellite components to the global, small satellite market.

Bolstering the company’s existing line of proven satellite components, the new Rocket Lab products include the Frontier-X software defined radio (SDR) designed to provide high speed data for near Earth and deep space smallsat missions, as well as a new 12Nms reaction wheel designed specifically for constellation class satellites.

The products join Rocket Lab’s existing heritage space systems components including star trackers, reaction wheels, separation systems, radios, flight software, ground software, and solar power solutions. Combined, Rocket Lab’s space systems components have supported more than 1,700 space missions to date.

Enabling Smalllsat Deep Space Missions
Rocket Lab’s new Frontier-X radio is a high-speed, X-band ranging, RF transceiver designed to expand the reach of small satellites beyond LEO to cislunar and deep space destinations as well as provide an affordable alternative for mission payload downlink at LEO.

The Rocket Lab Frontier-X radio joins the Frontier-S ranging RF transceiver in bringing advanced functionality not typically available in affordable software-defined radios. This includes a coherent transponder to enable radiometric navigation methods, precision timekeeping functions, turbo and convolutional encoding compliant with recommended standards by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), and a hardware-based, critical command decoder (CCD).

The X-band radio packs Deep Space Network (DSN) waveforms, two-way doppler and regenerative ranging, beacon modes, and low baud rates enabled by low power digital signal processing (DSP) in a low mass solution. The Fronter-X radio has the durability to survive in high radiation environments beyond Earth orbit, including to GEO and deep space.

Rocket Lab’s Frontier radios are based on the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory’s (APL) Frontier Radio and backed by proven flight heritage, having successfully flown the Frontier-S on the Company’s Photon spacecraft, a Rocket Lab designed and launched spacecraft that deployed the CAPSTONE satellite to the Moon for NASA.

The Frontier-X radio has completed qualification, is slated to fly on NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission to Mars, for which Rocket Lab is developing and building two spacecraft. Frontier-X is available for order now with production taking place at Rocket Lab’s headquarters in Long Beach.

Constellation-Class Reaction Wheel
Building upon strong space heritage and extensive experience across decades of reaction wheel production with Sinclair Interplanetary by Rocket Lab, the new 12Nms reaction wheel has been developed to expand attitude control solutions that already include reaction wheels ranging from 10mNms to 1Nms and high-performance star trackers.

Rocket Lab’s 12Nms reaction wheel, designed for long-life and reliability, is ideal for attitude control of spacecraft with masses as high as 600 to 650 kg and lifetimes as long as 12 years. With its low mass, power, and volume, the 12Nms reaction wheel caters to high mission assurance civil or national security missions as well as high volume constellation missions.

The 12Nms wheel comes in a radiation hardened variant for longer life and a LEO variant for shorter lifetime missions. The 12Nms wheel is currently planned for flight with an undisclosed large mega constellation customer.

Rocket Lab’s reaction wheels have been used in more than 100 satellites to date for missions and constellations focused on remote sensing, communications, science, technology demonstrations, and more. The 12Nms reaction wheel is under production and available immediately.

DCUBED’s new line of release actuators Micro Pin Puller and Micro Release Nut will fly aboard LuxSpace’s multipurpose small-satellite platform Triton-X on the upcoming Genesis mission.

The Triton-X Genesis project is the first step in the roll-out of the Triton-X platform, a multi-mission product providing high on-board processing power and scalable in the 50-250 kg range.

Later last year, LuxSpace sold a Triton-X Heavy satellite for the Seranis project of the University of the German Bundeswehr, leveraging 15+ years of Space systems design, manufacturing, and in-orbit delivery.

DCUBED and LuxSpace share the goal of enabling missions to take their capabilities to the next level and look forward to demonstrating their new technologies with their upcoming mission.

DCUBED’s CEO Thomas Sinn in Germering (Bavaria, Germany) can assist with COTS release actuators and COTS deployables that are specifically designed for SmallSat applications. DCUBED’s pin puller and release nut actuators are space-proven, readily available, easy to use, and small in size. The DCUBED SmallSat deployables (Space Selfie Stick, 100W 1U solar array and deployable radiator) tackle the needs of new space customers by maximizing performance in space while remaining efficiently packed in a standardised volume for launch. 

LuxSpace (CEO Edgar Milic) was established in Luxembourg in 2004 as a subsidiary of OHB SE and is an integrated provider of small satellites and space-based applications and services. The company can look back on seven successfully launched space systems, including the Triton-2/ESAIL satellite launched , and has over 16 years of experience in data applications with a particular focus on the maritime sector and Earth observation.

Procures satellites and plans Australian operations for new Low Earth Orbit constellation to power connectivity for smart devices

EchoStar Corporation (Nasdaq: SATS) has announced an agreement with Astro Digital, a designer, manufacturer and operator of smallsat systems, for the construction of a global, S-band, mobile satellite service (MSS) network.

Under the agreement, Astro Digital will manufacture the satellites for the constellation, which will deliver global Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M) and other data services starting in 2024. EchoStar will operate the constellation from its Australian subsidiary, EchoStar Global.

The 28 satellites in this constellation design will feature an advanced software-defined radio (SDR) with onboard storage and processing to power smart two-way device connectivity. The satellites will be enabled with the LoRa® (meaning “Long Range”) protocol for connecting very low-cost, long-lived devices. With support for 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) services, the constellation will serve as a foundation for EchoStar to engineer 5G New Radio (NR) based NTN capabilities, according to 3GPP release 17 specifications.

Through its subsidiary, EchoStar Mobile Limited, EchoStar also operates an MSS network in Europe using the GEO EchoStar XXI satellite, which will interoperate seamlessly with the new LEO constellation.

“This agreement represents another step forward towards our goal of a global non-terrestrial 5G network,” said Hamid Akhavan, CEO, EchoStar. “With our engineering ingenuity, our service delivery expertise and our spectrum rights, EchoStar is uniquely positioned to offer worldwide S-band satellite services to help meet the insatiable demand for complete and constant connectivity.”

“These new capabilities will fill a gap in the connected ecosystem, greatly expanding worldwide IoT interoperability,” said Josh Williams, managing director, EchoStar Global Australia. “Our team, together with Astro Digital, has already begun integration of our Australian-based operations to bring to market a truly global solution with consistent and reliable network performance.”

SpaceRyde has signed an agreement with Qosmosys to be the official launch partner of Qosmosys’ Qace, the first, in-space, satellite racing game.

Qosmosys is a private company established in Singapore with the purpose of contributing to the development of infrastructures in space, on the Moon and beyond. Qace is one brand name issued by Qosmosys’ in-house incubator that prepares applied technologies for the company’s Moon applications.

With a first race scheduled by end of 2024, Qace will use disruptive technologies onboard recyclable smallsats to allow game participants to influence the trajectory and speed of the spacecraft.

“What has seduced us with SpaceRyde is their ability to innovate and make their dreams come true, pushing the limits of science and technology,” said Francois Dubrulle, CEO of Qosmosys. “For us, Spaceryde is not only the finest technical option because of their on-demand launch capabilities, but a great business opportunity to combine innovations and excellence in a single service.”

“We’re thrilled to be the official launch partner of Qosmosys’s Qace racing game,” said Sohrab Haghighat, CEO of SpaceRyde. “Not only is Qace a perfect example of the type of lucrative innovations that can come from on-demand launch technology, but also we see potential for many more partnerships with our Rocket Network and Qosmosys as they build towards the moon.”

Qosmosys is an international private company established with the purpose of offering on-demand services to public or private organizations that desire to operate on the Moon and beyond in three sectors: mining, robotics, science tech and transportation.

SpaceRyde is building the space transportation infrastructure through a network of multi-purpose rockets that move between the Earth and the Moon. These reusable rockets stay operational in space beyond the initial mission, offering a private Uber-like service for cargo in Space. With this network of rockets, SpaceRyde will accelerate the speed of innovation in space and unlock the gold rush in space. At the core of SpaceRyde’s business is the belief that the development of the new space economy shouldn’t come at the cost of our planet. SpaceRyde has developed the world’s only sustainable launch system that transports the rocket above the atmosphere using a stratospheric balloon with zero emissions, protecting the ozone layer and reducing the environmental impact on Earth. Headquartered in Canada, SpaceRyde is pioneering the space launch industry and its facilities are the country’s first rocket manufacturing and testing facilities.

Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) , a U.S. commercial space company that offers transportation and other in-space infrastructure services, has signed a contract with FOSSA Systems, a Spanish company that offers global low-power Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and in-space services through its satellite constellation, to place its latest generation of satellites, FOSSASat FEROX, into low-Earth orbit on two Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle missions starting in 2023.

The first group of FOSSA’s next-generation satellites is slated to launch on a Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle on the SpaceX Transporter-8 mission no earlier than June 2023. This mission will demonstrate the satellites’ new design features and act as a demonstration for a second batch of satellites expected to launch onboard a follow-on Vigoride vehicle on a later SpaceX Transporter mission, kicking off the deployment of a new constellation of FOSSA satellites.

“FOSSA Systems flew with us on our inaugural mission that launched in May 2022. We’re pleased to have earned their trust in selecting us as their space transportation provider for their new satellites, and we look forward to building a long-term partnership toward our first large-scale constellation deployment,” said Momentus Chief Executive Officer John Rood. “FOSSA is on a mission to provide the next generation of IoT connectivity and technologies. We’re proud that our services are integral to achieving their disruptive vision.”

“FOSSA Systems already has a constellation of 13 picosatellites in orbit, but this next-generation will allow us to deliver higher capacity services in a commercial manner for a wider range of applications, supporting IoT and other space-related services in areas such as communications or remote sensing,” said FOSSA Chief Executive Officer Julian Fernandez. “This new generation of satellites provides unprecedented capabilities comparable to that of 6 – 12U satellites in a fraction of the size, mass, and cost. We are happy to reaffirm our trust in Momentus as we look at our launch plans for our initially 80-satellite constellation to support SaaS and dedicated satellite customers in sectors such as Maritime, Logistics, Infrastructure, Utilities or National Security.”