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Argotec has placed an order with GomSpace for power systems at a value of 845,000 euros to be delivered over the coming 12 months, to be completed by Q1 of 2024.

“We are happy that GomSpace technologies and expertise in power systems are recognized by a company like Argotec. NanoPower P80 and BP8 are our latest releases of power systems building our track record in managing on-orbit energy. NanoPower product series can be used in a multitude of configurations, which allows our customers to benefit from product reliability strategy, while building specific use cases.” — Carsten Drachmann, CEO, GomSpace.

Fly Your Satellite! Design Booster is an educational program for university student teams that have a preliminary CubeSat design — ESA offers the students support and expert advice, guiding them through the stages necessary to develop an initial idea into a robust final plan.

A key milestone within this process is a Baseline Design Review, which helps flag issues and ultimately empowers students to make effective design choices.

The Baseline Design Review is tailored from the ESA standard review process to fit the scope of university student projects. Six teams incorporating more than 200 students have now reached this stage with meetings between students and ESA experts taking place between April 3 and 21, 2023:

• 6S Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• AlbaSat Università degli di Studi di Padova, Italy
• BIXO University of Vigo, Spain
• ROSPIN-SAT-1 Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania
• SAGE ETH Zurich, Switzerland
• ST3LLAR-Sat1 Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain

Ever since the official program kick-off last November, each participating team has been working hard on a key document called a CubeSat Project File. This contains a detailed description of the satellite, project management, and assembly, integration and verification (AIV) plans.

These CubeSat Project Files were sent to ESA experts and the Fly Your Satellite! team in advance, who studied them carefully to identify potential issues. Every point flagged is known as a Review Item Discrepancy (RID), and these form the foundation of the Baseline Design Review. During a series of online meetings, dubbed “colocations meetings,” ESA and Fly Your Satellite! experts are currently discussing RIDs with the teams, enhancing students‘ knowledge of the topics, and allowing them to interpret and implement solutions to their CubeSat design.

Upon completion of the Baseline Design Review, the students will be tasked with completing the actions identified in these RIDs. It is normal for there to be a long list and teams will have about one year to make enhancements, consolidate their detailed designs, and test prototypes.

The Final Design Review will then take place, which will conclude with the teams presenting their fully refined CubeSat mission design.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) will launch NASA’s TROPICS constellation across two dedicated Electron missions lifting off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, scheduled for May of 2023.

The TROPICS constellation (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of Small Sats) will monitor the formation and evolution of tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, and will provide rapidly updating observations of storm intensity. This data will help scientists better understand the processes that effect these high-impact storms, ultimately leading to improved modelling and prediction.

The two missions are expected to launch within approximately two weeks of each other in May 2023. The first launch, named ‘Rocket Like a Hurricane,’ is expected to launch as soon as May 1 NZST (30 April EDT) and the second mission, named ‘Coming to a Storm Near You,’ is expected to follow around May 16 NZST (May 15 EDT).

The constellation, which is part of NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder Program, consists of four CubeSats that require launch to a specific orbit at an altitude of 550 kilometers and inclination of about 30 degrees. All four satellites need to be deployed into their operational orbit within a 60-day period, making Electron the ideal launch vehicle as it enables dedicated launch to unique orbits on highly responsive timelines.

The two missions were initially scheduled to lift-off from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia but will now take place at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand to support a Q2 launch window that will see the satellites reach orbit in time for the North American 2023 hurricane season.

Rocket Lab was selected to launch the TROPICS missions as part of NASA’s Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract.

“The need for improved climate and weather data from space is acute and growing. Hurricanes and tropical storms have a devastating effect on lives and livelihoods, so we’re immensely proud to be entrusted by NASA to launch the TROPICS missions which will enable scientists and researchers to accurately predict storm strength and give people time to evacuate and make plans. With the 2023 hurricane season fast approaching, time is of the essence for these missions. Because we operate three launch pads across two countries, we can constantly assess the launch manifest and adapt launch schedules and locations based on customer and mission requirements.” — Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck

“The ability to advance our understanding of tropical cyclones from space has been limited by the ability to take frequent measurements, particularly from microwave instruments that see into the storms. Historically, satellites have been too large and expensive to provide observations at a time-frequency that is consistent with the timescales at which tropical cyclones can evolve. The CubeSat era has allowed for smaller, less expensive satellites. With modern small satellite design, we designed a constellation that optimizes the scientific utility of the mission in a way that we can launch in a cost-effective manner. These factors enable TROPICS to provide a new understanding of tropical cyclones by decreasing the time by which a given storm is revisited by the satellites.” — Will McCarty, Program Scientist for the TROPICS Mission

ClearSpace, the in-orbit satellite servicing company announced today a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with LeoLabs, a commercial provider of low Earth orbit (LEO) Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Space Traffic Management (STM) services. The MOU recognizes the two companies’ shared vision of a safe and sustainable space ecosystem and their mutual efforts in making this vision a reality.

This strategic partnership comes at a time when both companies are finding commercial success within government and industrial markets. As examples, in 2022 ClearSpace received a Phase B demo contract from the UK Space Agency to demonstrate its active debris removal technology and LeoLabs received a contract to help support the development of a U.S., civil-led STM prototype from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The partnership announced today signals a desire to build on this mutual success and previous collaborative efforts, such as the joint LEO Kinetic Space Safety Workshop — hosted in May 2022 at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne). The MOU also serves as a formal declaration of ClearSpace and LeoLabs’ intent to work together on several new initiatives. These initiatives include thought leadership opportunities that promote space safety and responsible stewardship of the space environment, as well as business opportunities that promote their services and programs. In addition, they have agreed to exchange advisory board appointments, with Dr. Timothy Maclay from ClearSpace becoming a member of LeoLabs’ Commercial Strategic Advisory Board and LeoLabs’ Dr. Darren McKnight joining ClearSpace’s Advisory Board.

“With the acceleration of commercial space activity, the industry is developing approaches to create a more circular space ecosystem,”  said ClearSpace CEO and Co-founder Luc Piguet. “LeoLabs is providing data and services that are critical to operational safety, and we are excited to be working with them to address comprehensively the complex challenges of space safety and sustainability.”

“As the traffic in low Earth orbit grows, innovative, scalable solutions are needed, including active debris removal technologies and in-orbit servicing,”  said LeoLabs CEO Dan Ceperley. “ClearSpace is an industry leader in both, and we’re proud to kick off a partnership with them to build a safer, more sustainable future in space.”

This strategic partnership between ClearSpace and LeoLabs will catalyze the development of effective, multi-faceted strategies to address the growing debris problem in space and mitigate the risks posed to operational spacecraft.

SpaceX successfully launched the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission via a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, April 2nd., at 7:29 a.m., PT (14:29 UTC).

This national security payload was dispatched to LEO from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California (VSFB).

The first stage booster that supported this mission previously landed (photo below) without problem on LZ-4 at VSFB.

Space Development Agency Tranche 0 satellites launch

The Space Development Agency (SDA) successfully launched the Tranche 0 (T0) of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), the Transport and Tracking Layer satellites that will demonstrate the low-latency communication links to support the warfighter with a resilient network of integrated capabilities, including tracking of advanced missile threats, from low-Earth orbit (LEO).

A SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable, two stage rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, launched the first 10 of the planned 28 satellites. Once completed, Tranche 0 will include 20, optically-connected, data transport satellites and eigh,t optically-connected, missile warning/missile tracking satellites equipped with wide-field-of-view sensors. A second SDA launch of Tranche 0 satellites is scheduled for June.

The launch, originally scheduled for March 30, was delayed out of an abundance of caution to investigate technical issues with the launch vehicle. This T0 Launch carried 10 satellites. York Space Systems provided eight Transport and SpaceX provided two Tracking satellites. To fully populate Tranche 0, York Space Systems and Lockheed Martin will produce 10 Transport satellites each, for a total of 20, T0, Transport satellites. SpaceX and L3Harris will provide four Tracking satellites each for a total of eight T0 satellites. Tranche 0 ground support is provided by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

SDA awarded firm-fixed-price contracts for T0 satellites, resulting in a cost of approximately $15 million per Transport satellite, and is fielding the constellation approximately 30 months after authority-to-proceed on each contract.

The T0 demonstration constellation will fly in two orbital planes at an altitude of approximately 1,000 km. Once on-orbit, the satellites must undergo a period of test and checkout of the bus and mission payloads before demonstrations can begin.

The constellation will serve as the warfighter immersion tranche and support military exercises, including advanced missile tracking tests, in the summer of 2023 and beyond. Tranche 0 will demonstrate the feasibility of the following:

• Low latency data connectivity
• Beyond line of sight targeting
• Missile warning/missile tracking
• On-orbit fusion
• Multi-phenomenology ground-based sensor fusion

SDA plans to field the first operational generation of the PWSA, Tranche 1, starting in late 2024. Tranche 1 will include 126 Transport Layer satellites, 35 Tracking satellites, and 12 tactical demonstration satellites (called T1DES). Tranche 1 will be operated by SDA’s groundbreaking space operations centers based heavily on commercial space operations models.

“This is a major accomplishment for SDA and for the whole Department of Defense. It shows that our key pillars, proliferation and spiral development, can deliver for national security space. Through this launch, we’ve demonstrated that SDA can keep a schedule to deliver enhanced capabilities every two years. This revolutionary approach is enabled by growth in the commercial marketplace, allowing the PWSA to move forward to deliver warfighting capabilities in each future tranche.” — Derek Tournear, director of SDA

SDA transferred to U.S. Space Force as a direct reporting unit in October 2022. SDA brings a unique acquisition strategy that enables faster and cheaper capability delivery by designing and rapidly deploying a threat-driven resilient constellation of small satellites in LEO. SDA programs provide an integral part of the national security hybrid space architecture in the areas of communications, data transport, and missile warning.

Previous information postings…

UPDATE 3: SpaceX is now targeting Sunday, April 2 at 7:29 a.m. PT (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available Monday, April 3 at the same time.

Previously:
UPDATE 2: SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Saturday, April 1 for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

UPDATE: Orders came, “Abort, abort, abort,” as the Tranche 0 launch scrubbed at T-3.
SpaceX is now targeting Friday, March 31 at 7:29 a.m. PT (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The next launch attempt is set for early Thursday. The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The space vehicles launched during this mission will serve a part of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a new layered network of satellites in low-Earth orbit and supporting elements that will provide global military communication and missile warning, indication, and tracking capabilities.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff.

Previously:
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, March 30th., at 7:29 a.m., PT, (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to LEO from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday, March 31st., at the same time.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched one Starlink mission.

Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg SFB.

The space vehicles launched during this mission will serve a part of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a new layered network of satellites in LEO and supporting elements that will provide global military communication and missile warning, indication, and tracking capabilities.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff … watch via this direct link…

Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) has successfully completed the initial test sequence on-orbit of the company’s pioneering Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (MET) that relies on solar power and uses distilled water as a propellant.

The MET is the Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle’s (OSV) primary propulsion method that produces thrust by expelling extremely hot gases through a rocket nozzle. Unlike a conventional chemical rocket engine, which creates thrust through a chemical reaction, the MET is designed to create a plasma and thrust using solar power to drive a microwave energy source that heats the water propellant. Momentus has two patents in support of this proprietary propulsion technology. View a video of MET ground testing at this direct link…

The recent MET testing done on-orbit included multiple test firings of the thruster that imparted forces on the Vigoride-5 spacecraft. These forces can change the orbital velocity of the spacecraft, allowing the orbit to be adjusted, changing parameters such as altitude and orbital inclination. This capability will allow Momentus to deliver its customers’ payloads to custom orbits. Momentus plans to demonstrate changes in spacecraft altitude and orbital inclination during the current Vigoride-5 mission.

The Vigoride OSV’s Attitude Control and Reaction Control Systems also use water as a propellant and were recently tested and fully commissioned. With its water-based propulsion systems, Momentus aims to offer cost-effective, efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly propulsion to meet the demands for in-space transportation and infrastructure services.

“The MET technology is central to our transportation services, empowering us to offer custom and precise orbital deliveries for customers, and we’re encouraged to see initial testing of the technology on-orbit in space performing the way we anticipated from our ground testing,” said . “We’ll be ramping up testing of the MET over the coming weeks as we look to push its performance in space. The Momentus team has worked incredibly hard to get us to this point. That focus will continue as we aim to advance our sustainable propulsion system that meets a market need and offers advantages over traditional chemical and electric propulsion systems. The MET concept has been studied in academia since the 1980s and we saw tremendous opportunity in commercializing it. Many in-space vehicles use Argon and Xenon – which are often sourced from Russia and Ukraine. The use of water as a propellant alleviates the need to lean on foreign vendors for certain kinds of spacecraft. We’ve heard a lot of positive feedback about this point from the U.S. Department of Defense. In the much longer term, MET is an attractive option as water becomes known as a more abundant resource in space and propellant for our future vehicles can be pulled from other resources in the solar system. Water is found on the Moon and other places in the solar system, so as we think about longer term missions our use of water as a propellant offers other advantages.” — Momentus Chief Executive Officer John Rood

Isar Aerospace has closed their $165 million (155 million euros) Series C round — the funding enables Isar Aerospace to continue its journey toward the inaugural flight and ramp-up the cadence of the company’s Spectrum launch vehicle and will also enable the scaling of its proven production capabilities to serve the company’s strong order book for launches of small and medium-sized satellites as global demand rises.

Simultaneously, the Series C will allow the company to continue investing in developments for new initiatives and products, and to continue building on its vertical integration, especially its automated production capabilities that significantly lower the cost of building rockets.

The record round underlines Isar Aerospace’s leading position in the commercial space industry. At the same time, it highlights the company’s role in strengthening Europe’s capabilities for consistent, flexible, and cost-efficient access to space for commercial and institutional customers worldwide. With a total financing amount raised of more than $330 million (310 million euros), Isar Aerospace is the most capitalized independent New Space company in the European Union.

The round is backed by 7-Industries Holding, Bayern Kapital via its Scale Up Fund Bavaria, Earlybird Venture Capital, HV Capital, Lakestar, Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Porsche Automobil Holding SE (Porsche SE), UVC Partners, and Vsquared Ventures. Investors Porsche SE and HV Capital will join Isar Aerospace’s Advisory Board together with 7-Industries Holding joining in an observer capacity. Part of the funds provided by the private investors is backed by the European Union and regional programs managed by the European Investment Fund, such as InvestEU and the German Future Fund.

The strong interest and commitment from our international investors signals their confidence in our vision and technological capabilities. Today, and even more so tomorrow, space technologies are key to enabling innovation, technology and security. Isar Aerospace offers the access to space that is urgently needed for commercial, institutional and government customers. This financing round marks another important step on our journey to orbit.”

Daniel Metzler, Co-Founder and CEO of Isar Aerospace

We are thrilled to have concluded this round of financing in a difficult global market environment, building on strong investor demand and the company’s steady progress, at an increased valuation compared to our Series B in July 2021.”

David Kownator, Chief Financial Officer of Isar Aerospace

The undeniably most common building block of any space application is reliable and affordable access to orbit. Isar Aerospace is a catalyst for the tremendous growth of the sector. With a crisp and fast execution, focus on quality, and establishing capabilities for future volume production, Isar Aerospace is emerging as a strong leader in the space economy. I am extremely pleased to have been a part of the journey from day one and look forward to the upcoming first launches.”

Bulent Altan, Chairman of the Advisory Board and seed investor in Isar Aerospace

Satellogic Inc. (NASDAQ: SATL) has announced the firm’s partnership and integration with SkyFi, a provider of Earth Observation (EO) data — this partnership will allow SkyFi’s customers to task Satellogic satellites directly through the platform either at app.skyfi.com or on the SkyFi app — this capability is available to businesses and individuals.

Satellogic is focused on delivering high-resolution EO data to help advance critical analysis for global challenges that include climate change, energy supply, and food security. The Company currently has 30 satellites on-orbit. Satellogic is working toward an unprecedented capability of daily global remaps in high-resolution – providing as many as 40 revisits of points of interest per day for better decision-making at every level around the world.

SkyFi streamlines access to EO data through its web and mobile app, providing a seamless user experience with transparent pricing. The company is developing an end-to-end EO marketplace with an integrated insights platform and storage solution.

Satellogic will soon be expanding its offering for SkyFi users with priority tasking, which offers shorter task-to-capture and delivery timelines. Additionally, more product levels for a wider range of applications, including higher resolutions to unlock new details and analysis, will be introduced.

Satellogic’s integration with SkyFi marks a new venture into distributing Satellogic’s data more widely. This program is expected to expand with additional marketplace integrations, which confirms the high demand for Satellogic’s unique blend of capabilities and price point.

SkyFi and Satellogic are both committed to democratizing access to Earth Observation data. This partnership expands the availability of affordable, high-resolution satellite images and enables customers to task their specific points of interest through a seamless app. It’s a strategic step forward in helping to increase the adoption of Earth Observation across existing and emerging markets.”

Emiliano Kargieman, CEO and Co-Founder of Satellogic

Satellogic’s rapidly expanding constellation is enabling us to further easify access to Earth Observation data. The company is a perfect partner as we are always focused on providing the greatest value at the lowest cost to our customers.”

Luke Fischer, Co-Founder and CEO of SkyFi

Unibap AB (publ) has received an order from an emerging, European, smallsat integrator to deliver payload data processing units for a satellite constellation, commissioned by a European authority.

Unibap’s solution is based on the SpaceCloud iX5-family and includes software and hardware suitable for intelligent, on-orbit, edge computing. The order value is 1.7 million euros with deliveries during 2023 up until Q2 2024.

This order is the first part of a signed agreement with a total value of 6.2 million euros. Remaining volume can be authorized in two steps, during 2023 and 2024, with deliveries 2024 and 2025, based on call-offs from the end customer.

We are very pleased to take SpaceCloud to the next level in a European satellite constellation. This is in line with our communicated strategy and our plans to ramp up our production capacity during 2023. This is a significant milestone for the company.”

Johan Åman, CEO

GomSpace has signed a contract with a European integrator of smallsats to supply the first NanoCom Link X standard products for a European satellite constellation.

The contract value of the first delivery is 3,7 MSEK with the option to extend the agreement for additional units and equipment throughout the project. The first units will be delivered as early as Q2 2023.

“We are happy to be part of this ambitious European Sovereign mission. GomSpace latest X-Band
communication product technology will be helping to successfully deliver data on the ground and we are honored that our developments are recognized in such operational missions”, said Carsten Drachmann, GomSpace CEO.