Featured

OneWeb, currently proceeding slowly through its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, is asking the US government to relax its rules on importing satellite components and materials under its Foreign Trade Zone regulations.

The Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) rules permit businesses to lower import duties and easier customs processes.

OneWeb has made its application via its joint-venture (OneWeb Satellites North America LLC) with Airbus, which is based in Merritt Island, Brevard County, Florida, and turns out OneWeb’s satellites.

The US Dept. of Commerce announced the application on the government’s Federal Register on August 19th.

“Airbus OneWeb already has authority to produce satellites for commercial, private, and military applications within FTZ 136. The current request would add foreign status materials/ components to the scope of authority. Production under FTZ procedures could exempt Airbus OneWeb from customs duty payments on the foreign- status materials/components used in export production. On its domestic sales, for the foreign-status materials/ components, Airbus OneWeb would be able to choose the duty rates during customs entry procedures that apply to its already authorized finished products (duty- free). Airbus OneWeb would be able to avoid duty on foreign-status components which become scrap/waste. Customs duties also could possibly be deferred or reduced on foreign-status production equipment,” explained the Department of Commerce.

Public comment is invited from interested parties. Submissions should be addressed to the Board’s Executive Secretary and sent to: ftz@trade.gov. The closing period for their receipt is September 28, 2020

Also of note — SpaceX has generated some $1.9 billion of fresh funding during August, and according to reports, is still looking to raise more cash. The initial target was to raise $2.066 billion.

The cash-raising exercise follows on from SpaceX raising $346 million in May.

The news comes as Musk achieves 4th position as the world’s richest person and helped by the rocketing value of Tesla shares. Musk is now worth $85 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, behind Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, in that order.

The injection of new money has been helped by solid performances from SpaceX and its delivery and return of astronauts from the International Space Station (the first-ever by a private business) and the now extremely regular launches of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. SpaceX has launched 653 Starlink craft, although it is know that there have been some orbital failures.

The latest Starlink launch occurred on August 18th. SpaceX has launched 14 times this year, with 9 of those efforts carrying its own Starlink satellites. That launch cadence is good; however, the company’s efforts were better in 2018 when there were 20 launches of its Falcon 9 and one Falcon Heavy.

SpaceX, in an SEC regulatory filing, said the cash was raised on August 4th and 75 investors participated. The response now values SpaceX at some $46 billion. The investors will receive shares in SpaceX.

The cash will be used for general purposes and capital intensive projects at SpaceX which likely includes more rockets, more Starlink satellites and more investment on Musk’s giant Starship spaceship.

The firm’s Starship project is coming along nicely. A test ‘flight’ (SN5) on August 4th managed a journey of some 175 meters altitude, but there’s some way to go before Musk’s longer-term ambition bears fruit, which is to take 100 people to Mars and back.

News stories authored by journalist Chris Forrester,
who posts for the Advanced Television infosite
and is a Senior Contributor for Satnews Publishers.

Another record breaking SpaceX Starlink launch has been successfully completed, with 56 additional smallsats joining the already 600 Starlinks already on-orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket used to transport the Starlink and SkySat payloads to space has been auspiciously used five times previously by the firm for other missions.

SpaceX customer Planet also joined in with this launch, with three, Maxar-built, SkySat 19, 20 and 21 smallsats aboard as passengers — this was Planet’s second payload adventure accessing the SpaceX rideshare program.

This trio of smallsats will join Planet’s 18 SkySats already on-orbit. When commissioned, Planet will then possess the largest, high resolution satellite fleet on-orbit to complete their constellation of imaging spacecraft. Planet also operates 100+ Dove smallsats that are on-orbit and they offer wide-angle views that are of a lower resolution.

SpaceX employed a booster (ID’s as B1049 by the company) with the Falcon 9 launch vehicle that had been used five times previously and, as this mission’s first stage was successfully landed aboard the company’s “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, another reuse of this unit on a forthcoming launch is highly likely. This sixth landing is another record breaker for the company.

This was also the first time that SpaceX employed a pair of previously flown fairings. One of the fairings was captured by the “GO Ms. Tree” droneship, while the second fairing managed a soft water landing with recovery by the “GO Ms. Chief” droneship.

For SpaceX, this was their 99th successful launch using all iterations of the Falcon 9 rocket.

Launch imagery screenshot captures are courtesy of SpaceX’s live launch video coverage.

State telecom enterprise TOT has stated the company has clinched a cooperation deal with Mu Space Corp., a Thai satellite and space tech startup, to venture into the LEO satellite business as a potential revenue stream.

The memorandum of understanding between TOT and Mu Space, which was signed last month, starts with a joint study and testing of program coding for server payload in rockets in a trial for signal transmission. this move highlights TOT’s plan to embark on global satellite business, with the initial step of providing a gateway station for the LEO satellite business before striving to own satellites through a consortium model in the future.

TOT also set up a working group to study and conduct a lab test for LEO satellite operations earlier this year, which consists of 60 TOT executives and staff as well as a small group of science-based high school students under the TOT academy.

TOT acting president Morakot Thienmontree said the LEO satellite development is seen as a revolution in mobility connectivity in the new economy, especially in the next 3-5 years, when the technology is expected to mature commercially worldwide. He said, “We do not want to miss this train of innovation” and added that TOT needs to create new revenue streams in the long run. “The LEO satellite business is compatible with 5G tech, but it could be a tech killer for traditional telecom infrastructure providers in the future.”

The cooperation with Mu Space includes trial program coding for server payload in rockets. Mu Space is responsible for booking payload quotas in the rockets for testing.

The test is needed to see the stability and related impact on the communication signal through the servers when rockets are launched and returned to base. This could be a start for TOT venturing into the LEO satellite business.

TOT has one satellite gateway station in Bangkok and another in the Northeast.

News posting authored by journalist Komsan Toprtermvasana for the Bangkok Post

KSAT has signed a contract for ground station support of HYPSO-1, a smallsat mission from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), aiming to detect toxic algae blooms — this is the first time KSAT will provide ground station services to a Norwegian university mission.

At NTNU Small Satellite Lab, a multi-disciplinary team of master students, PhD-students and professors are currently working on a small satellite with a miniaturized hyperspectral camera for detection of toxic algae blooms along the Norwegian coast. KSAT will as part of this contract, provide commercial ground station services from the Svalbard Ground Station for this mission, called HYPSO-1.

The smallsats in the HYPSO-project will be equipped with miniaturized hyperspectral cameras, that are able to “see” more than traditional optical sensors, covering parts of the infrared spectrum. In combination with drones and autonomous vehicles both on surface and subsea, the goal is to be able to detect and alert the fish-farms about toxic algae blooms in the area. In 2019 a sudden upwelling of toxic algae killed close to 8 million salmon in Norwegian fish farms, wiping out more than half of the annual sales growth in just over a week. The hope is that with the contribution of this mission, one can avoid this in the future.

As a significant provider of maritime monitoring services, KSAT had an active role during the algae bloom last year and together with partners in Tromsø they are currently exploring how to discriminate between different types of algae by combining different sensors and applying advanced algorithms.

Executive Comments

“We are very excited to get access to KSATs ground stations both at Svalbard and at other locations,” said Associate Professor Egil Eide at the Department of Electronic Systems. “HYPSO-1 will be part of a multi-agent surveillance system, operating both drones and surface vessels in near-real-time. It is very important to get data from as many satellite passes. This is an important strategic cooperation between NTNU and space industry, that will benefit students and researchers alike.”

Kristian Jenssen is the Director of KSATLITE, a division at KSAT that is dedicated to the development and delivery of scalable, global ground station services for smallsats. The team are currently handling the major portion of the commercial smallsats on-orbit today, including some of the large constellations. Jenssen emphasized that the students through these projects acquire unique hands-on experience, which is very relevant and thus valuable for KSAT as a possible future employer. “It is important for us that students that want to delve into the discipline of spacecraft engineering and space related sciences, can get the chance to do so at Norway’s largest technical university,” stated Jenssen, adding, “It’s exciting with these new and small hyperspectral sensors. We support the project and believe it can provide a valuable contribution to future systems for algae warning and coastal monitoring to increase the understanding and support commercial aquaculture.”

Hi Jonata, the annual Small Satellite Conference has just concluded, what are the key take away from Leaf Space?

It has been a week dense of emotions and discoveries. After some months of lock downs across the globe, we have been able to convey again with many of our current and future clients, and industry colleagues too. We also realized that the new space economy never actually stopped. It continued working to have commercially operational smallsat constellations despite the inevitable launch delays. Most of our customers are pushing to get their satellites in orbit as soon as possible and at the same time focusing on their next-generation satellites. In turn, we are scaling up of our ground network and improving the services overall to always provide them a simple, reliable and cost-effective Ground Segment as a Service solution.

How is your Leaf Line ground network growing?

During spring, in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak, we secured a series A funding that triggered the scale up plan of Lead Space. We are now proceeding in activating new sites worldwide and installing new ground stations. We have just cut the ribbon on our new GS in the Azores that will provide enhanced coverage in the Atlantic, and we have few ground stations ready to be shipped to new sites in New Zealand, North America and the equatorial region. We are also installing additional antennas in our historic location in Spain, and soon we will have a new location in East Europe. The pandemic has slowed down the roll out planned for Q2 2020 a bit, but now we are catching up. All these new locations are very attractive not only for satellite missions, our main vertical, but also for the increasing need coming from new and established launch vehicle operators.

Tell me more about launch vehicles, and how Leaf Space is supporting this part of the market.

In 2019 Leaf Space was selected to support the final testing campaign of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne vehicle, an experience that has been really fruitful to gain operational know-how.  Right now, we are developing new solutions to better support this kind of test and launch campaign with an “as a Service” model, that is our real key added value. All this added to the fact that our ground stations are flexible and compact so they can be easily deployed in different spaceports or launch facilities. Also, we have started providing LEOP services to satellites also through Launch Brokers, which provides a better and more comprehensive service to their customers.

Why should clients buy Ground Segment Services from Leaf Space and not build their own network or rely on other providers?

For microsatellite operators, the ground segment in general is seen as a key part of their business, but as it is not the core of their business managing this internally is actually seen as a disadvantage. What they really want to focus on is harvesting data from space, processing that data and delivering it to the end users. In addition, efficiently managing a ground station network is not an easy task. If you think about the multiple hardware and software blocks needed to guarantee a secure and reliable communication, all the regulatory challenges and the specific skills you need to deploy and run a network, this is clearly something that many operators handover to a specialized partner. This is especially true if your partner can provide a more reliable and cost-effective solution thanks to the distributed nature of our network and high degree of automation, from load balancing to rescheduling. We’ve made a webinar on this topic during the Smallsat Conference that will be published soon!

What are your main objectives for the upcoming months?

Well, we have customers in the major part of the rockets scheduled to launch from now to the end of the year and we will support them not only during LEOPs but also through our services Leaf Line and Leaf Key.

On the R&D side we’re working on both increasing the performance of the Ground Stations composing our network, to allow faster data downlink and even support higher frequencies, but also on supporting an even wider range of MODCOD schemes and protocols in order to decrease the onboarding time of our customers.

On a revenue perspective, last year we had already significant revenues, and we plan to double this year and have a quite growing trend after that.

To get more traction on the US market we will soon open a new subsidiary there; we already have people working from the US, but we think that a legal entity will provide us even more visibility both to commercial and institutional market.

So, we’re quite busy!

Skyrora continues with its de-risking program by preparing to launch the Skylark Micro rocket from Iceland later this month.

With the first launch window scheduled for August 12, the two-stage, four-meter tall, sub-orbital rocket is set for take-off from Langanes Peninsula, Iceland.

Following the July test for trajectory and hardware on the Skylark Nano, the Icelandic launch of the Skylark Micro will test onboard avionics and communications as well as practice marine recovery operations.

Skyrora’s de-risking program is based on testing its systems with smaller and more cost-effective vehicles before they are used in their larger Skylark L and Skyrora XL rockets. The company’s LEO rocket, the Skyrora XL, is scheduled to launch in 2023.

Executive Comment

Volodymyr Levykin, the CEO of Skyrora, said, “Skyrora’s de-risking programme is essential for scaling, learning and education before we launch our two commercial vehicles, Skylark L and Skyrora XL. The entire team is working at a pace and has made great efforts to get another launch underway. I’d also like to express my thanks and gratitude towards Space Iceland and Iceland’s government, both of which have been tremendously supportive with the preparations for this upcoming launch.”

Industry leaders are urging the UK government to establish world-class rules to enable safe, environmentally conscious and commercially viable space launches from British soil.

A series of UK-wide workshops aimed at developing a common industry position across key issues related to a sovereign launch capability have just been delivered by the Scottish Space Leadership Council (SSLC). They were designed to foster collaboration and a common UK space sector voice for issues of concern during the UK government’s consultation on its Space Industry Regulations, which runs until October 21 and will create secondary legislation under the Space Industry Act 2018.

A report summarizing the output of four workshop modules — range and trajectory management and governance, spaceport operations, and launch safety and indemnity — will be published by SSLC in early September.

More than 60 representatives from across the UK space sector, including both industry and academia, attended each of the virtual sessions. Government agencies — including the UK Space Agency, Civil Aviation Authority, Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, the Ministry of Defence, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Marine Coastguard Agency and Marine Scotland — were also present as observers.

The UK space industry wants to work closely with government legislators to create regulations that will enable a technologically innovative spaceflight economy for the UK.

SSLC is a voluntary, cross-sectoral representative organisation with membership is open to all across the UK space industry sector and representation from across government and its agencies welcomed. Set up in 2017, it provides a platform for industry, academia and government to work collaboratively, promote the sector and take a united approach to shared challenges, such as satellite operations and data analysis, launch vehicle development and integration, the testing of engines and other sub-systems and expansion of new, innovative space sector offerings.

Of these challenges, a key enabler for the sector is the development of practical launch legislation to govern all facets of safe spaceflight from UK soil. This area is felt to require immediate attention given global competition, the legislative process and its overall importance to realising the UK’s space sector potential.

Sub-orbital rocket launches have been taking place in Scotland and across the UK since the 1930s. The 21st century now offers the potential for UK industry to expand its range of launch offerings and services to deliver a full spectrum of launch, including vertical and horizontal orbital launches.

The UK Space Agency’s target to capture 10% of the global space market by 2030 has led to significant investment in a number of developing spaceports. The majority of these launch locations are located in Scotland due to geographical benefits related to flight trajectories, particularly for vertical rocket launches.

SSLC is now exploring ways in which the cross-sector collaboration can be continued and some of the common sectoral messages produced by the Workshops, ongoing Work Streams and from messaging being received by the Council can be input to the Space Industry Regulation consultation now underway.

Executive Comments

“The industry’s perception is that regulations must promote safety and environmental considerations while still allowing the commercial viability required for the sector to truly thrive,” said John Innes, Chair of the Scottish Space Leadership Council. “The space industry is therefore keen to seek ways to inform the legislative process and position the UK as a leader in European spaceflight. It demonstrates a strong desire to work collaboratively across the whole UK Space sector as well as with regulators to ensure the appropriate balance of safety and practicality.” Also, according to Innes, the high level of interest and support for the workshops from across the UK space sector underscores the fundamental importance of launch to the industry.”

Miles Carden, Program Director at Spaceport Cornwall, said, “This workshop series was a fantastic initiative enabling cross-sector input that will ultimately strengthen the UK Space Industry. Collaboration will be the backbone of our next chapter and will help create the regulations for safe and responsible launch.”

Mick O’Connor of Prestwick Spaceport stated, “The sector’s success will be determined by how well we collaborate, these workshops are a great start.”

Mark Roberts of Spaceport One, referred to the collegiate approach as “fantastic”, adding, “Government, the agencies, industry and academia enthusiastically rallying around the common purpose of making launch a success; great news for the UK”.

Scott Hammond from the Shetland Space Center noted, “We were delighted to play a part in the recent Range workshop run by SSLC, it was important to bring all parts of the UK Space industry together to start to craft a range solution that will suit all.”

Roy Kirk, from Space Hub Sutherland, commented, “The workshops were a great success. SSLC provided a valuable opportunity for key players in Scotland’s space sector to share knowledge and experience while learning from specialists in a range of subjects.”

SpaceX is targeting Friday, August 7, at 1:12 a.m., EDT, 5:12 UTC, for the launch of the company’s tenth Starlink mission that will include 57 Starlink satellites and 2 satellites from BlackSky, a Spaceflight customer.

The Falcon 9 launch vehicle will lift off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A backup opportunity is available on Saturday, August 8, at 12:50 a.m., EDT, 4:50 UTC.

Falcon 9’s first stage previously supported Crew Dragon’s first demonstration mission to the International Space Station, launch of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission and the fourth and seventh Starlink missions. Following stage separation, SpaceX will land Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The BlackSky Global spacecraft will deploy sequentially starting 1 hour and 1 minute after liftoff and the Starlink satellites will deploy approximately 1 hour and 33 minutes after liftoff. Starlink satellites will be deployed in a circular orbit, as was done on the first through fourth Starlink missions. Additionally, all Starlink satellites on this flight are equipped with a deployable visor to block sunlight from hitting the brightest spots of the spacecraft – a measure SpaceX has taken as part of our work with leading astronomical groups to mitigate satellite reflectivity.

Watch the launch webcast at this direct link, starting about 15 minutes before liftoff.

Benchmark Space Systems has announced an exclusive services agreement with Spaceflight Inc. to provide a full range of non-toxic, chemical propulsion solutions that are designed to accelerate satellite rideshare deployments to prime orbital locations aboard the company’s next-generation Sherpa orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs).

Announced last month, Spaceflight’s first OTV in the Sherpa-NG family, Sherpa FX, will carry 16 customer spacecraft and several hosted payloads aboard a Falcon 9 no earlier than December 2020. Benchmark’s safe chemical propulsion will be equipped on an upgraded vehicle called Sherpa-LT as early as late next year.

Benchmark’s propulsion features a patented On-Demand Pressurization System (ODPS) that securely fires up the thruster once the OTV is safely in space and deployed from the launch vehicle. The exclusive propulsion agreement enables Spaceflight’s small satellite rideshare missions to take full advantage of low-cost rideshare launches to sub-optimal locations in space, where its Sherpa-LT vehicle propelled by a Benchmark green thruster can maneuver rideshare and dedicated spacecraft to ideal orbits in a matter of hours.

Benchmark’s scalable, launch vehicle agnostic propulsion product and services set supports a broad spectrum of spacecraft, from 1U cubesats through ESPA-class (1-500 kg) satellites, large lunar landers, and orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs), offering far safer and faster rideshare options than electric propulsion systems, which can take months to complete their trips to orbit.

Spaceflight has launched more than 270 satellites across nearly 30 rideshare missions. In 2019, the company successfully executed nine missions, the most it’s ever launched in one year, sending more than 50 payloads to space.

Executive Comments

“By exclusively adding Benchmark’s reliable, green in-space propulsion systems to our portfolio of powered Sherpa vehicles, we can cost-effectively deliver our customers’ spacecraft to optimal orbits with greater precision, and then rapidly de-orbit. That’s good for everyone – including the environment,” said Curt Blake, Spaceflight president and CEO.

“Benchmark Space Systems is thrilled to support Spaceflight’s Sherpa OTV program, bringing our patented non-toxic chemical propulsion solutions to this exciting next-gen deployer to enable a whole new level of rideshare capabilities and options for faster, safer missions to the best orbital locations around the world,” said Ryan McDevitt, Benchmark Space Systems CEO. “The Sherpa OTV and its rideshare customers can reach optimal orbits in no time with up to one-thousand times the thrust of electric propulsion, which is so slow the journey to orbit often cuts mission time and revenue in space. We are looking forward to our first milestone launch with Spaceflight’s Sherpa OTV next year. The integration of Benchmark’s non-toxic chemical propulsion solutions across the propulsion-equipped Sherpa OTV series will add speed and precision to Spaceflight’s market-leading rideshare services and capabilities.”

“The Spaceflight-Benchmark collaborative agreement delivers on big demand for innovative green rideshare options that leverage low-cost launches to sub-optimal space with propulsion-equipped transporters offering quick, precise payload deliveries to premier orbit locations,” said Chris Carella, Executive VP of Business Development and Strategy, Benchmark Space Systems. “Both companies are agile developers and share a passion for always creating better solution designs that are launch vehicle agnostic and keenly focused on enabling new space accessibility with rapid, reliable in-space transport.”

Open Cosmos announced that they have ‘sealed a deal’ with satellite communications operator Sateliot to build and operate their small satellite constellation. This enables continuous global connectivity for Internet of Things (IoT) under 5G architecture.

Open Cosmos is already manufacturing the first of the one hundred that will comprise the full constellation, that Sateliot has scheduled for construction before the end of 2022. Additionally they will control the mission management and launch of the first satellites.

These microwave oven-sized satellites operate in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), flying at an approximate altitude of 500km to guarantee IoT connectivity at a global scale and in almost real-time.

In the next two years it is forecast that there will be more than 50 billion IoT devices globally, and with this constellation Sateliot is perfectly positioned to partner with conventional telecommunication providers to ensure ubiquitous coverage.

Sateliot will also offer monitoring and tracking systems, data analysis, and processes in areas such as: maritime, railways, aeronautical, agriculture and farming, gas and petroleum exploration, electric or critical infrastructure.

Rafel Jordá, Founder and CEO of Open Cosmos said, “We are excited to have satellite production underway for these satellites and be progressing all other aspects of the mission, including system integration, launch, licensing and logistics, as well as orbit operations. We are delighted to partner with Sateliot to enable the reality of IoT anywhere.”

Jaume Sanpera, co-founder and CEO of Sateliot, added that, “A bond with a partner, such as Open Cosmos, allows us to move forward with our project, meeting head-on the requirements and challenges the New Space industry faces, while keeping control over the design of the antennae and the radio that will allow the operational and commercial management of our telecommunications service.”