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Astra Space, Inc. (“Astra”) (Nasdaq: ASTR) plans to deploy their first satellite into orbit for NASA in January of 2022. The company’s first launch from Cape Canaveral will be conducted from Space Launch Complex 46 (SLC-46).

Astra and Space Launch Delta 45, a part of the United States Space Force, enabled Astra to launch out of Cape Canaveral in record time – shortening the multi-year approval time to months.

“This historic launch site has been prepared for a new commercial launch partner in less than year, which is a tremendous milestone for our combined team, and illustrates how SLD 45 sets the pace for access to space.” said Brigadier General Stephen Purdy, Commander of Space Launch Delta 45 and Director of the Eastern Range. “SLD 45, Space Florida, and Astra have moved at a rapid speed to demonstrate critical and responsive launch capabilities. We are excited to welcome Astra to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.”

“Launching out of the Cape allows us to serve customers with mid-inclination delivery needs, broadening our market,” said Martin Attiq, Chief Business Officer at Astra. “This is an additional step in our global spaceport strategy and positions us to serve the broad LEO market.”

Astra’s launch will be livestreamed in partnership with NASASpaceFlight. Updates will be shared on Astra’s Twitter feed, @astra.

Astra’s mission is to improve life on Earth from space by creating a healthier and more connected planet. Today, Astra offers the lowest cost-per-launch dedicated orbital launch service of any operational launch provider in the world. Astra delivered its first commercial payload into Earth orbit in 2021, making it the fastest company in history to reach this milestone, just five years after it was founded in 2016. Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR) was the first space launch company to be publicly traded on Nasdaq.

Astra Space, Inc. (“Astra”) (Nasdaq: ASTR) successfully completed their first, commercial, orbital launch for the United States Space Force (USSF) on November 19, 2021, PST. The launch, STP-27AD2, was conducted from Astra’s Kodiak Spaceport, located at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska.

Astra’s launch system successfully demonstrated the orbital placement of a test payload to an inclination of 86.0 degrees at an altitude of 500 km. The payload achieved an orbital velocity of 7.61 kilometers per second in 8 minutes and 47 seconds.

The United States Space Force contracted this launch through a Defense Innovation Unit Other Transaction Agreement.

Astra was founded in 2016 to launch a new generation of space services enabled by large constellations of smallsats in LEO. The team set out to design a rocket that could be mass produced like an automobile, and a launch system that could deliver payloads into orbit from spaceports everywhere, inspired by the opportunity to provide daily access to space. In just five years, Astra successfully “learned its way” to orbit, launch by launch, increasing capabilities, decreasing costs and increasing operational efficiencies with each iteration.

“Reaching orbit is a historic milestone for Astra,” said Chris Kemp, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Astra. “We can now focus on delivering for our customers and scaling up rocket production and launch cadence.”

“We owe this success to our incredible team and the culture we’ve built at Astra,” said Adam London, Co-Founder and CTO of Astra. “I’m humbled by their courage and commitment to keep building, launching, learning, and iterating until we succeeded.”

Astra’s mission is to improve life on Earth from space by creating a healthier and more connected planet. Today, Astra offers the lowest cost-per-launch dedicated orbital launch service of any operational launch provider in the world. Astra delivered its first commercial payload into Earth orbit in 2021, making it the fastest company in history to reach this milestone, just five years after it was founded in 2016. Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR) was the first space launch company to be publicly traded on Nasdaq.

NanoAvionics has announced their latest satellite rideshare mission “MP42” is to be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 with payloads from OQ Technology and Veoware.

Using the prototype of its new MP42 smallsat bus, this is the fifth shared satellite mission by NanoAvionics, which has been one of the firsts companies in the smallsat industry to successfully kickstart and continue such a commercial program. The launch of NanoAvionics’ satellite has been booked for the SpaceX Transporter-4 mission, planned for 2022.

The MP42 is also the company’s largest built satellite and the first commercially available modular microsat bus in the industry. It has the same modularity for hard- and software and mission operations infrastructure as NanoAvionics’ nanosatellites. It will be deployed into LEO via a launch agreement with NanoAvionics’ launch partner Exolaunch, a German company providing launch, deployment and in-space transportation services. Exolaunch will also supply its CarboNIX separation ring to dock the MP42 to the SpaceX port aboard the Falcon 9 rocket.

The MP42 bus is part of NanoAvionics new range of microsats. It was developed by the company to meet the growing customer demand for hosting more sophisticated payloads like larger cameras for Earth Observation (EO) or power-hungry devices for high data throughput and complex communications missions. The MP42 is capable of accommodating payloads in the range of 50 kg. and all its subsystems were tested with 20kRad biased radiation dose and board level Single Event Effects (SEE) tested under 200 MeV Proton Beam, ensuring at least five years of lifetime in LEO.

Among other customer payloads aboard the MP42, NanoAvionics will integrate a second ‘cell tower in space,’ dubbed “Tiger-3,” for OQ Technology’s 5G IoT/M2M communication constellation. The smallsat will also host Veoware’s RW500 fully integrated reaction wheel for high performance satellite attitude control with next-generation high torque / low power technology. As a default in its new microsat range, NanoAvionics introduced its upgraded payload controller to maximize data-exchange and support payload operations. The new range of microsat products will also include AI reinforced on-board payload data processing, maximized data exchange rates, and the possibility to implement customer software blocks similarly as in mobile phone application cases.

OQ Technology’s third mission follows the successful launch of its Tiger-2 satellite in June this year, which performed very well during tests. Using the satellite, the company also tested its user terminal in harsh conditions and managed to achieve even indoor reach with no external antennas.

OQ’s ‘cell-tower in space’ technology aims to provide real-time global connectivity with ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) and massive machine type communications (mMTC), compatible with the global 3GPP standard, for applications in rural and remote areas, particularly in industries such as oil, gas, logistics, mining and defence. The company has recently revealed its patents portfolio for 5G IoT cellular communication over satellites and aims to provide global coverage from north pole to south pole.

Veoware will run various on-orbit tests with its RW500 high-torque reaction wheel. The reaction wheel is designed to offer high torque for low volume and low power consumption, with the greatest agility for satellites around 50 kg, and for missions with a minimum of five years lifetime. Other technological features include low magnetic residual, very high radiation shielding, redundant windings, firmware upgrades in space and regenerative braking.

Vytenis J. Buzas, co-founder and CEO of NanoAvionics, said, “With the MP42 platform as the latest addition to our product range of small satellites, we are enabling organizations to enter and benefit from the space market in the microsat segment.  Previously, their use was constrained due to higher cost, lack of modularity, mechanical restraints and suitable mission operations. Our rideshare missions and shared satellite services have proven to be very beneficial to many NewSpace companies. They allowed them to quickly and cost efficiently demonstrate their technologies in orbit, and add further satellites to their constellations.”

Omar Qaise, founder and CEO of OQ Technology, said, “After our successful Tiger-1 and Tiger-2 missions, we are now accelerating the deployment of our satellite network to have global ‘cell tower in space’ coverage for 5G IoT applications. Tiger-3 will provide better access and more capacity to interested customers, and will soon be followed by more missions.”

Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) has successfully deployed two satellites to orbit for real-time, geospatial monitoring company BlackSky (NYSE: BKSY). 

Rocket Lab also successfully introduced helicopter operations to a recovery mission for the first time, using a helicopter to observe and track the Electron rocket’s first stage as it descended to Earth under parachute as part of the company’s program to make Electron the world’s first reusable, orbital-class commercial small rocket.  

The ‘Love At First Insight’ mission, arranged for BlackSky through launch services provider Spaceflight Inc., was Electron’s 22^nd lift-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. Following lift-off at 01:38 UTC, November 18, 2021, Electron successfully delivered the two BlackSky Gen-2 Earth-imaging satellites to a circular 430 km orbit, growing BlackSky’s constellation of real-time geospatial monitoring spacecraft and bringing the total number of satellites deployed by Rocket Lab to 107. 

This mission also included a controlled ocean splashdown and recovery of Electron’s first stage. For the first time, Rocket Lab stationed a helicopter in the recovery zone around 200 nautical miles offshore to track and observe the descending stage in preparation for future aerial capture attempts. The helicopter successfully tracked the returning rocket and completed communications tests in the recovery zone, bringing Rocket Lab a step closer to catching a rocket from the sky, bringing it back to the production complex for refurbishment, and then launching it to space again.

The ‘Love At First Insight’ mission was the latest launch for BlackSky as part of a multi-launch agreement to deploy numerous BlackSky satellites on Electron. Five BlackSky satellites have now been successfully deployed to LEO so far on missions across 2019 and this year. As part of the deal, another two BlackSky satellites are scheduled for launch on Rocket Lab’s next Electron mission named “A Data With Destiny,” which is scheduled to launch during a 14-day launch window that opens in December. These successfully deployed satellites, along with those previously launched to space by Rocket Lab and the remaining four satellites next in line, represent the largest number of satellites BlackSky has dedicated to a single launch provider to date.

Executive Comment

PLD Space has achieved a new milestone with their official presentation in Madrid of the company’s MIURA 1 rocket that has been exhibited fully assembled for the first time in the capital’s National Museum of Natural Science — this suborbital vehicle is a key step in launch vehicle development, a pathfinder for MIURA 5 development.

From the start, the objective of PLD Space has been to become the European Microlauncher Company, a reference within the sector through the use of reusable rockets dedicated to the launch of smallsats. This vision has been maintained through the different stages of the project and is now being achieved, as Raúl Torres, CEO and Cofounder, has demonstrated during the official inauguration of MIURA 1. He said, “We have always being clear that we wanted to take advantage of the business opportunities in the space sector and contribute to its democratization, paving the way for new players in this increasingly thriving industry that will play a key role in the coming years.”

Raúl Verdú, COO and Co-founder of PLD Space, has underlined the support shown by numerous investors, in both public and private institutions, that have come together to make a “Made-in-Spain” space project a reality. “The support of institutions such as CDTI, ENISA, and the IVF, has been key; they have co-financed the last 10 years of development along with our private investors. We are proud to have financed the first private space launch service enterprise within our country.”

Ezequiel Sánchez, Executive President of PLD Space, highlighted the “strategic advantage for Spain to become the fourteenth country with access to space, as this select group of nations will play a crucial geostrategic role for Europe”. He has also underlined the effect it will have on Spain from an industrial perspective, because “our business model integrated throughout the value chain will allow us to have an autonomy that will be crucial in order to address the future of science and national industry”. “This without a team of passionate people would not have been possible. It is clear that we have grown with the right team. And now, we have the right team.”

MIURA 1 will return to the PLD Space base at Teruel Airport to carry out combined qualification testing at stage level, including full-mission duration hot test of the complete stage. After these tests, the stage will be shipped to the launch base to perform a combined test with all the ground segment and ground infrastructure, before launch.

MIURA 1 launch is expected for the second half of 2022, which it will be the first launch mission of a European rocket in history, designed to reach a maximum altitude of 150 km and with the capacity to carry a payload of up to 100 kg.

PLD Space is also working on its first MIURA 5 reusable orbital rocket, which is expected to be ready to carry out its first mission in July of 2024 and which will mark the start of the firm’s commercial satellite launches.

The first launch vehicle to fly will be MIURA 5 block 1.0, a fully expendable version that will comprise the first two launches. After those flights, the company will introduce a reusable version for the subsequent flights, paving the way for a commercial reusable booster in Europe. This stage will implement all lesson learned from ESA´s Future Launchers Preparatory Program (FLPP) contracts, called Liquid Propulsion Stage Recovery (LPSR) 1 and LPSR2.

PLD Space is a pioneering Spanish company in the aerospace sector and a reference within Europe in the development of reusable rockets, with a recognized prestige in the sector and a solid project that has become a reality through its launch vehicles: the MIURA 1 suborbital and MIURA 5 orbital rockets, which will place Spain among the few countries with the capacity to successfully send small satellites to space. With a decade of history, PLD Space plans to launch its MIURA 1 prototype in the second half of 2022 and tackle its first real space transport mission with MIURA 5 in 2024. The firm, based in Elche (Alicante) and with technical facilities in Teruel, Huelva and French Guiana, has already achieved more than €36 million of investment to drive forward its project in the space sector.

According to Rocket Lab, a ground sensor reading is the cause for the firm’s delay of their “Love At First Insight” launch of the BlackSky EO smallsats. This halt in the proceedings occurred 90 minutes prior to liftoff. A new launch date of November 16 has been set by the company.

Rocket Lab is targeting no earlier than 4:25 a.m., Thursday, November 11, UTC, for the launch of ‘Love At First Insight’, a dedicated launch for geospatial intelligence company BlackSky — this will be Rocket Lab’s fifth launch of 2021.

The launch will occur from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 Pad A on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.

A two-hour, ten-minute window, has been allocated for launch. This window shifts slightly earlier each day of the launch window. Below are the launch window opening times…

Launch Window Time Zone Conversion:

• UTC: 04:25 (11 November)
• NZT: 17:25 (11 November)
• ET: 23:25 (10 November)
• PT: 20:25 (10 November)

If there is a need to stand down from launch for any reason, the company has back-up launch days available through November 24.

About The Mission

The ‘Love At First Insight’ mission will be Rocket Lab’s 22nd Electron launch overall and fifth mission of 2021.

Rocket Lab will launch two Earth imaging satellites for BlackSky. The firm combines satellite images with their own software to predict trends and deliver insights to industries including transportation, infrastructure, land use, defense, supply chain management, and humanitarian aid.

While this mission’s primary objective is to deploy the BlackSky satellites, Rocket Lab will also attempt to recover Electron after launch in efforts to make Electron the world’s first, reusable, small rocket. The company will attempt a controlled, ocean splashdown and recovery of Electron’s first stage for the third time (following previously successful ocean recoveries on our 16th and 20th missions).

However with this mission, for the first time, Rocket Lab will station a helicopter in the recovery zone approximately 200 nautical miles offshore to track and visually observe the first stage as it returns to Earth in preparation for future attempts to capture it mid-air with a helicopter. The helicopter will not attempt a mid-air capture for this mission but will test communications and tracking to refine the concept of operations (CONOPS) for future Electron aerial captures.

More information about this mission and the satellites onboard can be found at this direct linfolink…

A live webcast will be available approximately 15-20 minutes prior to the target T-0 time at www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream.

Rocket Lab is targeting no earlier than 4:25 a.m., Thursday, November 11, UTC, for the launch of ‘Love At First Insight’, a dedicated launch for geospatial intelligence company BlackSky — this will be Rocket Lab’s fifth launch of 2021.

The launch will occur from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 Pad A on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.

A two-hour, ten-minute window, has been allocated for launch. This window shifts slightly earlier each day of the launch window. Below are the launch window opening times…

Launch Window Time Zone Conversion:

• UTC: 04:25 (11 November)
• NZT: 17:25 (11 November)
• ET: 23:25 (10 November)
• PT: 20:25 (10 November)

If there is a need to stand down from launch for any reason, the company has back-up launch days available through November 24.

About The Mission

The ‘Love At First Insight’ mission will be Rocket Lab’s 22nd Electron launch overall and fifth mission of 2021.

Rocket Lab will launch two Earth imaging satellites for BlackSky. The firm combines satellite images with their own software to predict trends and deliver insights to industries including transportation, infrastructure, land use, defense, supply chain management, and humanitarian aid.

While this mission’s primary objective is to deploy the BlackSky satellites, Rocket Lab will also attempt to recover Electron after launch in efforts to make Electron the world’s first, reusable, small rocket. The company will attempt a controlled, ocean splashdown and recovery of Electron’s first stage for the third time (following previously successful ocean recoveries on our 16th and 20th missions).

However with this mission, for the first time, Rocket Lab will station a helicopter in the recovery zone approximately 200 nautical miles offshore to track and visually observe the first stage as it returns to Earth in preparation for future attempts to capture it mid-air with a helicopter. The helicopter will not attempt a mid-air capture for this mission but will test communications and tracking to refine the concept of operations (CONOPS) for future Electron aerial captures.

More information about this mission and the satellites onboard can be found at this direct linfolink…

A live webcast will be available approximately 15-20 minutes prior to the target T-0 time at www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream.

HawkEye 360 Inc. has closed $145 million in new funding, priming the company to achieve transformational growth in its data and analytical services product line.

This Series D round was led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners and Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LSE:SSIT). Additional funding was provided by the Strategic Development Fund (SDF), the investment arm of UAE’s Tawazun Holding. Joining the round were new investors Jacobs, Gula Tech Adventures, 116 Street Ventures, and New North Ventures, as well as existing investors Advance, Razor’s Edge, NightDragon, SVB Capital, Shield Capital, Adage Capital, and others. This brings the total amount of capital raised to date to $302 million.

HawkEye 360 is delivering a source of global knowledge based on RF geospatial intelligence to those working to make the world a safer place. The company will use the funding to expand their satellite constellation and complementary infrastructure, accelerating the growth of the company’s services to customers in the humanitarian, environmental, commercial and national security sectors.

Increasingly, the lifeblood of the modern digital economy is carried by the electromagnetic spectrum. Many types of objects emit radio frequencies for vital functions such as communication, navigation and security.

The HawkEye 360 constellation detects, characterizes and precisely geolocates these RF signals from a broad range of emitters, including VHF marine radios, UHF push-to-talk radios, maritime and land-based radar systems, L-band satellite devices and emergency beacons. By processing and analyzing this RF data, the company delivers actionable insights and a unique knowledge for operations across a broad range of sectors.

In the years ahead, the company will expand on its proven capabilities to deliver persistent RF data and analytics. This next phase of growth, backed by the latest funding round, will feature faster revisit rates, greater signal collection and enhanced analytics to address a large set of mission needs for clients.

“HawkEye 360 is pleased to be welcoming phenomenal new partners to our world class investment family, all of whom share our vision of using revolutionary commercial RF-monitoring capabilities to produce positive impacts for humanity and the environment,” said HawkEye 360 CEO, John Serafini. “As a new, well-backed space data and analytics company with a unique dual-use technology, we are ideally situated not only to create great value for the defense, intelligence and national security communities, but also to change the paradigm for organizations confronting complex challenges like illegal fishing, poaching, maritime smuggling and environmental degradation.”

“HawkEye 360 stands out as the clear leader in commercial RF data and analytics,” said Nick Sinai, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “We are excited to partner with HawkEye 360 as the company continues to scale up and to expand its geospatial intelligence technology capabilities for both government and commercial markets.” Nick Sinai will join HawkEye 360’s board.

“We seek to invest into the emerging category leaders building a digital platform in the sky,” said Mark Boggett, CEO of Seraphim Space (Manager) LLP, Seraphim Investment Trust’s investment manager. “We can say with conviction that HawkEye 360 is the undisputed global champion in radio frequency analysis, a market we believe will grow to billions of dollars over the next few years. We’ve carefully built our relationship with HawkEye 360 since 2017, culminating with them participating in the AWS Space Accelerator managed by Seraphim. Our subsequent $25 million investment, as co-lead alongside Insight Ventures, in the D Series reflects the potential we believe this breakthrough technology will have across the environmental and security sectors. We are convinced that HawkEye 360 has both the technology advantage together with the commercial and governmental relationships to transform, reshape and develop the industry on a global scale at speed.”

PJT Partners served as exclusive financial advisor and placement agent to HawkEye 360 in connection with the Series D capital raise. WilmerHale acted as legal counsel for HawkEye 360 in connection with the transaction.

Jeff Bezos and his Project Kuiper team will launch the first test satellites later in 2022, ahead of his planned 3,236 LEO broadband constellation.

Project Kuiper will use rocket company ABL Systems to launch the two satellites (named KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2) and not Bezos’s own Blue Origin rockets. The launches will take place from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Amazon filed for a license to cover the launch with the FCC on November 1st in a highly-detailed 47-page filing.

In a blog, Rajeev Badyal, Kuiper’s VP/Technology, stated, “This morning, we filed an experimental license application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch, deploy, and operate two prototype satellites for Project Kuiper. These satellites – KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 – are an important step in the development process. They allow us to test the communications and networking technology that will be used in our final satellite design, and help us validate launch operations and mission management procedures that will be used when deploying our full constellation.

“We’ve invented lots of new technology to meet our cost and performance targets for Project Kuiper. All of the systems are testing well in simulated and lab settings, and we’ll soon be ready to see how they perform in space,” he added. “There is no substitute for on-orbit testing, and we expect to learn a lot given the complexity and risk of operating in such a challenging environment. We can’t wait to get started.”

BT and OneWeb have agreed terms for a new Distribution Partner Agreement, with OneWeb to provide Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication services across BT Group.

This builds on an initial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in July and means BT is testing how LEO satellite technology integrates with its existing terrestrial capabilities to meet the communications needs of customers. On successful completion, BT will commence the first live trials with customers from early in 2022. The partnership will span a growing range of connectivity solutions around the world as well as specific opportunities for the UK market.

Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said, “I am thrilled to see the UK at the forefront of this emerging technology thanks to the Government’s investment in OneWeb – a crucial part of our plans to cement our status as a global science and technology superpower.”

Digital Secretary, Nadine Dorries, said, “The agreement between OneWeb and BT will help bring fast and reliable global connectivity, from the Highlands to the Himalayas. I’m delighted these two British companies have joined forces to research the technological benefits of working together, and I look forward to exploring how this could play a role in our mission to put hard-to-reach areas in the digital fast lane.”

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive of BT Group, said, “Space is an emerging and enormous digital opportunity, and this is an important step towards harnessing its potential for BT’s customers across the globe. We will put OneWeb’s technology through its paces in our UK labs with the goal of delivering live trials in early 2022. Delivered securely and at scale, satellite solutions will be an important part of our plans to expand connectivity throughout the UK and globally, and to further diversify the range of services we can offer our customers.”

OneWeb’s Chief Executive Officer, Neil Masterson, said, “BT has taken the lead in the recognition of LEO satellite’s advantage. We are delighted as this agreement with BT Group represents an important strategic partnership for OneWeb as we continue to make progress towards our operational launch. We are excited to be playing such a key role in improving the resilience of the overall telecom infrastructure in the UK. OneWeb’s connectivity platform will help bridge the last digital divides across the country and enhance the nation’s digital infrastructure.”

OneWeb is expected to deliver global coverage by June 2022 through a constellation of 648 LEO satellites and is poised to deliver services from the North Pole to the 50th parallel, covering the entire UK, later in 2021. The new partnership supports BT’s wider network ambition, set out in July this year, to deliver digital solutions across the entire UK by 2028, through a combination of an expanded network and ‘on demand’, requestable solutions anywhere beyond. In building a converged, software-defined network, BT will leverage and integrate both terrestrial and non-terrestrial technologies to deliver on the goal of seamless, ubiquitous connectivity.

This agreement marks a clear path toward the first LEO solutions being available for customers within a year. As the next step, BT will test capabilities in its Bristol lab to demonstrate how they integrate with existing services. Current capacity levels within OneWeb satellites mean initial trials will focus on its role as a supplementary, low latency backhaul solution to sites where additional capacity or a back-up solution is required, and to deliver improved resilience for business customers. On successful completion, BT will begin early adopter trials for UK and international customers, expected early in 2022. As OneWeb grows their capacity, the list of future use cases could also widen, opening up the opportunity to explore the use of satellite for IoT backhaul and Fixed Wireless Access in rural areas.

The work with OneWeb shows the capabilities being developed by UK businesses in the pioneering area of space technology and follows the UK Government’s recently published National Space Strategy, which recognizes the enormous strategic opportunities on offer. BT, which boasts a heritage of nearly 60 years in space and satellite communication innovation, continues to explore a diverse range of partners across all its services, including space, to ensure the latest and best connectivity solutions are available for customers.

LEO broadband satellite operator OneWeb and communications, defence and security specialist Leonardo DRS have created a new partnership. The pair will now jointly offer a LEO service to the US Department of Defense.

Supported by a global network of gateways and user terminals, OneWeb’s global connectivity platform will provide high-bandwidth and low-latency connectivity to expand Leonardo DRS’s information and technology solution systems, products and technologies to support military and government markets. The partnership will enable expanded connectivity to offer versatile, agile, and capable US government mission support throughout the US.

“OneWeb and Leonardo DRS’s partnership will benefit DoD naval and maritime systems, ground combat mission command and network computing, global satellite communications and network infrastructure, avionics systems, and intelligence and security solutions. Using the power of OneWeb’s network, Leonardo DRS can augment its existing delivery of end-to-end Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions that are reliable, resilient, and secure by adding low latency service,” said a press statement.

“Leonardo DRS has been providing broadband services and enterprise IT solutions for close to 20 years. The company specialises in providing mission-critical solutions that meet complex communications requirements. These offerings include multi-domain information systems, network operations, cybersecurity operations, and resilient global telecommunications that integrate secure and reliable backhaul terrestrial networks and cutting-edge satellite service. The company’s key offering, the Leonardo DRS ICT Ecosystem, provides fully integrated, turn-key information technology and global communication solutions tailored to customers’ current and future requirements, so they can focus on their missions,” the statement added.

Leonardo DRS (DRS stands for ‘Diagnostic Retrieval Systems’) is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, but acquired by Italy-based Finnmeccanica (now called Leonardo) in 2008.

SES, with Isotropic Systems, has tested a new, versatile antenna which the pair say will be a “game changer” as far as multi-satellite (and multi-orbit) connectivity is concerned.

The antenna has proven to successfully connect with SES’s satellites in their geostationary orbit as well as simultaneously connecting with an O3b satellite in MEO.

Currently, users are reliant on legacy ground antennas which only connect to a single network at a time. This industry breakthrough enables satellite end-users to combine the best attributes of all available networks achieving superior network uptime and application performance. Isotropic’s deep tech solution multiplies the performance of single antenna solutions to transform the global appeal of satellite connectivity, ensuring critical defense communications infrastructure and delivering multiple broadband access that are highly reliable, says an announcement.

SES and Isotropic give some examples:

• NATO and other international forces will finally be able to converge the most advanced military and secure commercial satellites, ensuring total mission assurance around the world.

• In the sky, aircraft pilots will be able to connect to the optimal satellites for navigation and ground communications, while passengers in the cabin can connect to entirely separate satellites in different orbits to access live television, super-fast broadband, and enhanced entertainment options with streaming and gaming.

• On the ground, the entire land transport sector will achieve ubiquitous, super-fast, always-on internet access, allowing people to work as if they were in the office even if they are riding on a train or bus, while remote locations can finally access high-speed broadband.

• At sea, ships can be tracked across the oceans, accelerating digital transformation for the shipping industry and super-fast internet will transform the experience for cruise ship passengers.

“We have removed the major bottleneck holding back the expansion of the satellite sector for both commercial and defense communications. Users can finally connect to as many satellites as they want, when they want, wherever they want and that’s a game-changer for enterprise, aero, maritime, government and defense,” said John Finney, founder and CEO of Isotropic Systems. “This test proves space is now open, as we mesh networks together in a way that is unparalleled, without compromise. We have delivered on our vision to combine the full performance of multiple antennas into one multi-link, solid state, software defined terminal without any restrictions.”

“The success of these multi-orbit antenna trials opens the door to a new level of multi-orbit service delivery, as we integrate our geostationary satellites with our second-generation low-latency, high-throughput O3b mPOWER system to provide seamless services for our customers,” said Steve Collar, CEO of SES. “Isotropic’s unique architecture enables our customers to be connected to multiple simultaneous beams from both GEO and MEO satellites, enabling us to deliver industry-defining performance and orbital resilience services. It is a game changer for resilient, secure, global networks built on SES’s state-of-the-art fleet.”

Mike Rudd, Head of Telecommunications Strategy at the UK Space Agency, said, “This is a significant breakthrough that will put UK technology developed by Isotropic Systems at the heart of meeting the unprecedented demand for global connectivity. It’s a great example of the innovation found within the UK’s growing space sector and has been made possible by our leading investments in telecommunications research through the European Space Agency.”