OneWeb Satellite Construction Could Remain In Florida

When the UK made its $500 million investment in the – then bankrupt – OneWeb satellite constellation, much was made of the prospects for production of the actual satellites, with UK officials talking optimistically about satellites being built in the UK.

Alok Sharma, then business secretary in the UK government, spoke at the time of the prospects for OneWeb boosting the UK’s existing satellite production and output. OneWeb itself also confirmed at the time a wish to see satellites being built in the UK. Chris McLaughlin, OneWeb’s head of government affairs, said he could see output being transferred by 2024 or 2025.

However, Bharti Enterprises and its chairman, Sunil Mittal, which owns 40 percent of OneWeb, said that it is happy to “nudge” whoever wins the contract for OneWeb’s second-generation satellites toward the UK but “there’s a lot of things that’ll depend on it.” He added that pricing would be key, reports the FT.

OneWeb’s satellites are currently being built in Florida, where Airbus and OneWeb have a production joint-venture.

LEO Potentials Realized With Starlinks New SATCOM Ukraine Services

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has initiated Starlink satellite broadband service in war-hit Ukraine. The latest development highlights the significance and future potential of LEOs across key applications, stated GlobalData, a data and analytics company.

Reportedly, Starlink terminals receive Internet from SpaceX’s 2,000 satellites to allow users to get online even if their service has been disconnected.

GlobalData’s FutureTech Series report reveals that the growing deployment of a large group of LEOs, often dubbed LEO mega constellations, could herald the next era of connectivity, with their potential to address the gaps in internet adoption and infrastructure access in remote areas that are not served by terrestrial and traditional satellite networks.

Kiran Raj, Principal Disruptive Tech Analyst at GlobalData, said, “An unprecedented level of VC funding is flowing into the space economy. LEOs’ low latency compared to geostationary orbit (GEO) and middle earth orbit (MEO) satellites can play a crucial role in applications that require real time data access such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), surveillance and imaging, telemedicine, and remote-controlled machines. LEOs can backup telcos to optimize their existing backhaul network for the transmission of large volumes of different types of data in compliance with 4G and 5G. In this regard, both terrestrial and LEO- based backhaul connectivity can be selected to manage the traffic demand. LEO backhaul can also provide additional backup during massive events such as concerts and sports. During emergency response situations, LEOs service providers can launch satellite broadband services in victimized areas to offer continuous connectivity.”

Although no new major commercialization initiatives have been observed in the short-term, LEOs are touted to play a key role in connecting millions of IoT-backed devices and sensors, managing the boom in Internet users, and minimizing the digital divide to strengthen community resilience.

At present, LEO projects, such as Amazon’s Kuiper, SpaceX’s Starlink and OneWeb, are aiming to bridge the digital divide and offer Internet services with low latency and high-speed broadband connectivity to remote and unserved communities globally.

Raj concluded, “Coupled with machine learning, edge computing, and artificial intelligence, LEOs can promote enterprise digital transformation. With greater adoption of remote work models, LEOs will become critical to offering lightning speed broadband services, tracking of assets, securing data, and strengthening the network infrastructure of organizations. With the advantage of near-earth location and lower orbital periods, LEOs can strengthen community and business resilience, and unlock new possibilities for latency-critical applications.”

Planning Permission Received For Scottish Spaceport

A planned spaceport in Unst, Shetland, in the far North of the UK, has received planning permission to go ahead.

Shetland Islands Council says work to prepare the Saxavord Spaceport can proceed, provided Scottish ministers don’t call the project in for further review. Three rocket pads would be built at the Lamba Ness peninsula in Unst, Shetland.

The plan is that the first launch of what’s likely to be a meteorological satellite could occur before the year’s end. However, both Saxavord itself and the rocket company expected to send up the spacecraft will first need a license from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority.

Saxavord Spaceport CEO Frank Strang described the planning approval as a “huge tipping point in our evolution. This is such a big day for us. We’ve been on this journey for five years. We’ve had to overcome all sorts of obstacles, and I take great pride in this team. Until we got that planning permission, nobody was really going to take us seriously and we can now really charge on,” he told BBC News.

Telesat Moves To Increase Focus On Africa

Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat, which is planning an LEO constellation called Lightspeed, has said the company has signed with Liquid Intelligent Technologies for a strategic cooperation agreement for Telesat’s Lightspeed services in Africa.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies is part of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African fiber network group.

As part of the agreement, the companies will closely collaborate on the commercial and technical aspects of integrating the Telesat Lightspeed enterprise-grade, high-throughput, low-latency satellite network with Liquid’s global value-added services network. This integration can enable the expansion of Liquid’s enterprise portfolio offerings, including next-generation cloud services, managed security services, business Wi-Fi and data center connectivity.

At the same time, Telesat will explore combining Liquid’s landing stations, Points of Presences (PoPs), site hosting, management services, and fibre network as part of its global terrestrial infrastructure that seamlessly integrates with the Telesat Lightspeed satellite network.

“Liquid’s terrestrial infrastructure in Africa is second to none, from the largest fiber network spanning over 100,000 kms to state-of-the-art teleports and access to diverse points-of-presence within the continent,” said Glenn Katz, Telesat’s CCO. “We’re eager to explore the synergies between both of our company’s offerings, with confidence that we will establish a ‘win-win’ for our organizations and the future of connectivity for Africa.”

“Telesat Lightspeed will be the world’s most advanced LEO network, delivering the enterprise-grade, fibre-like connectivity that Africa’s massively underserved market needs,” said Scott Mumford, Liquid Satellite Services CEO. “Integrating ubiquitous, multi-gigabit per second links with guaranteed SLA’s from Telesat Lightspeed will enable Liquid to expand their award-winning services via an untethered network in the sky, and deliver expanded service offerings to our customers not possible through the current satellite-based offerings.”

This is good news for Telesat, but the company – despite planning for Lightspeed’s 298 satellites – has yet to confirm launch dates for the Lightspeed fleet. Thales Alenia is building the satellites.

Eutelsat could switch off Russia transponders

Eutelsat executives say they have about 6 percent of group revenues exposed to Russian activity. The bulk of this comes from distribution deals on Russian pay-TV systems operated by Tricolor and NTV+.

A report from analysts at investment bank Exane/BNPP forecasts a scenario – unconfirmed by the company – where the French government requests (or Eutelsat offers) to switch off transponders for Russia on its Eutelsat 36B satellite thereby blacking out dozens of millions of TV sets.

“We believe such a move could improve Eutelsat’s position on the EU-backed constellation project,” said the bank’s note.

The EU constellation is a proposed LEO satellite system now being researched and specified by the EU.

“[Eutelsat] management sees the EU-backed government constellation project as an attractive opportunity but believes many uncertainties remain and sees related benefits taking time to materialize. In particular, Eutelsat is working to have OneWeb 2nd-generation satellites meets EU eligibility criteria,” added the bank.

It also emerged that Eutelsat is not contractually obliged to participate in the funding of OneWeb’s 2nd-generation craft but considers all its options, including ownership dilution of its stake in OneWeb, or the opposite which would see it increase its stake.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has successfully deployed a second Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite to orbit for data and solutions provider Synspective, bringing the total number of satellites deployed by Rocket Lab to 110. — ‘The Owl’s Night Continues” mission is Rocket Lab’s 24th Electron launch.

“The Owl’s Night Continues” mission was the first to launch from Rocket Lab’s second pad at Launch Complex 1, Pad B, on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. Following lift-off at 20:37 UTC, February 28, 2022, Electron successfully delivered the StriX-β satellite, growing Synspective’s SAR constellation. The planned constellation of 30 satellites is designed to deliver imagery that can detect millimeter-level changes to the Earth’s surface from space, independent of weather conditions on Earth and at any time of the day or night.

“The Owl’s Night Continues” follows on from Rocket Lab’s first launch for Synspective in December 2020, called “The Owl’s Night Begins.” This mission was the first mission as part of a three-launch contract signed with Synspective in late 2021. Rocket Lab is scheduled to launch another Synspective mission in 2022 and the third in 2023.

The mission was the first to employ the new Pad B launch pad at Launch Complex 1, which is the company’s third pad globally. By operating two pads at Launch Complex 1, Rocket Lab can eliminate pad recycle time between missions to support more frequent and responsive launch capabilities.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck, said “Congratulations to the team at Synspective for the successful deployment of the second satellite in their constellation. We are proud to continue our partnership with Synspective and to have provided flexibility around launch timing. We look forward to our upcoming missions with Synspective as they grow their SAR constellation.”

Synspective founder and CEO, Dr. Motoyuki Arai, said, “We thank both Rocket Lab and Synspective members for their diligence and teamwork to successfully put StriX-β into orbit promptly despite unforeseen circumstances and challenges due to the ongoing pandemic. With the successful insertion of our second SAR satellite, we will be able to improve our technology for operating multiple satellites and strengthen our data services. With this achievement, we will accelerate the expansion of a thirty SAR satellite constellation and enhance our data analysis technology to realize a “learning world” for a sustainable future.”

Details about Rocket Lab’s next planned launch will be announced shortly.

Additionally, Rocket Lab has officially selected Wallops Island, Virginia as the location for their first launch site and manufacturing and operations complex for Neutron, the company’s new 8-ton reusable rocket.

Some key points : The Neutron Production Complex and Neutron’s first launch pad will be located within the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. The complex will be home to a rocket production, assembly, and integration facility, as well as a dedicated launch pad for the Neutron rocket located on the southern end of Wallops Island.

Rocket Lab’s Neutron Production Complex is expected to create as many as 250 jobs in Virginia.

The manufacturing complex will be located within proximity of Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2, the Company’s launch site for the Electron launch vehicle, the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually since 2019.

Rocket Lab selected Virginia as the location of its Neutron expansion on the strength of the proposal from the Commonwealth of Virginia, which includes $30 million set aside for infrastructure and operational systems improvements to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport where the Neutron launch site will be located, along with $15 million from the MEI Project Approval Commission in site improvements and building construction in support of Neutron.

Rocket Lab expects to begin construction on the Neutron Production Complex in Virginia shortly, and further Neutron expansion will continue throughout the United States as the program develops toward first launch.

Commercial and government interest in Neutron is strong and includes a recent $24 million development contract granted by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Commands (SSC) in support of Neutron’s capability to aid national security and defense missions ranging from scientific and experimental satellites to the largest and most critical national security payloads.

Once again, this time on Friday, February 25, at 9:12 a.m. PST, SpaceX launched 50 Starlink satellites to LEO from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

This was the fourth flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission — this booster previously supported Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART and one Starlink mission. SpaceX’s booster successfully landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship.

Belgian satellite manufacturer Aerospacelab has accelerated its next stage of growth with a successful raise of €40 million. The Series B round is co-led by Airbus Ventures and XAnge, a leading European investor in early-stage startups. Additional investors in the round include Octave & Miroslaw Klaba, SRIW, Noshaq, BNP Paribas Private Equity, Sambrinvest, and Belaero. Since its inception in 2018, Aerospacelab has raised a total of €60m. 

“With its clear and significant potential to positively impact both European and global markets, Aerospacelab sparked our immediate interest and attention,” remarks Airbus Ventures Partner Mat Costes. “They won our support by demonstrating how they can substantially improve decision-making processes across a robust sequence of varied sectors and are uniquely positioned to provide geospatial intelligence to private companies and governments alike. To the entire Aerospacelab team we offer a warm welcome as the newest members of our worldwide system of entrepreneurs spearheading the advance of our fund’s portfolio companies across the planetary system.”

Supported by an ambitious, vertically-integrated approach and dedicated to making geospatial intelligence actionable and affordable, Aerospacelab is powered by proprietary satellite data and enabled by its own satellites. Their constellations provide real-time content for a wide range of applications, ranging from defense and security, to civil sector applications including environmental, commercial insurance, and economic intelligence.

“2021 was a fantastic year for Aerospacelab, marking the launch of our first satellite and demonstrating the efficacy of our technology in space,” notes Benoît Deper, Founder and CEO of Aerospacelab, who presented the company’s industrial roadmap during a keynote at the #SpaceSummit, alongside European Space Agency Director General Josef Aschbacher, in Toulouse, with the French Presidency of the European Union and European Commission in attendance.

“Aerospacelab is a prime example of how European talents can realize important space projects in Europe. I am also glad to see that the work of ESA is contributing to this success. I warmly congratulate Aerospacelab on its successful fundraising,” comments ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.

Géraldine Naja, as Director of Commercialisation, Industry and Procurement, adds: “We warmly congratulate Aerospacelab on its latest fundraising and fully expect to seek continued inspiration and advice from Benoît and the team as they scale.”

The company’s latest funding will ramp up satellite production capacity, deploy multiple constellations to establish an intra-daily monitoring of the Earth’s surface, and implement geospatial data fusion analytics capabilities.

“With this round, we are eager to continue to deepen our relationship with one of our earliest investors, XAnge, and thrilled to see Airbus Ventures enter our cap table, collectively confirming our ability to impact the space ecosystem and earn even greater opportunities in the European and global markets,” Deper adds.

Since 2018, Aerospacelab has grown substantially, with two offices and over 110 full-time employees, rapidly positioning itself as a leader in geospatial intelligence and small satellites platforms.

“We have followed Aerospacelab since its very first steps. We’ve confidently believed from the very beginning their serious potential, as we led their first fundraising in 2018,” explains Guilhem de Vregille, Partner at XAnge. “Today, we are especially pleased to be co-leading the second round with Airbus Ventures, and we are happy to continue to support Aerospacelab’s bright future.”

Nicolas Dhaene, Investment Manager at the SRIW (Regional Investment Company of Wallonia in Belgium) concludes: “Aerospacelab is an excellent example of the extent of Wallonia’s potential when its talent is matched by entrepreneurial spirit and ambition. As an early-stage investor, we are proud of the company’s achievements to date and happy to further support its exciting industrial and technological roadmap within this strategic sector.”

Spire Global and Exolaunch have closed a new contract for a multi-launch agreement (MLA). Through this MLA, Spire gains fast and regular access to space for its own satellite constellation as well as for all of its customers to enhance Spire’s “space-as-a-service” offerings.

The first Spire satellites deployed as part of this agreement are already manifested on SpaceX’s Transporter missions this year under Exolaunch’s long-term launch arrangements with SpaceX. Exolaunch will also be providing Spire with deployment and integration services on small launchers.

In addition to Exolaunch’s turnkey launch solutions, the contract also includes the EXOpod Nova, the next generation EXOpod deployer based on Spire specifications for an expanded-envelope 3U cubesat. This deployer will enable Spire to build larger, heavier, and more capable cubesats while keeping their launch costs low. Nova is designed to deploy batches of Spire’s satellites for its constellation.

• 

The EXOpod Nova increases the allowable satellite mass by up to 30 percent and the available side panel volume by a factor of four compared to traditional cubesat deployers. Exolaunch aims to further use the EXOpod Nova on its Reliant orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) next year to provide launch flexibility to cubesat constellations.

Kier Fortier, launch director at Exolaunch USA, said, “Through this agreement and our close and deep-rooted partnership, Spire gains fast, highly reliable and routine access to space. The innovation of Nova and our outstanding partnership guarantees top-notch launch services to fit the launch needs of Spire and all of its customers.

“We expect the EXOpod Nova to become the new standard in the launch services market for small satellites. This novel product in Exolaunch’s line of highly performing deployment systems will enable NewSpace engineering teams to extend their ideas beyond established dimensions and specifications. It ensures an easy inclusion of non-standard cubesat type satellites, avoiding a cumbersome and costly re-adaptation of traditional standard deployers. The deployer uses the best that was implemented in our iconic EXOpods, featuring a unique adaptive tooling system for the dimensions of non-standard smallsats. Nova provides all the freedom the NewSpace geniuses need for out-of-the-box technical creativity.”

Robert Sproles, Ph.D., senior director, constellation planning and operations at Spire, said, “We’ve worked closely with Exolaunch since 2015 and are pleased to continue this long-term partnership in the new MLA format. The custom deployer and flexibility of the MLA exemplify the industry-leading services we expect from our partners. The additional mass and volume availability of the deployer allows us to better serve our internal and space services needs through more efficient use of launch slots. EXOpod Nova allows us to accommodate additional payloads and external deployables for this common form-factor. This novel technical solution significantly optimizes our launch budgets.”

Lynk Global, Inc. (Lynk) has successfully completed their pre-commercial tests for the firm’s fifth satellite. The completion of this technical milestone advances Lynk’s planned deployment of its global ‘cell-towers-in-space’ service later this year.

To date, Lynk’s fifth satellite has connected to thousands of unique devices including, smartphones and tablets, IoT devices, cars, trucks, and even tractors. It has done so across five different countries, (Bahamas, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States), spanning three continents, enabling direct two-way connectivity between devices and Lynk’s satellites. During testing, Lynk’s satellite on-orbit connected to mobile phones from eight of the top ten mobile network operators in the world.

Lynk’s latest technical development builds on the company’s mission to connect everyone, everywhere, and will underpin Lynk’s future commercial service. Indeed, the company has already signed contracts with seven mobile network operators for its commercial service, with more to be announced in the coming year.

Lynk’s CEO and Co-Founder, Charles Miller, who spoke on the ‘The State of Smallsat Constellations: Prospects for Current and Planned Systems” at the SmallSat Symposium (8-10 February) in Silicon Valley, said, “The mobile phone is the most important piece of technology in the lives of billions of people. It has revolutionized the way we communicate and transformed economies and societies around the world. Yet, existing terrestrial-based towers do not, and will never, provide coverage for vast regions of our planet. At Lynk, we believe that every single person should be able to access affordable, reliable mobile connectivity everywhere. We’re excited to see the completion of pre-commercial tests for our fifth satellite as we move one step closer to launching commercial services later this year.”

As part of this announcement, Lynk is releasing a map illustrating some of the “world firsts” accomplished during testing, and an image of its new satellite design, optimized for “satellite direct to phone” capabilities.

In 2022, Lynk will provide the world’s first commercial satellite direct-to-mobile-phone service, enabling affordable, reliable mobile phone connectivity to everyone, everywhere across the globe. Founded in 2017 by veteran space and telecoms leaders, the Lynk team invented, patented and proved that a satellite could serve as a “cell tower in space” and connect directly to a standard mobile phone on Earth – a technological feat verified by independent third parties. Today, Lynk is the only company in the world to have successfully sent text messages to and from space via unmodified mobile devices. By partnering with Lynk via a simple roaming agreement, a mobile network operator opens the door to untapped markets, gives subscribers peace of mind with ubiquitous connectivity and provides a pathway to economic prosperity for billions of the world’s citizens.

Join the live broadcast of Dr. Frank Turner, Technical Director, Space Development Agency as he presents a keynote speech at this year’s SmallSat Symposium.

Keynote will begin at 11:30 AM Pacific Time on February 10th

Dr. Frank Turner is the Technical Director for the Space Development Agency. He has extensive public and private sector experience in the management and direction of advanced technology research, development, test and evaluation of current and emerging military systems.

Dr. Turner began his career as an officer in the United States Air Force, served as a Government Program Manager and certified acquisition professional, a senior leader in industry for both large and small companies, and as a senior analyst for both the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. His expertise spans space systems, directed energy, nuclear weapons effects, systems engineering and architectures, and operational evaluation and employment. Has successfully led some of the nation’s most difficult and challenging RDT&E programs, creating technical advantage for America’s warfighters.

Dr. Turner has academic degrees in physics, biology, business and engineering and has completed military education with the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.

Join the live broadcast of Mark Dankberg, Executive Chairman, Viasat & Jim Bridenstine, Senior Advisor, Acorn Growth Companies as they present a special Fireside Chat at this year’s SmallSat Symposium.

Presentation will begin at 12:00 PM Pacific Time on February 9th

Join the live broadcast of Dr. Chris Boshuizen, Partner, DCVC – Data Collective Venture Capital as he presents a keynote speech at this year’s SmallSat Symposium.

Keynote will begin at 12:00 PM Pacific Time on February 8th

Dr. Chris Boshuizen is an Australian astronaut, scientist, entrepreneur, investor, and musician. Currently a Partner at DCVC, a deep tech investment company in San Francisco where he focuses on funding cutting edge space companies, Boshuizen completed his PhD in physics at The University of Sydney before accepting a position at the NASA Ames Research Center in California. There Dr. Boshuizen established Singularity University and most notably co-created the NASA Phonesat.

After leaving NASA he co-founded Planet Labs, the first company to employ nanosatellites in a commercial capacity, radically reducing the cost of lifting payloads into space and paving the way for today’s large constellations of spacecraft. Today, Planet operates the largest fleet of Earth-observing satellites and maps the entire surface of the Earth daily, enabling key insights into our changing world that were previously unobtainable. Boshuizen was the 2014 Advance Global Australian of the Year award winner, and has subsequently become a member of the Advance Board of Directors where he is an active spokesperson for successful Australians abroad. Boshuizen is also a musician and releases music under the name “Dr. Chrispy”.

Dr. Boshuizen flew to space as a commercial astronaut on Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-18 mission on October 13, 2021.

Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) will develop two small spacecraft for the new NASA Astrophysics Pioneers Program. SFL will provide the spacecraft platforms, perform system integration, and conduct system testing for the StarBurst and Aspera astrophysics missions, led by Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the University of Arizona, respectively.

Initiated in 2020, the NASA Astrophysics Pioneers Program seeks to develop small-scale astrophysics missions using small satellites, balloons, and modest International Space Station payloads to explore cosmic phenomena – each at a maximum mission cost of $20 million. SFL was chosen in 2021 to complete platform concept designs for two of the four first-round Astrophysics Pioneers missions.

“Following the system requirements reviews, NASA has given approval to both MSFC and the University of Arizona to proceed with mission implementation. SFL is proud to contribute to both teams moving forward with development of the ground-breaking StarBurst and Aspera missions,” said SFL Director Dr. Robert E. Zee. “Our microspace approach to building high-performance, affordable smaller satellites aligns perfectly with NASA’s goal of finding cost-effective new ways to conduct astrophysics research.”

SFL will develop the StarBurst platform on an ESPA-Grande variant of its scalable DAUNTLESS bus. Led by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center with Daniel Kocevski serving as principal investigator, the 250-kg StarBurst will detect high-energy gamma ray emissions from events such as the merger of neutron stars. These phenomena are believed to form most of the heavy metals, including gold and platinum, in the universe. StarBurst could observe up to 10 neutron star mergers every year.

For the Aspera mission, SFL will use a larger variant of its scalable DEFIANT microsatellite platform. Under leadership of the University of Arizona with Carlos Vargas as principal investigator, the 60-kg Aspera satellite will study galaxy evolution through observation of ultraviolet light. This data will reveal the inflow and outflow of hot gases in the space between galaxies, known as intergalactic medium, a major component of the universe.

In addition to building, integrating and testing the two small satellite buses, SFL will support the launch, commissioning, and operation of StarBurst and Aspera, which are tentatively scheduled for launch in 2025.

SFL is a microspace provider that offers a complete suite of nano-, micro- and small satellites, including high-performance, low-cost CubeSats, that satisfy the needs of a broad range of mission types from 3 to 500 kilograms. Dating from 1998, SFL’s heritage of on-orbit successes includes 72 satellites and distinct missions related to Earth observation, atmospheric monitoring, ship tracking, communication, radio frequency (RF) geolocation, technology demonstration, space astronomy, solar physics, space plasma, and other scientific research.

In its 24-year history, SFL has developed CubeSats, nanosatellites, and microsatellites that have achieved more than 173 cumulative years of operation in orbit. These microspace missions have included SFL’s attitude control and, in some cases, formation-flying capabilities. Other core SFL-developed components include modular (scalable) power systems, onboard radios, flight computers, and control software.