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CAES has partnered with Raytheon Intelligence & Space to develop and provide RF signal conversion technology for use in a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) program.

The Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) or Global Lightning program seeks to connect military aircraft to emerging commercial satellite internet constellations in LEO. CAES will provide multi-band block frequency converters for design into a new Raytheon phased array antenna and will allow communications with satellite internet constellations and aircraft to seamlessly jump between different satellites. The program culminates with a flight demonstration in 2022.

Commercial LEO satellites have the potential to allow communications at significantly faster speeds than is currently available on today’s military aircraft. As a result, the DEUCSI program seeks to leverage evolving space internet networks for USAF communications and data sharing capabilities.

CAES offers a full range of high performance RF modules and integrated microwave assemblies, featuring low phase noise, high spurious suppression and excellent gain flatness which enable superior signal integrity. CAES’ trusted frequency converters support uplink and downlink functionality that enable an efficient link of new space data services and a complete airborne, multi-band satellite terminal system.

In addition, CAES frequency converters feature unique packaging techniques allowing for very high density circuit integration, high channel-to-channel isolation, excellent thermal management and small form-factor solutions.

“CAES is excited to be chosen as a key partner for Raytheon’s DEUCSI solution, in what could become a widely used, high capacity data communications capability for the United States military,” said Mike Kahn, President and CEO, CAES. “CAES has a long history of pioneering high performance, narrowband and wideband millimeter wave solutions for military and space applications. In addition, our longstanding design-for-manufacturing expertise allows CAES to automate certain assembly and test functions to meet the most challenging customer design requirements.”

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Performed on Monday, April 26, at precisely 07:14 a.m. local time at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome (22:14 a.m. on April 25, UTC), Soyuz Flight ST31 orbited 36 new OneWeb satellites. That brings the size of the OneWeb fleet on-orbit to 182 in number.

Flight ST31 was the 56th Soyuz mission carried out by Arianespace and its Starsem affiliate.

Arianespace has launched 182 OneWeb satellites through six Soyuz launches to date. Pursuant to an amended launch contract with OneWeb, Arianespace will perform 13 more Soyuz launches through 2021 and 2022.

These launches will enable OneWeb to complete the deployment of its full global constellation of low Earth orbit satellites by the end of 2022. OneWeb’s mission is to bring internet everywhere to everyone, by creating a global connectivity platform through a next-generation satellite constellation in LEO.

The OneWeb constellation will deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity to a wide range of customer sectors, including aviation, maritime, backhaul services, and for governments, emergency response services and more. Central to its purpose, OneWeb seeks to bring connectivity to every place where fiber cannot reach, and thereby bridge the digital divide.

The satellite prime contractor is OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture of OneWeb and Airbus Defence and Space. The satellites were produced in Florida, USA, in the company’s leading-edge satellite manufacturing facilities that can build up to two satellites per day on a series production line dedicated to spacecraft assembly, integration, and testing.

“Congratulations to all the teams who made this latest mission from the Vostochny Cosmodrome a success. This launch again confirms Arianespace’s ability to deploy the OneWeb constellation through the use of three different Soyuz launch sites – in French Guiana, Kazakhstan and Russia,” said Stéphane Israël, Chief Executive Officer of Arianespace. “I want to sincerely thank OneWeb for its trust. I am delighted that our company has contributed – for the sixth time – to this client’s ultimate ambition of providing Internet access to everyone, anywhere, at any time.”

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT, TASE: GILT has received orders of more than $20 million for support of gateways of LEO constellations.

Gilat’s subsidiary, Wavestream, was selected as the vendor of choice to supply Gateway Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPAs) to a leading satellite operator to support LEO constellation gateways. The orders were received as part of the previously announced contract.

Wavestream’s Gateway-Class PowerStream 160Ka SSPAs, designed specifically for networks using wide bandwidth uplinks and high order modulation schemes, were selected due to their best-in-class technical performance and their unmatched reliability in harsh environments, best addressing the stringent requirements of Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit (NGSO) constellations.

“We are fully engaged and committed to deliver the essential SSPAs for the LEO constellation Gateways,” said Bob Huffman, Wavestream’s General Manager. “Wavestream’s proven technological advantage, as well as our unmatched production capacity, make us a perfect supplier for the high volume of Ka-band Gateway-class SSPAs required for this constellation.”

HawkEye 360 has developed new maritime security and vessel monitoring capabilities that combine HawkEye 360’s RF geolocation services with a customized machine learning model developed through Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Machine Learning (ML) Solutions Lab.

The capabilities, which will be integrated into the HawkEye 360 portfolio of products, leverage underlying vessel characteristics and behavior to predict whether a given vessel is likely to engage in similar activity as sanctioned vessels.

HawkEye 360 used Amazon SageMaker Autopilot — a fully managed service that helps make it easy to build, train and deploy ML models quickly — to develop the purpose-built, proprietary algorithms undergirding the new capabilities. These algorithms can help generate deeper insights into RF data in half the time than was previously possible.

The new algorithms evaluate vessels’ historical data and known interactions, along with contextual vessel characteristics to generate insights into the complex connections involved in illicit maritime vessel activity, such as illegal fishing, human trafficking, ship-to-ship transfer of illegal goods, smuggling and more. This provides analysts with a holistic view of maritime activity and the ability to detect, predict and zoom in on high-risk activity.

This RF signals analysis and machine learning ability can help make the oceans a safe place by supporting a variety of applications, including commercial maritime activity, national security operations, maritime domain awareness, environmental protection and more.

“RF signals can provide valuable insight into commercial vessel activity across the globe, even when bad actors seek to hide their location,” said Tim Pavlick, Vice President of Product at HawkEye 360. “With these machine learning-backed capabilities, we will empower customers to cut through an ocean full of noise to obtain more timely and critical insights from maritime RF data to improve mission outcomes and prevent illegal and illicit activities.”

Sri Elaprolu, Senior Manager of Amazon Machine Learning Solutions Lab, said, “By combining HawkEye’s data and deep domain expertise with Amazon SageMaker Autopilot, HawkEye 360 is able to cut in half the time for machine learning model development and deployment. That frees up time for their data scientists to focus on creating new and innovative solutions to the world’s problems.”

The avalanche of legal filings and motions in the increasingly bitter dispute between SES and Intelsat over the division of C-band ‘incentives’ from the FCC is simply immense.

April 14th saw another flood of documents, but one stood out, which contained Intelsat’s strong rebuttal of some of SES arguments. The opening paragraph says it all — “SES’s Motion is mostly a continuation of its smear campaign against [Intelsat], SES’s largest competitor. SES first seeks to intervene in a lawsuit that does not exist.”

The filing to Intelsat’s bankruptcy court then takes 17 pages of legalese to expand on its rebuttal of SES’s arguments, and states, “SES has pursued its claim through bombastic character assassination, in an effort to advance SES’s competitive efforts against the Debtors, while ignoring the text of the contract it signed and the FCC Order that the Debtors are working to implement…. SES’s approach is simply not how bankruptcy works. SES (and all other creditors) will have every opportunity to advance its opposing assertions about payments flowing from the FCC Order during [Intelsat’s exit from bankruptcy plan] confirmation proceedings.”

The invective from Intelsat certainly manages to match that already filed by SES. Intelsat claims that the C-Band Alliance – the initial entity which negotiated with the FCC over the allocation of C-band frequencies over the US – had no role once the FCC had determined its auction process.

Intelsat argues that “none of the proceeds from the FCC-run auction will flow to the CBA or any of the satellite operators; instead, those proceeds will all go to the U.S. Treasury. The payments allocated to each separate satellite operator under the FCC regime are for their actions separately—and they are not related to the auction proceeds. As such, the acceleration payments were not a part of the Market Approach nor even contemplated by the Agreement.

“SES is trying to pocket for itself money that Intelsat is eligible for on account of Intelsat’s rights in the C-Band—and that value belongs to Intelsat’s real creditors (not its chief competitor),” stated the Intelsat filing, adding ”The reality is clear: SES, the Debtors’ fiercest competitor, seeks a windfall for doing nothing while the Debtors earn incentive payments, described in the FCC Order, for the benefit of the Debtors’ stakeholders.”

The judge in this case needs – and probably has – the wisdom of Solomon!

Millions For Musk

Elon Musk might well mount an IPO for his SpaceX business somewhere down the line, but for the moment, he seems happy to raise cash by issuing new equity. In a regulatory filing, SpaceX says it has raised a total of $1.164 billion over the past few weeks.

The company had already reported raising some $850 million back in February, which gave the rocket and broadband-by-satellite company a valuation of about $74 billion. Last August, SpaceX raised $1.9 billion according to Reuters.

The net total of this latest funding round places another $314 million or so into SpaceX’s coffers.

Somewhat coincidentally, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, on April 15th, said that her company will be providing a consistent global connectivity business by late this year and within 5 years will be using its larger Starship rocket to be carrying people within 5 years. Starship would be flying inter-continentally as well as – eventually – to Mars “before 2030”.

Shotwell said that SpaceX was targeting its broadband service to be global shortly after its scheduled 28th launch. Earlier in April it made its 23rd Starlink launch, so simple math suggests another 300 satellites need to be placed into orbit.

Shotwell also talked about its development of inter-satellite laser links, saying that Version 3 (SpaceX had already tested two iterations) of its laser-linked craft would be orbited in the next few months.

The demand for broadband connectivity over both fixed and mobile broadband networks is increasing dramatically. However, despite network expansions and upgrades, only half of households worldwide currently have access to fixed broadband services.

With the rollout of LEO constellations, satellite broadband services will improve broadband penetration significantly. Global tech market advisory firm ABI Research forecasts that the satellite broadband market will reach 3.5 million subscribers in 2021, grow at a CAGR 8 per cent to reach 5.2 million users in 2026, and generate $4.1 billion service revenue.

“LEO satellites will play an important role in satellite broadband services in the years to come,” says Khin Sandi Lynn, Industry Analyst at ABI Research. “High Throughput Satellite (HTS) LEO systems can support multi-Gbps speed per satellite. Orbiting around 800-1600 km from the Earth’s surface, LEO systems offer a major advantage of low latency between 30-50 milliseconds, enabling LEO broadband services to support low latency services such as online gaming and live video streaming.”

ABI Research notes that, traditionally, GEO satellites are mainly used to provide broadband services to homes and businesses in remote or rural areas where the deployment of mobile or fixed broadband connectivity is challenging. Although GEO satellites support viable speed over 100 Mbps speed broadband access, their distance from the Earth surface, about 36,000 km, creates a drawback of longer latency as high as 600ms, limiting the use of low latency applications.

LEO satellite operator SpaceX first launched its Starlink broadband services to residential users in 2020, supporting 100 Mbps broadband speed with unlimited data caps per month. SpaceX has launched more than 1,000 LEO satellites and aims to serve more than 600,000 homes and businesses in the United States. The company is now working toward the expansion of its broadband service to some markets in Latin America.

Other companies, such as OneWeb and Telesat, have launched LEO satellites providing connectivity to the business segment. Amazon, which plans to launch LEO constellations named project Kuiper, received FCC approval for its project in mid-2020, although the first satellite launch date is yet to be confirmed.

As broadband connectivity is becoming an essential service in today’s homes, satellite broadband services will remain an important part of the broadband market. There is inevitable competition from terrestrial broadband networks due to the expansion of fixed broadband networks and mobile networks.

The expansion of LTE and 5G networks will challenge the satellite broadband industry by supplying fixed wireless access (FWA) services to residential users. However, the cost and time associated with terrestrial network deployments can limit distribution in remote areas. “Satellite systems will continue to provide broadband services to underserved and unserved areas,” Lynn says.

LEO systems’ arrival will benefit users in remote areas by supporting high-speed, low latency broadband service. “The challenge of LEO-based broadband service currently is the cost of terminals, which are relatively high compared to existing satellite or terrestrial platforms. LEO satellite operators need to find ways to lower the terminal cost. Flexible packages and pricing could make the services affordable for users in both developed and emerging markets. Even though heavy subsidising of hardware costs may be required initially, the ability to boost adoption rates will help ecosystem development and eventually lower the hardware cost,” concludes Lynn.

Exolaunch is discussing their new line of orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) that will launch satellites to custom orbits in an environmentally responsible way which, according the firm, are the first of their kind in the OTV industry. The company’s space tug testing and flight qualification will start in 2022 on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rideshare missions.

With more than 140 satellites deployed to date across different launch vehicles, Exolaunch has an industry insight it can leverage to develop solutions tailored towards meeting customer needs and addressing market trends. Named Reliant, Exolaunch claims this will be the most robust OTV platform on the market for performance, payload, capacity, and flexibility in executing orbital maneuvers.

Exolaunch’s tug is powered by a company-described, innovative, green propulsion system, which also provides a high thrust-to-weight ratio and meets the highest standards for environmental safety. Its design also leverages additive technologies using lightweight carbon fiber composites and 3D printing, resulting in low mass and high cost-efficiency. The Reliant currently comes in two configurations, Standard and Pro.

The Standard configuration is optimal for moving satellites to a custom orbit altitude after they’ve been deployed from a launch vehicle on a set rideshare orbit. For example, the propulsion system lifts the orbit from 250-300 km to 550 km in one hour, expanding the reach of existing missions to the small satellite community.

The Pro configuration is equipped with a hybrid propulsion system, which combines the advantages of green propulsion and the capabilities of an electric propulsion system. The Reliant Pro enables customers to change the orbit altitude as well as adjust the inclination, LTAN/LTDN and perform orbital phasing for satellite constellations. Additionally, it is designed to deorbit in less than two hours after deployment completion, minimizing the risks of space collisions and reducing orbital debris.

Reliant will also set the standard for environmentally conscious OTVs, featuring the ability to install modular payloads with the purpose of tackling the growing issue of space debris. After safely deploying satellites into their target orbits, an essential task of the Reliant Pro would be to collect authorized space debris prior to deorbiting, thereby fostering the sustainable use of space.

Exolaunch’s space tugs are compatible with any launch vehicle, with the primary target use on Falcon 9 under SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare Program. This allows Exolaunch customers to benefit from best-in-class tailored launch services, launch cost optimization, and flexible mission management while also offering access to custom orbits within the reach of a general rideshare program in an environmentally responsible way.

Exolaunch’s OTVs are fully compatible with its proprietary flight-proven deployment technologies, including CarboNIX, a next-gen scalable and shock-free microsatellite separation system; EXOpod, a cutting-edge cubesat deployer; EXOport, a flexible multi-satellite adapter, and an EXObox sequencer.

Reliant is one aspect of Exolaunch’s Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability impact initiative. As a responsible business, Exolaunch prioritizes environmental performance of its products and is committed to guaranteeing the conduct of its activities in a safe and ethical manner.

“There is an increased demand from our customers and the NewSpace industry for dedicated injection and custom orbit in their constellation deployment programs, but until now they’ve been limited to one orbit per launch,” said Jeanne Medvedeva, Vice President of Launch Services at Exolaunch. “Our space tug program will now offer customers multiple orbit options for smallsat deployments on any given mission, enabling wider access to space and diverse constellation launch strategies. It is also our contribution to the capacity-building of in-space logistics, a new emerging niche that is gaining value in the Exolaunch portfolio.”

“In designing our OTV, we paid due regard to the space sustainability and space debris mitigation guidelines with constant thought as to how we could make a positive change and go beyond what has been done to set a new benchmark,” said Dr. Olga Stelmakh-Drescher, Exolaunch Chief Policy and Government Relations Officer. “With that in mind, we developed a feature that would allow Exolaunch to not only mitigate the risk of space debris generation, but also to reduce the amount of debris in orbit every time Reliant is launched. We believe this dedicated OTV service will be in high demand by space governmental and intergovernmental organizations, and later on by private actors once the practice is established.”

Exolaunch provides launch, in-space logistics and deployment services for NewSpace. Its flight heritage includes the successful deployment of 140 small satellites into orbit (with 60+ satellites scheduled for flight in 2021) through its global network of launch vehicle providers. Exolaunch executes launch contracts for NewSpace leaders, the world’s most innovative startups, research institutions, government organizations, and space agencies. The company manufactures flight-proven separation systems to deliver the best-in-class integration and deployment services for small satellites, and develops a line of space tugs to provide last-mile delivery services and combat space debris.

Another group of SpaceX Starlinks were sent skyward…

On Wednesday, April 7 at 12:34 p.m. EDT, SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

About eight minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 booster came back down landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. The first-stage booster has launched six other times, including on the first SpaceX launch sending astronauts to the International Space Station.

This was the seventh launch and landing of this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and two Starlink missions. One half of Falcon 9’s fairing previously supported the AMOS-17 and two Starlink missions, and the other supported one Starlink mission.

“Our drone trips are equivalent in size to a football field, and the landing area that you see right there is approximately 200 feet by 150 feet, that’s big enough that a hockey rink would fit inside that landing area,” SpaceX Dragon engineer Youmei Zhou said during the livestream.

OFFICINA STELLARE SpA has been awarded the contract for the supply of a set of medium and long-range telescopes to be installed in a test facility located in the southern hemisphere — this contract has a total value of approximately $1.5 million.

Gino Bucciol, Head of OS’ Business Development, said, “[..] this contract positions us, internationally, among the most important players in the defense sector, a strategic area that we have been overseeing for some years, in which we aim to grow thanks to the consolidated technical-engineering skills and the level of absolute excellence achieved by our opto-mechanical instrumentation. This result is a further confirmation of the defense industry’s confidence in our industrial model characterized by an almost completely internal value chain that guarantees efficiency, versatility and the ability to optimize production processes.”

Additionally, last month, the company was awarded the contract for the supply of the ground Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) station that is to complete the already existing geodetic infrastructure at the Yebes Observatory in Spain.

This ground station was designed for extremely versatile use and is also different from those that are specifically related to laser measurements, such as laser communications.

This contract is part of the important scientific project YDALGO, promoted by the National Center of Geographic Information, and led by the Spanish company TTI and further supported by the German DiGOS that specializes in the development of turnkey SLR stations.

HawkEye 360 Inc. has announced that the company’s recently-launched “Cluster 2” satellites have achieved initial operating capability — the trio of satellites, which entered orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in January, have completed functional testing, moved into proper formation, and begun to geolocate RF signals and they are currently supplying RF data to customers and will soon ramp up output to reach full operating capability.

The Cluster 2 satellites greatly improve upon the capabilities of HawkEye 360’s first “Pathfinder” (Cluster 1) satellites. The new satellites have redundant systems for longevity, increased computing for on-board data processing, a dedicated GNSS antenna to monitor GPS interference, enhancements to HawkEye 360’s industry-leading geolocation accuracy, wider range of RF frequency coverage, and up to 10 times more collection capacity.

HawkEye 360 is launching five additional clusters (15 total satellites) to establish its baseline constellation. Cluster 3 is on track to launch June 2021, Cluster 4 for October 2021, and further launches planned every quarter thereafter through 2023. Once the baseline constellation is on-orbit, the company will be able to maintain revisit rates of considerably less than an hour to support time-sensitive monitoring of developing defense, security, and environmental situations.

“The commissioning of these satellites is a major breakthrough for commercial geospatial intelligence,” said CEO John Serafini. “As the leading global provider of space-based RF insights, HawkEye 360 is pleased that our newest satellites are performing exceptionally well and delivering high-quality RF data to our U.S. government, international government, commercial and humanitarian customers.”

“Cluster 2 and its associated ground systems symbolize our ability to rapidly deliver new impactful capability — capability essential for supporting our clients’ evolving requirements for global commercial RF data and analytics,” said Executive Vice President Alex Fox. “We have a robust roadmap for deploying the most advanced commercial RF solution required to support this high growth industry. In conjunction with Mission Space — our RF analytics platform — we are opening the door for customers across a wide array of industries to seamlessly harness valuable RF insights to further their operational objectives.”

Dragonfly Aerospace has delivered a customized Gecko electro-optical imager to Loft Orbital to fly on that firm’s YAM-3 satellite that is due to launch in 2021.

The Gecko camera is an easy-to-integrate imaging solution with a compact design and includes large built-in mass storage. Its reliable performance comes from its mature flight-proven electronics and ruggedized optics.

This imager will be mounted to the exterior of the satellite and will be used to support tip-and-cue missions and demonstrations for customers.

Loft Orbital has two missions planned for 2021 and quarterly missions planned to start in 2022. The Gecko imager will be launched along with several customer payloads, including DARPA’s Sagittarius A*, a demonstration of the Blackjack Pit Boss mission system and a Eutelsat Internet of Things demonstration mission.

“Dragonfly Aerospace is proud to be able to deliver one of our most popular products to Loft Orbital for their unique YAM program. Our strategy is to partner with great companies from around the world to bring our vision of persistent high-quality imaging of the Earth to fruition. This mission with Loft Orbital is another step in the right direction.” Dragonfly Aerospace CEO Bryan Dean stated.

We are very excited to include the Gecko imager on our spacecraft,” said Loft Orbital CEO Pierre-Damien Vaujour. “It will provide innovative additional capabilities to support customers’ missions by enabling them to operate in ways that would not be possible without it.”

Loft Orbital deploys and operates space infrastructure as a service, providing rapid, reliable, and simplified access to orbit for customer payloads. The company has developed the Payload Hub, a hardware and software interface which enables Loft Orbital to fly dedicated missions or multiple customer payloads simultaneously on a standard satellite bus design. The Payload Hub is a modular, bus agnostic and payload agnostic interface adapter that allows a plug-and-play approach to satellite missions. Together with Loft Orbital’s Cockpit Mission Control System, it is able to deliver unprecedented speed-to-orbit without compromising reliability or schedule for even the most demanding customer payloads.