Ovzon, through its partner Intelsat General Communications (IGC), has received a new SATCOM-as-a-Service order from the U.S. Department of Defense (U.S. DoD) for expanded access to the Ovzon global satellite network.

This one-year order represents the second major expansion of the U.S. DoD’s use of Ovzon’s high-performance solution in the last 60 days.

This order further expands the U.S. DoD’s ability to service and support critical operations around the world with the industry’s highest satellite throughput service to the smallest terminals. Ovzon’s complete, fully managed end-to-end SATCOM-as-a-Service provides government and commercial users with unmatched performance in terms of data throughput, mobility, security and resiliency.

As with Ovzon’s recent order from the U.S. DoD in June of this year, this new order will allow users to deploy their existing inventory of Ovzon’s advanced terminals in even more locations around the world. Ovzon terminals include both “On the Move” and “On the Pause” solutions, with the Ovzon T6 terminal being the latest addition to our advanced mobility product offerings: an ultra-small, simple-to-use, lightweight and rugged satellite terminal.

“This order solidifies the U.S. DoD’s continued confidence in Ovzon by a customer with very demanding requirements, and we remain 100% focused on meeting their expectations for performance, delivery and innovation. We are grateful and honored for the trust placed in us by the U.S. DoD and will continue to make every effort to deepen that trust,” said Per Norén, CEO of Ovzon.

Mynaric and SpaceLink have signed a definitive agreement on the sale of optical inter-satellite link (OISL) terminals for satellites in MEO with a total order volume of up to $28 million, depending on exercised options and SpaceLink’s satellite prime selection.

Mynaric expects to ship SpaceLink’s first units during the first quarter of 2023. The deal includes mutually agreed upon milestone payments leading up to initial delivery.

The agreement follows the framework previously announced that also includes potential follow-up orders and further collaboration between the two companies. In addition to this announcement, Mynaric is expected to provide SpaceLink LEO optical communication terminals (OCT) for SpaceLink customers. These terminals would interface with the SpaceLink MEO data relay service. Both agreements significantly strengthen the relationship between the two aerospace organizations to mutual benefit.

“The final details of this agreement are just the beginning of a strategic partnership designed to bring fast, highly secure and continuous communications between spacecraft and the ground. Our industrialized approach to production will allow us to meet the expanded needs as SpaceLink’s constellation grows,” said Tina Ghataore, president, Mynaric USA and Chief Commercial Officer, Mynaric.

SpaceLink is building an information superhighway for the space economy that will help advance humanity to a new age of space commerce, exploration, environmental awareness, and security. The Always in Sight data relay system provides global coverage to empower space system operators to maximize use of their assets. SpaceLink Corporation is headquartered in the Washington DC area and has offices in Silicon Valley, California and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Electro Optic Systems Holdings Limited, a public company traded on the Australian stock exchange.

Mynaric (M0Y, ISIN: DE000A0JCY11) produces the optical fiber for the skies and, as a pioneer of laser communication, enables extremely fast and secure wireless data transmission between aircraft, drones and satellites. Globally, the need for fast and ubiquitous network connectivity is advancing inexorably. Data networks such as the internet are now largely based on infrastructure on the ground which cannot be expanded arbitrarily for legal, economic or logistical reasons. The future, therefore, calls for an expansion of the existing network infrastructure into air and space. Mynaric provides laser communication products to establish the necessary data highways for telecommunication constellations in air and space.

Slingshot Aerospace, Inc. has launched Slingshot Beacon which, according to the company, is the industry’s first collision avoidance collaboration and communications platform for space — Slingshot Beacon will be piloted by OneWeb, Spire Global Inc., Orbit Fab and others. 

The players participating in this pilot program account for 53% of satellite constellations in LEO. Slingshot Beacon will be used as a centralized communication and coordination platform to resolve on-orbit conjunctions, notify others about planned maneuvers, and more.

Slingshot Beacon connects operators across different organizations on a single platform, which has never been done before now. It provides customers with existing positional data and packages it in a digestible way with all the necessary information to resolve a conjunction. The tool will improve transparency, safety, and sustainability in space for all owner-operators, helping to ensure high risk conjunctions are appropriately mitigated.

As an industry, there are 115,000 satellites planned to enter space by 2030, which means more potential collision avoidance decisions will need to be made. Slingshot Beacon is designed to be an end-to-end communications and collaboration platform to help mitigate those potential risks, and facilitate safer satellite operations as the domain becomes more congested.

Presenting critical data in a more digestible way will enable owner-operators to make better decisions faster, giving governments and the public more confidence in safe space operations as the number of objects in space grows.

Slingshot Beacon was inspired by the guard channel, a special radio frequency that is monitored 24/7 for mayday alerts or other calls for help. The technology is orbit agnostic, and can help organizations monitor their assets, like space vehicles and satellites, in and through all orbits, LEO to the moon.

Slingshot Beacon is a modern, interactive web portal and mobile application that will allow commercial agencies to interact, company to company.

Slingshot Aerospace has already started beta testing Slingshot Beacon’s communication functionalities with the named users. The plan is to introduce a robust set of features on a rolling basis starting
in Q3 2021.

In addition, Slingshot Beacon enables users to protect their assets in space by providing an actively curated directory of operator contact information; reports on environmental anomalies; community alerts for planned maneuvers; and conjunction data messages (CDMs) and ephemeris sharing (or, accurate object position sharing).

The tool pulls in public data as well as customer’s private data, providing users with a secure and robust plug-and-play catalog of validated data. It will bring in automated risk monitoring and an objective, unbiased, curated ensemble of space data and robust analytics, providing unmatched space domain awareness.

To deliver data and relevant analytics on customer demand, Slingshot Aerospace has partnered with Numerica Corporation whose is able  to deliver precision tracking data and analytics, based on the company’s state-of-the-art, global telescope network and data processing suite, relied upon for LEO-to-GEO daytime and nighttime space surveillance operations.

Slingshot Aerospace acquired Stellatus Solutions LLC, a company that was building a platform that would help operators manage and protect their satellites by streamlining communication and traffic coordination between operators. Through the transaction, Slingshot Aerospace acquired research and intellectual property, which accelerated the launch of Slingshot Beacon. The company also hired Stellatus Solutions LLC co-founders Holly Highfill and Kishen Raghunath, who will serve as Slingshot Aerospace’s Director, Customer Engagement and Strategy, and Director, Finance and Strategy, respectively.

Stellatus was born out of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Hacking for Defense Program, where Audrey Schaffer, Former Director, Space Strategy and Plans, Office of the Secretary of Defense, challenged a team to figure out how to create a communications channel for operators to increase space situational awareness with a specific emphasis on alerting the community of security concerns in space. After the program ended, the team continued the project and formed Stellatus, which was then acquired by Slingshot Aerospace.

“OneWeb is committed to responsible operational practices and new tools like Slingshot Beacon can help enhance space safety by creating additional avenues for communication,” said John Guiney, Vice President, Fleet Management Systems, OneWeb. “We look forward to working together to continue advancing ways we can all collaborate and work together to keep space safe.”

“Slingshot Beacon enables collaboration among all space operations stakeholders providing even more information to users, when and how they want it, powering everything from near real-time situational awareness to on-demand cross-company secure communication and file sharing,” said Melanie Stricklan, Co-founder and CEO, Slingshot Aerospace. “Slingshot Aerospace is re-imagining the future of space safety and sustainability with high-value, global collaboration. We’re extremely grateful to our customers and the space community for their continued belief in our team and products.”

“As a member of the space community, Spire recognizes the role we have in contributing to a safe space environment while protecting our assets and ensuring mission success for our customers and partners,” said Keith Johnson, VP & GM for Government Solutions, Spire Global Inc.. “By providing space data to and participating in Slingshot Beacon, we will continue our commitment to a safe space environment and be part of an innovative technology – the first of its kind – that will allow us to communicate with other companies and agencies to increase collaboration and global space awareness.”

Orbit Fab, the Gas Stations in Space company, is creating a bustling, in-space economy through on-orbit refueling. “We are designing the future of sustainability and mission flexibility for spacecraft, making docking and transferring fuel so reliable it gets boring,” said James Bultitude, Chief Engineer, Orbit Fab. “Public awareness is vital to ensuring that the difference between a safe, consensual rendezvous and a collision event is known and understood. Slingshot Beacon will streamline this communication, essential for successful maneuvers in the growing satellite servicing segment.”

• Internal and external collaboration
• File sharing, voice conference bridge
• Live and historic data processing
• Powerful workflows with automation tools for risk screening
• Notifications and alerts (maneuvers, conjunctions and other alerts)
• Third party plugin/ integration marketplace support for operations management tools
• Upload/download customer ephemeris/telemetry data capture
• Easy onboarding
• End-to-end security
• Built-in compliance
• Leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services

In less than 4 years, Slingshot Aerospace has already seen rapid growth by earning millions of dollars in revenue from early customer contracts, and the firm is leveraging government dollars to build its IP. 

Exo-Space has announced an agreement with Orbital Transports to demonstrate their Vision-1 image analysis data processing unit on a Get Spaceborne rideshare mission in LEO. 

The Vision-1 image processor executes novel, machine vision algorithms to detect and classify objects and structures within the field of view of on-board imaging systems.

Rather than sending large sets of raw data down to ground stations, the Vision-1 processes images directly from an onboard camera and sends down only the relevant information, reducing downlink costs and improving response times to observable events. 

The Vision-1 is a compact Data Processing Unit for artificial intelligence applications on-orbit. Its small size (0.5U) makes it compatible with most cubesat platforms.

Orbital Transports conducts the mission planning and systems engineering, handles legal and regulatory compliances, performs payload testing and integration, provides launch vehicle integration, and supervises mission operations so customers can focus on their primary mission objectives and results.

“By flying with Orbital Transports, Exo-Space will obtain valuable flight experience and accelerate the development of our products,” said Jeremy Allam, CEO of Exo-Space. “It’s a great opportunity to demonstrate our machine vision hardware in LEO and acquire flight heritage in the space environment.” 

 “We’re excited to be flying the Vision-1 image processor for Exo-Space,” stated David Hurst, CEO of Orbital Transports. “Our Get Spaceborne rideshare missions offer an easy on-ramp to space for payloads ranging from technology demonstration and qualification to full constellation-scale deployments. If you want to put a payload in space or even deploy sensors or instruments in a constellation, there is no longer any reason to build your own satellites. You save money, time, and resources with our turn-key hosted payload services.” 

Planet has announced a multi-year, multi-launch agreement solidifying SpaceX as the firm’s go-to-launch provider through the end of 2025. The first planned launch under this agreement is Flock 4x, 44 SuperDoves on the Falcon 9 Transporter-3 SSO rideshare mission scheduled for launch December 2021.

The demand for flexible, high-resolution imagery of the Earth has skyrocketed in recent years as companies across the world seek daily global insights for their industries. While Planet already operates the world’s largest constellation of Earth Observation (EO) satellites, with 200 currently in orbit, the company is continuing to innovate by rapidly building satellites with the newest advances in imagery technology. Planet’s accessible data has transformed the industry by pushing the satellite imagery market past only serving the traditional satellite imagery consumer, multi-billion dollar governments, to also serving a new future of global companies and non-traditional users.

SpaceX’s rideshare program has allowed companies such as Planet to meet their ambitious targets for product launch. This multi-year launch agreement enables Planet to efficiently launch much of the firm’s emerging satellite projects including future SuperDoves and Carbon Mapper. The company is accelerating its work to deliver insights in EO in high resolution and with hyperspectral imaging. Building this collaborative agreement with SpaceX marks an important step for agile aerospace in the New Space industry.

To date, Planet has launched 83 satellites with SpaceX over the course of seven launches, the most recent of which included the launches of SkySats 16-18 and 19-21 aboard Starlink missions, and the launch of Flock 4s, 48 SuperDoves, on the record-breaking Transporter-1 SSO rideshare launch.

Beyond SpaceX, Planet maintains a diversified launch manifest to mitigate risks inherent to the launch industry. Moving forward, Planet will continue to operate with a variety of launch providers to ensure that launch needs can still be met in the event of the unavailbility of specific providers. By engaging with a diversified manifest, Planet can find launches to the right orbit in the right time frame for each evolving satellite project.

Last month, Planet entered into a definitive merger agreement with dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV (NYSE:DMYQ), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to become a publicly-traded company.

“I‘m excited to continue our partnership with SpaceX. We’ve had seven launches to date. But more than that, we’ve pioneered together rapid planning, manufacturing, and launch of satellites that only Planet and SpaceX could together have achieved,” said Planet CEO Will Marshall.

“We’re honored that Planet has chosen SpaceX as its go-to launch provider,” said SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales, Tom Ochinero. “As the demand for Planet’s services continues to soar, SpaceX’s regular launch cadence will allow Planet’s customers to use its services with as little downtime after manufacturing as possible.”

Rocket Lab will launch the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand from Q4 2021 — this will be Rocket Lab’s first launch to the Moon.

CAPSTONE (the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) aids NASA’s Artemis program, which includes landing the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and establishing a long-term presence there.

Launching on an Electron launch vehicle and deploying from Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft platform, CAPSTONE is a 55-pound satellite created by Advanced Space that will serve as the first spacecraft to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit. As a precursor for Gateway and other Artemis elements, an international and commercial Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis program, CAPSTONE will help reduce risk for future spacecraft by validating innovative navigation technologies and verifying the dynamics of this halo-shaped orbit.

The mission is the first time Rocket Lab will use its Photon spacecraft platform as a trans-lunar injection stage to place a satellite on a trajectory that will take it beyond Earth orbit to the Moon. After lifting off on Electron to an initial elliptical LEO, Photon will separate and use its 3D printed HyperCurie engine to provide in-space propulsion to allow CAPSTONE to break free of Earth’s gravity and set a course for the Moon. After deploying the CAPSTONE satellite, Photon will continue on its own trajectory to conduct a lunar fly-by, while CAPSTONE will use its own propulsion system to enter a cislunar orbit.

Following a three-to-four-month trip to the Moon, the CAPSTONE cubesat will enter a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), which is a highly elliptical orbit over the Moon’s poles. During its six-month primary mission in orbit around the Moon, CAPSTONE will validate the propulsion requirements for maintaining this type of orbit as predicted by models, reducing logistical uncertainties for future missions. It will also test the accuracy of innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation solutions as well as demonstrate capabilities for commercial support of future lunar missions. The NRHO provides the advantage of an unobstructed view of Earth in addition to coverage of the lunar South Pole.

Originally slated for lift-off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, the CAPSTONE mission will now take place from Launch Complex 1 to support a Q4 launch window.

“Flexible isn’t a word usually used to describe lunar missions but operating two launch complexes gives us the freedom to select a site that best meets mission requirements and schedule,” said Rocket Lab Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Peter Beck. “Our team is immensely proud to be launching one of the first pathfinding missions to support NASA’s goal of delivering a sustainable and robust presence on the Moon. We’ve teamed up with the NASA Launch Services Program on previous Electron missions to low Earth orbit, so it’s exciting to be working with them again to go just a bit further than usual…some 380,000 km further.”

Advanced Space of Colorado owns the satellite and operates the mission. CAPSTONE development is supported by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate via the Small Spacecraft Technology Program at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. Advanced Exploration Systems within NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate supports the launch and mission operations. NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for launch management.

Momentus Inc. (“Momentus” or the “Company”) has announced a launch services agreement with the Danish Students CubeSat Program (DISCO).

The launch services agreement was formally signed earlier this year and is focused on a mid- 2022 launch and delivery of a 1U cubesat to its LEO destination aboard a Momentus Vigoride service vehicle.

The DISCO satellite will host a series of student experiments from across a consortium of four Danish universities and serve as a communication station for radio amateurs around the world. One of the DISCO team’s goals is to learn to use S-band frequencies for communications with the 1U satellite. This could allow subsequent DISCO satellites to send much more significant amounts of data to Earth.

“Allowing students to conduct science in orbit challenges, energizes and encourages a new generation of STEM advocates,” said Momentus Chief Revenue Officer, Dawn Harms. “We’re looking forward to helping the DISCO team achieve its mission objectives.”

“DISCO-1 will be the first in a series of hopefully many CubeSats that we will launch in the DISCO program,” said Associate Professor at Aarhus University and leader of the DISCO project, Christoffer Karoff. “We are extremely happy for the collaboration with Momentus. They have been very helpful in guiding us through the complicated process of launching a satellite.“

Leaf Space is progressing with the launch phase of a new, innovative use of telemedicine via satellite for home monitoring of patients with COVID-19 as part of the CARES project led by the company and co-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA).

CARES is a set of medical devices connected to a smartphone, which collects patient vitals using medical software and adds that information to a database, remotely. This database is accessible by a doctor directly from a web browser and is designed by project partner H&S to provide comprehensive, almost real-time data with ease.

H&S’s Health Platform is also enabled to trigger an alert system if the monitored patient’s vitals are recorded outside of the safe range and provides options for management including contacting the patient or even sending an ambulance.

The pilot trial of the CARES project is currently ongoing in collaboration with Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Erba, Molinette in Torino and Villa Gioia in Sora, where discharged and recovering COVID-19 patients can recover from the comfort of their homes while having the confidence that their progress and vitals are being consistently and reliably monitored by medical professionals.

By integrating the remote monitoring health platform with satellite telecommunication infrastructure to guarantee the service everywhere, Leaf Space’s support of the CARES system allows patients without reliable internet based on ground-based infrastructure to receive the remote monitoring and care that is incredibly important, especially for those patients recovering from COVID-19.

This same model can be applied to patients with chronic diseases, rehab processes and any type of condition that require strict monitoring and multiple medical examinations anywhere in the world. Leaf Space’s satellite backed telecommunication structure ensures capturing and distributing the signals transmitted by the telemedicine systems to the satellite and back to Earth at the hospital are reliable, fast and compliant with current GDPR and patient privacy laws.

“The unprecedented situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has saturated the emergency departments of European hospitals and is creating a huge stress on the screening processes,” said Arnaud Runge, medical engineer at ESA. “To respond to this unprecedented effort to contain and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have offered to support European companies in developing their best ideas and proposing effective solutions to respond to this crisis, evidencing the contribution that space can bring in these circumstances. A fast-track approach has been put in place to respond as quickly as possible to the impellent needs of citizens and institutions.”

“We are so grateful to have the opportunity to work with ESA on this incredible project, and we hope that this technology can bring much needed support and peace of mind to people who have suffered so much,” said Jonata Puglia, co-founder and CEO of Leaf Space. “We see a massive opportunity to connect satellite communications with telemedicine technology and hope that our continued work with the CARES project can serve as an example of what can be achieved and applied to so many patients and healthcare systems around the world. We are eager to continue to explore the possibilities of what this technology can do to increase access to healthcare worldwide.”

D-Orbit has successfully completed the deployment phase of their WILD RIDE mission. As part of this phase, D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier (ION), the company’s proprietary space transportation vehicle, successfully deployed all six satellites hosted onboard and will now proceed with the on-orbit demonstration of 12 hosted payloads.

The WILD RIDE mission began on June 30, with the launch of ION SCV 003 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. During the deployment phase, which was completed on July 24, ION Satellite Carrier released smallsats from the Spanish Elecnor Deimos, the Bulgarian EnduroSat, and the Kuwaiti Orbital Space.

Also on board, under contract with ISILAUNCH and integrated into a QuadPack from Dutch satellite manufacturer ISISPACE, were Finnish Reaktor Space Lab, Marshall Intech Technology from UAE, and the Royal Thai Airforce. Each satellite was deployed into a custom orbital slot.

“It’s always exciting to complete the deployment phase,” said Renato Panesi, CCO of D-Orbit. “This is our third mission in nine months, and each of these missions has been characterized by a growing level of complexity which, I’m very proud to say, the team has handled flawlessly. Less than a year ago we proved the concept of precision deployment in space and now this extremely complex operation has almost become routine for us.”

WILD RIDE is the third flight of ION Satellite Carrier, the orbital transportation vehicle designed, manufactured, and operated by D-Orbit to ferry satellites into space and deploy each one individually into its own customized orbit and carry out operations on third-party payloads.

“This is another great achievement, another step towards our vision for a space logistic infrastructure enabling the full potential of the space economy. Imagine how many new space businesses could take shape if there were no boundaries, no fixed locations in space, or time constraints. Imagine how the entire space ecosystem could grow faster if innovative and disruptive technology could be tested in space in a fraction of the time,” said Luca Rossettini, CEO of D-Orbit. “Well, now stop imagining – this is already a reality. Our orbital infrastructure is at the service of both the space-to-Earth and space-to-space visionary companies to build, together, the largest market ever.”

The vehicle used in this mission features an innovative plug-and-play system for hosted payloads already tested in the previous mission. D-Orbit is now preparing for the in-orbit demonstration phase of the mission, which will feature the testing of LaserCube, an optical communication device from the Italian-based company Stellar Project, and of Nebula, an on-demand, on-orbit cloud computing and data storage service that is at the core of D-Orbit’s upcoming advanced services. During this phase, a range of innovative applications will be demonstrated using sophisticated, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) techniques.

D-Orbit’s next orbital transportation mission with ION, the fourth in 15 months, is scheduled for December 2021.

Mynaric has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with JR Aerospace to accelerate the firm’s entry into the Indian aerospace market.

JR Aerospace is a newly established Indian investment and technology company with an existing network in the Indian aerospace sector and with relevant organizations. The MoU sets out the principal terms and conditions upon which Mynaric and JR Aerospace will enter into detailed, legally binding agreements intended to be signed subsequent to the MoU.

At the core of the MoU is a contemplated distribution partnership between the companies. The partnership will see Mynaric acting as the exclusive laser communication vendor for JR Aerospace that, in turn, will explore business opportunities with commercial buyers with links to India as well as with various organizations of the Indian government, and beyond.

The partnership will also shine light on the technological, programmatic and regulatory requirements for the sale of laser communication products in the Indian aerospace market. It will further explore possibilities to optimize Mynaric’s international supply chain; both to support its increasing serial-production of laser communication products and to also serve the domestic Indian market more efficiently.

This announcement comes shortly after India’s Department of Telecommunications secretary, Anshu Prakash, held discussions with a range of international satellite operators on a holistic roadmap to establish local manufacturing capabilities and an enabling regulatory environment for LEO satellite constellations.

“India has a huge domestic need for consumer grade broadband provided from satellite constellations and an uprising aerospace sector to provide technological capabilities for commercial and governmental actors. That combined with excellent foreign relations enable Indian corporations to not only provide services for domestic users but also serve other markets in the wider region. We are pleased to be making a step closer to the economic powerhouse that is India and look forward to the business that will result from this partnership,” said Bulent Altan, Chief Executive Officer, Mynaric.