On Thursday, January 6, at 4:49 p.m., EST, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This was the fourth launch and landing of this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched GPS III-4, GPS III-5 and Inspiration4.

The SmallSat Symposium Silicon Valley 2022 will be in session from February 8 through 10, with the event workshops occurring on February 7.

The SmallSat Symposium will, once again, be conducted at Silicon Valley’s Computer History Museum.

Realize — 97 percent of all launched satellites are smallsats — that is a massive and profound shift in the satellite market. Smallsats are poised to massively accelerate their on-orbit presence as their reliability, functionality and effectiveness are realized more and more by industry actors.

The 2022 Symposium brings together leaders who will identify the critical trends occurring within the smallsat environs. The companies leading new technologies will also present their perspectives to attendees.

The SmallSat Symposium is an absolutely ideal environment for open communication between attendees and presenters and exhibitors as well as an important business networking event. The critical insights offered into the smallsat industry are the hallmarks of this must-attend satellite industry event.

The SmallSat Symposium Exhibitors and Sponsors include…

On December 18 at 4:41 a.m., PST, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 52 Starlink satellites to LEO from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This competed the first eleventh launch and landing of an orbital class rocket booster.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster had previously launched Dragon’s first crew demonstration mission, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, SXM-7 and now eight Starlink missions.

Less than 16 hours later, on Saturday, December 18, the Turksat 5B mission to geostationary transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida was also successfully accomplished by SpaceX.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission previously supported the launch of CRS-22 and Crew-3. Following stage separation, the first stage landed on A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which was in the Atlantic Ocean. The fairing halves supporting this mission had previously supported the GPS III Space Vehicle 05 mission.

Built by Airbus, Turksat 4B was transferred from France to the U.S. and this new satellite, operated by Turkiye will be the most powerful satellite the nation owns and operates. Broadband data capacity will be increased with areas served include Africa, Asia and Europe.

The satellite that was produced with contributions from Turkey’s domestic industry, will be on=-orbit within 164 days — the Turkish government is scheduled to launch an upgraded and domestically produced satellite — Turksat 6A — in 2023.

All screenshots are courtesy of SpaceX and their video launch simulcasts.

Airbus and OneWeb have signed a distribution partner agreement to provide LEO satellite communication services for military and governmental use. Airbus will offer new communication services using the OneWeb constellation to select European and UK armed forces, and civil protection and security forces, from the end of 2021.

Airbus and OneWeb plan to develop a complete range of secure services dedicated to the specific needs of armed forces for all their operations on land, at sea, and in the air. LEO constellations enable the development of a new generation of terminals and antennas of reduced size, weight and power. These constellations will also make it possible to offer real-time space communications, very useful for transmitting live video streams from sensors such as those embarked on UAVs.

These new satellite communication services will provide armed forces with high-speed, all-IP (Internet Protocol) communications, making it possible to prioritize communication flows and ensure a very high level of availability. Users can complement existing services and networks with the ability to switch between LEO and GEO (Geostationary orbit) satellite communications throughout operations to derive the benefits of a flexible and interoperable network.

The partnership will offer services to connect vehicles on the ground, battleship at sea and aircrafts in flight. Thanks to these features, this connectivity service is fully designed to support future multi-domain cloud applications and enable information superiority.

“As Europe’s leading government and defence secure communication provider, we continually look to extend and augment the services we offer. With the OneWeb LEO constellation we can offer military customers real flexibility as we look to deliver the future integrated mesh networks, combat cloud and information superiority that demand these new and innovative approaches. With this new offering based on the OneWeb constellation and Airbus technology, we will be the very first provider to offer this type of service to European forces,” said Evert Dudok, Executive Vice President of Connected Intelligence at Airbus Defence and Space.

Neil Masterson, OneWeb CEO added: "We are thrilled to expand our work with Airbus to meet the connectivity needs of European defence and security agencies on land, at sea and in the air. Our network will enable secure, resilient, real-time communications for military and civilian government organisations, starting in the Arctic and expanding to global mobility use cases.”

The Airbus designed OneWeb satellites are currently being produced at the Airbus OneWeb Satellites facility in Florida, USA. After an initial start of service over the Arctic area from North Pole to the 50th parallel OneWeb expects its services to be available with global coverage of the Earth by the end of 2022 with a constellation of 648 satellites in LEO.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SolAero Holdings, Inc. (SolAero), a supplier of space solar power products and precision aerospace structures for the global aerospace market, for $80 million in cash — the acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.

The acquisition aligns with Rocket Lab’s growth strategy of vertical integration to deliver a comprehensive space solution that spans spacecraft manufacture, satellite subsystems, flight software, ground operations, and launch. As one of only two companies producing high-efficiency, space-grade solar cells in the United States, SolAero’s space solar cells are among the highest performing in the world and support civil space exploration, science, defense and intelligence, and commercial markets. In combining with Rocket Lab, SolAero will tap into the Company’s resources and manufacturing capability to boost high-volume production, making high-performing space power technologies available at scale.

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, SolAero’s solar cells, solar panels, and composite structural products have supported more than 1,000 successful space missions with 100% reliability and mission success to date. Over the past two decades, SolAero’s products have played key roles in some of the industry’s most ambitious space missions, including supplying power to NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and Mars Insight Lander, the largest solar array ever deployed on the surface of Mars, and several Cygnus Cargo Resupply Missions to the International Space Station.

SolAero also led the development and manufacturing of the solar panel on Ingenuity, the helicopter that successfully flew on Mars in April this year, marking the first ever powered, controlled flight on a planet other than Earth. SolAero technology has also made commercial constellations possible, providing power to OneWeb’s broadband constellation. Most recently, SolAero has been selected to supply Solar Power Modules for the Power and Propulsion Element of NASA’s Gateway as part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans, which will enable future missions to Mars.

The addition of SolAero’s 425-strong team brings Rocket Lab’s total headcount to more than 1,100 employees across its space manufacturing complexes, test facilities, and launch sites in California, Virginia, Colorado, Maryland, Toronto, New Zealand and now Albuquerque, New Mexico. The SolAero team will continue to be led by President and CEO Brad Clevenger at SolAero’s 154,696 ft² (14,372 m²) production facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The SolAero merger is Rocket Lab’s third proposed acquisition announced this year, following the acquisition of space software company ASI Aerospace LLC in October 2021, and spacecraft separation systems company Planetary Systems Corporation, which was completed in December 2021. Rocket Lab will host a conference call for investors at 2:00 p.m. PST (5:00 p.m. EST) today to discuss the agreement.

“SolAero is a highly complementary addition to Rocket Lab’s vertically integrated business model and strengthens our ability to streamline space for our customers by delivering complete space mission solutions,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck. “SolAero has established itself as a premier provider of solar technologies, enabling trailblazing missions that have expanded scientific horizons and advanced commercial space. By combining our innovative teams, industry-leading technologies, and strong resources, we can advance space exploration and enable our customers to push the boundaries of what’s possible in orbit. We are absolutely thrilled to welcome the SolAero team to the Rocket Lab family.”

“We are very excited to join the outstanding team at Rocket Lab and contribute to their track record of innovation and on-orbit success,” said SolAero President and CEO, Brad Clevenger. “As Rocket Lab builds on its capability to provide complete mission solutions, SolAero is a natural fit for Rocket Lab. We look forward to becoming an integral part of Rocket Lab’s Space Systems business while continuing to offer all of our customers premier capability and value.”

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.

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