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Alba Orbital integrated five PocketQube satellites from three different countries for their flight on-board SpaceX’s Transporter-13 Rideshare mission.

The satellites were integrated into Alba Orbital’s PocketQube Deployer, AlbaPod, at their new facilities in Hillington Industrial Estate, Glasgow, the world’s first PocketQube factory. After integration, the cluster of pocket-sized satellites were shipped out to SpaceX and then hitched their ride to LEO.

PocketQubes are highly miniaturized satellites, typically 5 cm cubed per unit (‘P’), that can be launched to orbit for as little as 25K euros via Alba Orbital’s rideshare services. PocketQubes are cost-effective, quicker to build, and provide versatile options for a variety of missions that range from educational projects to advanced technological demonstrations.

Payloads aboard this mission…

HADES-ICM – HYDRA SPACE / IC MERCURY / SMART IR

HYDRA-W – HYDRA SPACE

Returning customer Hydra Space is developing an IoT network using their 1.5p PocketQube platform. Hydra-W will add to this growing constellation. This PocketQube Includes an on-orbit experiment from UC3M – Universidad Carlos III (Spain) implemented by Terahertz Research group and IoT connectivity experiment by Hydra Space

UNICORN-2O, 2P & 2Q – ALBA ORBITAL

Three 3p PocketQubes imaging satellites for Alba night time earth observation constellation to image earth in daytime and night time. These are the 15th, 16th and 17th Unicorn-2 satellites to launch into orbit.

About Alba Orbital
Alba Orbital (UK, USA, Germany) is the world’s leading PocketQube company that has delivered 53 pico-satellites on-orbit to date. Alba is a vertically integrated NewSpace company ‘democratizing access to space’, providing turnkey solutions from advanced pico-satellite platforms, low-cost launch opportunities, and ground station services. Alba has worked with more than er 40 customers across four continents, including clients such as Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University and TU Delft.

“Message in a Booster” mission will launch Lockheed Martin’s technology demonstration spacecraft to low Earth orbit

Following a successful rocket static fire test, Firefly Aerospace, Inc. has announced the company’s Alpha Flight 6 (FLTA006) mission, called Message in a Booster, is scheduled to launch Lockheed Martin’s LM 400 spacecraft no earlier than March 15th—the 52-minute launch window will open at 6:25 am PST.

Alpha FLTA006 is the second mission Firefly is launching for Lockheed Martin and the first of Firefly’s multi-launch agreement with the company that includes up to 25 missions over the next five years. Capable of lifting more than 1,000 kg to low Earth orbit, Firefly’s Alpha rocket will launch Lockheed Martin’s LM 400 spacecraft from Firefly’s Space Launch Complex 2 at the Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Once deployed, Lockheed Martin’s self-funded LM 400 technology demonstration will prove out the company’s risk-reduction and pathfinding efforts. As a platform, LM 400 is Lockheed Martin’s most flexible satellite bus, capable of serving military, commercial, or civil customers. It can be customized to host a variety of missions—including remote sensing, communications, imaging and radar—and operate in LEO, MEO and GEO. 

“The Firefly team is proud to launch another Lockheed Martin mission as we continue to push the limits in achieving a more responsive and resilient future in space,” said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “Our Alpha rocket provides the optimal performance and rapid operations to deliver small and mid-size satellites, like LM 400, when and where our customers need them to immediately begin their on-orbit mission.”

For more details on the Alpha FLTA006 Message in a Booster mission and livestream, visit this direct infolink…

First-ever achievement for Spire enhances data transmission security and efficiency, setting a new standard for global satellite communications. The Company will launch additional satellites with optical inter-satellite link technology on the
SpaceX Transporter-13 Rideshare Mission

Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) has successfully established a two-way optical link between two satellites in orbit. This achievement marks a major step toward enhancing the speed, reliability, and security of data transmissions for future missions.

The satellites, which launched in June of 2023, are equipped with optical inter-satellite link (OISL) payloads. The payloads create lasers that send information back and forth between satellites, securely and almost instantaneously, while up to 5,000 kilometers apart.

This technology has the ability to enhance applications such as weather forecasting, global communications and remote sensing for navigation and environmental monitoring by increasing data speeds, enhancing security and reducing data latency.

The development of the OISL technology was supported by a European Space Agency (ESA) Advanced Research in Telecommunications Services (ARTES) Pioneer Partnership Project, within ESA’s Connectivity and Secure Communications directorate, with funding from the UK Space Agency (UKSA).

Following the successful demonstration, Spire will launch three additional LEMUR satellites with OISL technology in 2025, two of which are set to launch via Exolaunch on the Transporter 13 rideshare mission with SpaceX.

During the mission, Spire will also launch four additional LEMUR satellites to replenish its fully deployed constellation and enable missions for its Space Services customers. The launch is scheduled for no earlier than March of 2025.

About Spire Global, Inc.
Spire (NYSE: SPIR) is a global provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, offering unique datasets and powerful insights about Earth so that organizations can make decisions with confidence in a rapidly changing world. Spire builds, owns, and operates a fully deployed satellite constellation that observes the Earth in real time using radio frequency technology. The data acquired by Spire’s satellites provides global weather intelligence, ship and plane movements, and spoofing and jamming detection to better predict how their patterns impact economies, global security, business operations and the environment. Spire also offers Space as a Service solutions that empower customers to leverage its established infrastructure to put their business in space. Spire has nine offices across the U.S., Canada, UK, Luxembourg, Germany and Singapore.

Marlink will upgrade the hybrid network onboard the fleet of Alpha Adriatic, including cutting edge cyber security tools.

Alpha Adriatic will benefit from Sealink NextGen’s combination of VSAT and LEO internet, together with robust back-up and Marlink’s Advanced Threat Detection, Unified Threat Management and Endpoint Detection cyber tools.

Marlink will once again leverage its experience as a managed services provider to upgrade the hybrid network solution onboard, integrating Starlink to enhance options available for business applications and improving connectivity available to crews.

The solution provides Alpha Adriatic with several benefits, including:

• High bandwidth, low latency communications via Sealink NextGen to support smarter, digitalised fleet operations
• Enhanced cyber security to provide compliance with industry certification standards and reflect tighter regulation for vessel operators
• Hybrid solution offers improved uptime and reliability with secure communications and data transfer

Headquartered in Pula, Croatia, and listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange, Alpha Adriatic operates in the dry bulk and tanker sectors, offering full ship management services to third parties. The Group holds ownership interests in one oil/chemical tanker and three bulk carriers, while also providing third-party ship management services for an additional bulk carrier and three oil/chemical tankers.

Alpha Adriatic is committed to being a modern and innovative company, focused on the high-quality growth of its fleet and the enhancement of services provided to our partners and clients. We rely on the extensive knowledge, experience, and adaptability of our teams both onboard and ashore to ensure safe, efficient, and sustainable operations.Vojko Braut, Technical Director at Alpha Adriatic. 

Marlink added to its cyber capabilities in 2024 with the acquisition of Croatia’s Diverto and then Port-IT, to enhance the breadth of cyber solutions available to remote maritime users. By combining this expertise with a hybrid network solution we can deliver smarter vessel operations to Alpha Adriatic.Tore Morten Olsen, President, Maritime, Marlink.

About Marlink
For companies operating in the world’s most challenging environments – from merchant vessels to offshore and onshore energy operations, from humanitarian organisations to cruise ships and superyachts – Marlink creates and delivers possibilities, anywhere. Marlink is a managed service provider and global leader in remote ICT solutions with annual revenues surpassing $800 million and 1,500 employees operating in more than 30 countries. Wherever our customers are in the world, we deliver them possibilities to work smarter and to operate more effectively, more safely, more sustainably – without the limitations of technology. With our possibility platform, we enable a comprehensive suite of end-to-end managed solutions (Connectivity, Network, Cyber Security, Cloud & IT, IoT & Apps), supported by professional services, unmatched global operations and delivery capabilities and local support teams.

NanoAvionics will also supply an additional two MP42 microsatellite platforms for Satlantis’s new generation
sub-meter resolution Earth Observation satellites.

SuperSharp, part of the Satlantis group, has selected Kongsberg NanoAvionics’s (NanoAvionics) MP42 microsatellite platform for a first-of-its-kind, Thermal InfraRed (TIR) mission called Blue Moon.

The mission will embark SuperSharp’s flagship instrument HIBISCUS, an 80 kg payload, onboard NanoAvionics’ flight-proven MP42 satellite bus. The launch is scheduled for the second half of 2026 onboard a SpaceX’s Transporter rideshare service.

The capabilities of Blue Moon will extend beyond that of conventional EO satellites as the instrument is designed to acquire images day and night.

The disruption of SuperSharps‘ innovation, however, lies in its proprietary unfolding payload technology, capable of delivering 4x higher resolution per unit cost. 

HIBISCUS can capture Long-Wave InfraRed (LWIR) imagery at a spatial resolution of three meters. The data generated by this category-defining satellite will support applications in the field of climate resilience, such as urban heat monitoring, as well as those in the domain of national security. It aims also to enable new applications in these fields. 

In parallel to this agreement, NanoAvionics will also supply an additional two MP42 microsatellite platforms to Satlantis for its new generation of sub-meter resolution Earth Observation satellites.

Powered by a team of more than 30 engineers SuperSharp is a University of Cambridge spin-out founded in 2017 and part of the Satlantis group since 2023. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of very high-resolution Thermal InfraRed (TIR) imaging satellites. 

The company’s first satellite mission will be carried out in partnership with small satellite manufacturer NanoAvionics, subsidiary of the Kongsberg group.

Marco Gomez-Jenkins, co-founder and CEO of SuperSharp, said, “We are delighted to partner with NanoAvionics on this mission to unlock the value of ultra-high resolution thermal imaging from space. The combination of our HIBISCUS telescope and their MP42 satellite platform will enable new applications in this domain, from climate change mitigation to security and defence. This mission would not be possible without the ongoing support of institutional actors, in particular the UK Space Agency.”

Atle Wøllo, CEO of Kongsberg NanoAvionics, said, “Satlantis has been one of our earliest commercial Earth observation customers, and we’re excited to build on the legacy of the first three nanosatellites we launched with them. These three new missions highlight how NanoAvionics evolves alongside our customers and their growing needs. By helping SuperSharp and Satlantis deliver industry-leading 3-meter thermal imaging and submeter visible to near-infrared capabilities, we’re setting a new benchmark for our standard MP42 microsatellite platform, supporting larger, more advanced payloads than ever before.” 

Juan Tomas Hernani, co-founder and CEO of Satlantis, said, “The race to space is more and more about partnerships. The breakthrough offered by SuperSharp with its 3 m resolution in TIR in a joint mission with NanoAvionics makes us very proud to lead the global strategy for this. It also gives us an opportunity to fuse TIR as an extended channel into our next missions.”

Firefly Aerospace is now four weeks into their first mission to the Moon—Blue Ghost recently completed its Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) to escape Earth’s orbit and is now in transit to the Moon.

Shortly after TLI, Blue Ghost captured two new incredible shots—one of Earth with the Moon in the distance and one of Earth reflecting off the Blue Ghost’s solar panel with the Moon on the horizon. These images can be found on Firefly’s Live Blog and follow along for regular mission updates.   

Next Steps…

• Transit: Within the next two days, Blue Ghost will perform a Lunar Orbit Insertion, a 4-minute burn to enter the Moon’s orbit and will then spend 16 days in lunar orbit before descent. This gives us plenty of time to calibrate our navigation system and continue payload science operations for NASA.
• Descent: Blue Ghost’s final autonomous descent will take approximately an hour, starting with a Descent Orbit Insertion burn that will place Blue Ghost on its descent trajectory on March 2. 
• Surface Operations: Upon touchdown, Blue Ghost will operate 10 NASA instruments for a complete lunar day (about 14 Earth days).
• Total Eclipse: On March 14, Blue Ghost will capture HD imagery of a total eclipse from the Moon where the Earth blocks the sun.
• Lunar Night: Blue Ghost will then capture the lunar sunset on March 16 before operating several hours into the lunar night.

NASA has selected SpaceX of Starbase, Texas, to provide the launch service for the agency’s Pandora mission, which will study at least 20 known exoplanets and their host stars to find out how changes in stars affect our observations of exoplanet atmospheres.

The selection is part of NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. This contract allows the agency to make fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity awards during VADR’s five-year ordering period, with a maximum total value of $300 million across all contracts.

During its one-year primary mission, Pandora will observe each exoplanet 10 times, observing for 24 hours each visit. It will capture critical data about the planet and its host star during transits, an event where a planet crosses in front of the star it orbits.

The satellite will use an innovative 17-inch (45-centimeter)-wide all-aluminum telescope to simultaneously measure the visible and near-infrared brightness of the host star and obtain near-infrared spectra of the transiting planet. This will allow scientists to cleanly separate star and planetary signals, knowledge that will enhance observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and future missions searching for habitable worlds, like the agency’s Habitable Worlds Observatory.

Pandora is a joint effort between NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The Astrophysics Pioneers program, from the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, funds Pandora and other astrophysics science missions using smaller, lower cost hardware and payloads. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the VADR contract.

By Chris Forrester

The 2025 SmallSat Symposium opened on February 4 with a session which looked at the Risks, Realities and Regulations which shape the SmallSat market. Moderated by Janna Lewis (SVP/Policy & General Counsel, Astroscale US) the panel of acknowledged experts examined the challenges and agreed that a core truth was that the industry had to constantly navigate the challenges which inevitably could directly affect a business. She explained that it was generally accepted that the sector was enjoying a 30% CAGR. 

Dr. Abhishek Tripathi, Director of Mission Operations, UC Berkeley, Space Sciences Lab., agreed that growth would continue and that the new Trump administration would be favourable although the risks were that the product market fit – and their product fit – was key. “Are there cheaper large sats coming onto the market, and this is a risk”. 

Robert Cleave, COO, Neo Space Group, agreed with the sector’s prospects. But he cautioned that almost every proposal once suggested ended up by changing the parameters of their intentions.  He said he believed that space was a unifier, and keen to share risk. He said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where he was based, was very much looking at the sharing of risk to ensure a success to its investment plans. 

Drew Svor, partner with Sheppard Mullin, suggested that the risks, whether commercial or technical, or regulatory and geo-political meant that players had to be very flexible, and be aware of those risks and challenges. He said that the new Trump administration would need some time to make their demands known. He warned that SmallSat manufacturers needed to be aware of Cyber security demands. He also hoped that some of the current congestion in some of the frequency bands needed to be addressed although was hopeful that regulators were aware of this congestion and the need to solve the problems. He also forecast the new administration would be open to foreign cash coming in. 

Stewart Marsh, Head of Aerospace, Cambridge Consultants, explained that risks came down to choices and trade-offs. There are manufacturers out there who know their business very well, but SmallSat operators had to be aware that changing the model, for any reason, meant risk and knowing how to mitigate those risks was crucial. Mr Marsh also said that standards-based developments, such as Direct-To-Device services, were extremely important and frequently a partner would be needed to help with the adjacent opportunities. This included AI in networks, and the AI problems were a greater magnitude of challenge in space but AI could definitely help in spectrum, for example. 

Sita Sonty, Partner & MD, Alix Partners, and very interested in the investment opportunities. She argued that the cynic in her saw technical mitigation being less important. “I am not at all sure that the SmallSat market must look closely at commercial conversion. They must sell better – and sell the right thing, and listen more to what the market wants. People also need to talk to the government more, and in particular what it wants in space.”  She also stressed that AI had to be recognised as likely to have a growing importance. 

Dr. Tripathi said he felt that government, based on previous experience, was often fragmented in its procurement. The military and NASA wanted dedicated bespoke satellites, “but in our sector our SmallSat developers cannot put all their efforts into one satellite version. There are solutions, and a commercial company can then supply a more flexible architecture and make some money.”

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has signed a contract for a responsive launch on Electron with Orora Technologies (OroraTech), a German company developing a satellite constellation to monitor wildfires and alert first responders to danger. 

Launching from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, the dedicated mission on Electron will deploy eight satellites to a 550 km orbit within just four months from launch contract signing, enabling OroraTech to meet the season-sensitive requirements of its wildfire detection mission. The rapid turnaround is just the latest demonstration of Rocket Lab’s responsive launch capabilities for satellite operators needing urgent access to space.

OroraTech is developing a constellation of satellites with thermal infrared cameras that can provide 24/7 monitoring of wildfires globally, supporting better and faster wildfire response to protect forests, people, and infrastructure worldwide. The mission will deploy its latest plane of satellites called OTC-P1 to their current constellation, further expanding OroraTech’s capabilities to first responders, governments, and industry partners. The company will expand their constellation with up to 100 satellites in total by 2028. 

Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, said: “This launch is a showcase of all the benefits of flying dedicated on Electron: control over schedule, agility and ability to meet tight deadlines and mission requirements, and the reliability of launching on the world’s most frequently launched small orbital rocket. Knowing that time is of the essence to get these satellites in space, we’re proud to be rising to the challenge and supporting the OroraTech mission to better monitor for and protect against these devastating natural disasters globally.” 

The mission is the latest launch to be announced in a packed 2025 launch manifest for Rocket Lab that includes the continuation of multi-launch contracts with constellation operators Synspective, Kineis, and BlackSky; a responsive space mission for the U.S. Space Force that will see Rocket Lab build a spacecraft, then launch it on Electron with 24-hours’ notice; and the debut launch of Rocket Lab’s new medium-lift reusable rocket, Neutron.