Gilmour Space Technologies and Exolaunch now have a series of agreements for smallsat launch, deployment and in-space transportation services.

Under the agreements, the companies will join forces to provide tailored launch, precise deployment and in-space transportation services to the smallsat operators using Eris, a hybrid launch vehicle, developed by Gilmour. Gilmour partners with Exolaunch, a trusted and experienced rideshare specialist with a solid flight heritage, and gains access to Exolaunch’s flight-proven cutting-edge smallsat deployment technologies and in-space transportation services via Exolaunch’s Reliant orbital transfer vehicle to expand the capabilities of Eris in LEO and beyond.

Exolaunch gains access to low-inclination missions and unique orbits via Gilmour’s innovative Eris launch vehicles lifting-off from Australian soil and will start manifesting customers’ satellites on the upcoming launches of Eris. Gilmour Space has secured a total of $64 million from global investors to date, the largest private equity investment raised by a space company in Australia. The Eris launch vehicle is scheduled for a debut commercial launch in 2022. The family of Eris launch vehicles will offer launch capacity within the range of 300-4000 kg to LEO from Australian and international launch sites.

This capability is in line with Australian Space Agency’s national civil priority areas, which include Access to Space; Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT); Earth Observation (EO); Communications Technologies; Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Debris Management; Leapfrog R&D; and Robotics and Automation.

Exolaunch provides rideshare launch, deployment, integration and in-space transportation services for New Space companies, space agencies and scientific institutions. Its flight heritage counts 13 successfully accomplished launches totaling 170 deployed smallsats with a similar number of contracted satellites to be launched in the near future.

The company is known for its ecosystem of flight-proven proprietary small satellite deployment technologies, including CarboNIX, a lightweight, scalable and shock-free smallsat separation system, and EXOpod, a cutting-edge cubesat deployer. Exolaunch is also developing a line of environmentally friendly orbital transfer vehicles named Reliant for the satellite last-mile delivery and space debris removal. Reliant will become available for commercial use starting in 2023.

“The need for sovereign launch capability is coming into focus for Australia. However, space is a global industry and we’re proud to be working with leading companies like Exolaunch to expand our launch services to global customers,” said Adam Gilmour, CEO and Co-founder of Gilmour Space.

“Partnering with Gilmour is a worthy example of bridging progressive innovation with heritage,” said Jeanne Medvedeva, VP of Launch Services, Exolaunch. “Reinforcing novel launch architecture with state-of-the-art deployment and in-space logistics services will pave the way for reliable launch solutions. We look forward to launching customers’ satellites from Australia on the Eris rockets making space more accessible for the New Space industry.”

This report from Trends Market Research provides detailed historical analysis of global market for Nanosatellite and Microsatellite (smallsats) from 2015-2020 and provides extensive market forecasts from 2021-2027 by region/country and subsectors.

The report covers the sales/revenue/value, gross margin, historical growth and future perspectives in the smallsat market. The nanosatellite and microsatellite market was valued at $1.55 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach 3.83 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 12% from 2020 to 2027.

Moreover, the impact of COVID-19 is also addressed. Since the outbreak in Decemberof 2019, the COVID-19 virus has spread all around the world and has caused huge losses of lives and economy and the global manufacturing, tourism and financial markets have been hard hit, while the online market/industry increase. Fortunately, with the development of vaccine and other efforts by global governments and organizations, the negative impact of COVID-19 is expected to subside and the global economy is expected to recover.

This research covers COVID-19 impacts on the upstream, midstream and downstream industries. Moreover, this research provides an in-depth market evaluation by highlighting information on various aspects covering market dynamics like drivers, barriers, opportunities, threats, and industry news and trends. In the end, this report also provides in-depth analysis and professional advices on how to face the post COIVD-19 period.

The research methodology used to estimate and forecast this market begins by capturing the revenues of the key players and their shares in the market. Various secondary sources, such as press releases, annual reports, non-profit organizations, industry associations, governmental agencies and customs data, have been used to identify and collect information useful for this extensive commercial study of the market. Calculations based on this led to the overall market size.

After arriving at the overall market size, the total market has been split into several segments and subsegments, which have then been verified through primary research by conducting extensive interviews with industry experts such as CEOs, VPs, directors, and executives. The data triangulation and market breakdown procedures have been employed to complete the overall market engineering process and arrive at the exact statistics for all segments and subsegments.

A report sample is available — access the direct infolink for further details…

2021 Keynotes and Headliners

Fresh and creative business insights for the satellite industry is invaluable. However, in order to take advantage of these innovative ideas to form your strategic business plans, a rapid response to significant and germane ideas is required.

A critical factor in navigating these tricky waters is the art of listening to clients, colleagues and thought leaders who have already introduced successful and novel technologies to the industry and to adroitly absorb the presented, applicable knowledge.

Selected from organizations that are apt at building innovative satellite solutions, more than 100 speakers at Satellite Innovation 2021 are able to provide unique insight as well as pragmatic strategies.

Register day to join industry leaders that are focused on next-generation satellite technology and business.

Note: In-person and virtual attendance options are readily available.

Additional, Original Perspectives

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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.“