NSR’s latest report, Global Satellite Manufacturing and Launch Markets, 11th Edition, sees post-pandemic rebound driven by constellations, innovative technologies and new services offerings.

During the next 10 years, satellite manufacturing and launch order volumes reach nearly 24,700. Upcoming deadlines for international regulatory filings, strong investments from public and private investors, and the associated capacity influx by Non-GEO HTS will drive significant orders and launches through 2030.

“With several ambitious and well-funded programs aiming to meet international deadlines under immense financial pressures, constellations will drive satellite manufacturing and launch volumes,” states NSR Principal Analyst and report lead author, Dallas Kasaboski. “While larger GEO satellites take on more complexity via software-defined and multi-mission payloads, other applications, such as In-Orbit Servicing (IoS), Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and IoT drive additional market growth.”

“The demand for new types of spacecraft and services in-orbit is increasing,” adds NSR Analyst and co-author Hussain Bokhari. “The drive for SSA continues, focusing on protection of assets via more satellites for Gov/Mil customers. Meanwhile, research and development satellites will help smaller players enter the market.”

Commercialization of crew and cargo flights also see a positive market outlook. Regardless of the forthcoming ISS decommissioning, Crew and Cargo missions dominate the Launch Market, generating the most revenue over the next decade, with private operators increasingly in the foreground.

As governments and private companies pick up pace, the Beyond Earth and Deep Space Exploration markets will be greenfield opportunities. Upcoming deadlines for international regulatory filings, strong investments from private investors, and the associated capacity influx by Non-GEO HTS will drive significant levels of orders and launches through 2030.

AAC Clyde Space has received a 135 kUSD order to continue operating the SeaHawk-1 satellite from the company’s Operations Center in Glasgow, Scotland, for a further 12 months.

The satellite, launched in 2018 is part of a partnership between the University of North Carolina Wilmington and NASA, observes the changing biology of the ocean surface and features a compact, multi-spectral camera (HawkEye) developed by Cloudland Instruments. The images captured by the camera are used to analyze the color of the ocean and thus determine the quality of the water.

The satellite is operated from AAC Clyde Space’s Glasgow Operations Center, with instrument data downloaded to NASA Wallops facility, through the satellite’s X-band downlink. The data is integrated into NASA’s SeaWiFS Data Analysis System (SeaDAS) and is distributed worldwide. Initially, Operations will focus on providing free access to all data that has been collected and processed from mid-April 2021 to the International Ocean Color Community. The satellite is expected to produce around 100 images per week. Data generated enables a greater understanding of the marine food chain, oceanic climate, fisheries and pollution phenomena, enabling to support the health and sustainability of our oceans.

SeaHawk-1, a 3U cubesat, is a follow-on mission from the highly successful SeaWiFS (Sea-Viewing Wide field-of-View Sensor) mission, launched in 1997. For more than 20 years, SeaHawk-1 has been able to replicate the performance of the SeaWiFS mission except it is approximately 100 times smaller and lighter and, therefore, more economical, ensuring long term viability of high-quality science missions.

Under agreement with the Moore Foundation, all Hawkeye imagery will be made available free of charge via the NASA Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center (OB.DAAC) on NASA’s Ocean Color Web at https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov which has been extended to handle HawkEye data. In addition, NASA’s free, comprehensive, software package for the processing, display and analysis of ocean color data known as SeaDAS (https://seadas.gsfc.nasa.gov/) has been updated to include the support for HawkEye.

“It has been quite an experience working with Clyde Space on the design, construction, launch, commissioning, and now operations of SeaHawk-1. As our partners at Clyde Space said when we started on this venture, this satellite is arguably one of the most sophisticated 3U Cubesats ever conceived. We have just commissioned a satellite the size of a shoebox that’s travelling at 7.5 km/s, at an altitude of about 600km with a better downlink rate than the broadband into my house providing scientific quality data on ocean ecology,” said John M. Morrison, UNCW Principal Investigator.

“AAC Clyde Space are delighted to continue to support the SeaHawk-1 mission. Academia, government agencies and industry are joining forces like never before to improve environmental surveillance and generate reliable data, filling in the gaps of our understanding for informed decision making. SeaHawk-1 is a prime example of this, Sustained Ocean Color Monitoring is vital to understanding the marine ecosystem and in turn climate change,” said AAC Clyde Space CEO, Luis Gomes.

The next Arianespace mission is planned from Vostochny Cosmodrome with Soyuz on July 1 to deliver 36 OneWeb satellites into orbit, bringing that company’s total fleet to 254 satellites in LEO.

This 58th Soyuz mission conducted by Arianespace and their Starsem affiliate will be the fifth launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome and represents OneWeb’s eighth launch overall. By operating ST33 flight, Arianespace will have placed into orbit to allow OneWeb to deliver connectivity services in Canada, U.K., Northern Europe, Alaska and the Arctic regions by the year’s end.

The mission will have a total duration of three hours and 51 minutes and will include nine separations of four satellites, which will raise themselves to their operational orbit.

This launch will mark the completion of OneWeb’s ‘Five to 50’ ambition to bring into orbit the satellites required to enable connectivity services to the 50th parallel. OneWeb’s launch campaign will continue thereafter as the firm works toward delivering global service next year.

OneWeb’s constellation will deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity services to a wide range of customer sectors that include aviation, maritime, backhaul services, as well as governments, emergency response services and more. Central to its purpose, OneWeb seeks to bring connectivity to every location where fiber cannot reach, and in doing so, bridge the digital divide.

Once deployed, the OneWeb constellation will enable user terminals that are capable of offering 3G, LTE, 5G and Wi-Fi coverage, providing high-speed access globally – by air, sea and land.

OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus Defence and Space, is the constellation’s prime contractor. The satellites were built thanks to a satellite manufacturing process that can build as many as two satellites a day on a series production line that is dedicated to the assembly, integration and testing of the satellites.

Fleet Space Technologies will launch their sixth smallsat, Centauri 4 (C4), aboard SpaceX Falcon9 on Saturday morning , June 26, at 4:26 a.m., Adelaide, Australia, time, with the US launch occurring at Cape Canaveral. 

To be delivered into orbit at 450 km above the Earth, Centauri 4 is the size of a shoebox and has been integrated with digital beamforming technology, making this Fleet Space’s most advanced payload. This is a major achievement for the company to incorporate this tech in a smallsat payload, due to the small craft’s power and volume constraints, and this will allow for substantial increases in throughput of customer data, service a higher number of customer portals at once as well as increase data reliability and security by reducing the impact of interference. C4 will implement Fleet Space’s first 3D printed antenna system, completely designed in-house.

Fleet Space has released a video explaining the achievements of their beamforming team at this direct vlink…

“Space is no longer the sole domain of governments and multi-billion dollar satellites. Space is open for business, and we’re only just starting to tap into what is possible,” said Fleet Space CEO Flavia Tata Nardini. “With our digital beamforming technology, we are changing space and making it accessible. With a crowded radio spectrum containing all of the world’s wireless communications, bandwidth efficiency is everything. Our engineers have managed to fit this incredible technology in the vacuum of space on a tiny nanosat. This is where Fleet Space’s technology makes it world first. I have been working and launching nanosatellites for more than 10 years now and I have never been so excited by a technological breakthrough such as this latest generation of the payload. This and the new 3D printed antennas that my amazing team have built at Fleet Space. We can finally demonstrate how powerful nanosatellites can be in the comms world. We call this payload the Knight. Look at it, you can understand why!”

Additionally, there is a 2nd experimental payload which will have an even greater increase in data capacity — this new generation payload is a huge milestone in the company’s planned constellation of 140 smallsats.

Now with the ability to shape and steer multiple beams in their nanosatellites and, therefore, reduce interference, Fleet Space can perform more work, transfer more data and do it in flexible and secure ways never before possible at this scale. The firm’s smallsats are servicing IoT customers who will reap the rewards of collecting and organizing vast amounts of data from every remote corner of the Earth. Critical infrastructure customer use cases include tracking power outages, receiving alerts of unwanted encroachments along easements and bushfire risks, through to applications in defence, mining and logistics. 

Fleet Space already has five smallsats on-orbit in their LEO constellation. With significant growth in the company’s development of cutting-edge technologies, the company’s capabilities of their agnostic hybrid satellite, low-powered, wide area network (LPWAN) are being used for the development of remote, massive, IoT applications, on the Earth, the Moon and Mars, through the firm’s Seven Sisters Lunar Mission. 

Watch the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch at this direct link on June 26…

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) will integrate their In-line Network Encryptor (INE) into the world’s first Link 16-capable LEO satellite, which the company is developing for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles XVI program.

Viasat’s INE will be the first crypto deployment on a Link 16-capable LEO satellite, and will provide communications security (COMSEC) and additional enhanced cybersecurity capabilities initially associated with mission data transfer, with future evolutions expected to simultaneously secure user data; telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) management; and inter-satellite communications—at multiple security levels.

Viasat’s INE, which was designed for a very low Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) constrained system, is expected to provide radiation-tolerant network encryption aligned with the LEO space environment and will be capable of supporting speeds exceeding 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) aggregate throughput, which makes it an outstanding encryptor to secure Link 16-to-LEO communications. The INE will also be able to secure the data flow between an unclassified spacecraft bus and the classified processing domain.

Over the past two decades, Viasat’s information assurance business has achieved a number of industry milestones. The Company’s PSIAM-based rugged, compact Type-1 cryptographic product portfolio already includes a ground-based satellite TT&C crypto (the KS-252)—which is currently deployed in the U.S. Air Force’s satellite communications ground station architectures. This crypto is the foundation for providing the same innovative, multi-functional, programmable value proposition to the space segment.

“In addition to building and testing the first-ever Link 16-capable LEO satellite prototype, Viasat is also focused on delivering the first high assurance, fully-programmable crypto deployed in space,” said Craig Miller, president, Government Systems, Viasat. “Our focus is on revolutionizing space-based cryptographic and cybersecurity solutions by moving away from embedded, fixed single-application ASICs and moving to ‘plug and play,’ fully-programmable, multi-functional and highly-efficient military-grade cryptos that can be rapidly deployed by supporting commercial off the shelf technology enhancements for small satellites.”

Learn more about Viasat’s network encryption devices at this direct link.

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) has announced Operation Arctic Lynx (OAL), a series of partnership-driven field exercises deploying Iridium® and Iridium Connected® technologies and involving more than 20 organizations, primarily focused above 60 degrees north latitude and stretching as far as 82 degrees north latitude.

Occurring between June 11 and June 26, 2021, OAL involves an international contingent of organizations including existing Iridium customers such as the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. federal agencies, Alaska state and local organizations, Canadian government organizations, scientific research organizations and multiple aerospace industry companies.

During OAL, Iridium and Iridium Connected weather resilient satellite communications technology will be deployed through a combination of on-base, Communications-On-The-Move (COTM), At-The-Halt (ATH) and remote environment applications. Technologies being featured include weather-resilient broadband (Iridium Certus®), Iridium Push-To-Talk (PTT), a variety of unattended sensors capable of tracking, environmental monitoring, remote control functions and managing data and image delivery, Beyond-Visual-Line-Of-Sight (BVLOS) capabilities enabling truly global real-time command and control for drones and autonomous vehicles (Iridium Global Line of Sight^SM), in-vehicle solutions and demonstration of cutting-edge capabilities, such as real-time, on-the-move, 1080 HD video over L-band. Iridium has a 20-plus year pedigree of providing reliable Arctic communications.

As part of the operation, multiple voice, data and video real-time communications threads will be exercised both at-the-halt and on-the-move, starting from Utqiagvik, Alaska. Utqiagvik, previously known as Barrow, is located at 71 degrees north latitude, approximately 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle and situated on the Arctic Ocean.

Among these communications threads will be a site located even farther north than Utqiagvik, at approximately 82 degrees north latitude – Canadian Forces Station Alert (CFS Alert), Nunavut, Canada that is the most northerly, permanently inhabited location in the world and one of a number of Arctic Weather Stations. The site has deployed Iridium Certus technology in the form of a Thales MissionLINK 700 terminal to ensure reliable communications.

Additional communications threads include but are not limited to the U.S. South Pole Station, at 90 degrees south latitude, Antarctica; McMurdo Station, Antarctica; Colorado Springs; Melbourne, Florida; Tyler, Texas; Chandler, Arizona; Leesburg, Virginia; Oslo and London.

“Iridium’s Arctic and Antarctic communications capabilities have long been a part of the fabric of government, NGO and civil enterprise activities in those regions and now with our upgraded constellation and new technologies developed, we have turbocharged our portfolio of solutions to address an increasing range of polar communication requirements,” said Scott Scheimreif, executive vice president, Government Programs, Iridium. “With more than 20 participating organizations, Operation Arctic Lynx will exercise the ability to provide real-time interoperability, communications-on-the-move, command-and-control and develop and maintain a common operational picture in austere polar regions. We’re proud to have so many esteemed organizations participating.”

Astra has announced the company’s planned acquisition of Apollo Fusion in a transaction valued up to $145 million.

Apollo Fusion manufactures a leading electric propulsion engine. This acquisition allows Astra to provide launch and space services beyond LEO to MEO, GEO and lunar orbits.

Under the agreement, Astra is acquiring Apollo Fusion for a purchase price of $50 million: $30 million in stock and $20 million in cash. Additionally, there is potential for earn-outs of up to $95 million: $10 million in employee incentive stock, $10 million in cash for reaching technical milestones, and $75 million ($60 million in stock, $15 million in cash) for reaching revenue milestones. PJT Partners is acting as financial advisor to Astra in connection with this series of transactions.

“In addition to increasing Astra’s total addressable market for launch services, the acquisition of Apollo Fusion accelerates Astra’s ability to efficiently deliver and operate spacecraft beyond low Earth orbit,” said Astra Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Chris Kemp.

“Scale is what makes innovation matter,” said Reid Hoffman, partner at Greylock and lead investor in Apollo Fusion. “I’m excited that Apollo Fusion will be a key enabler of Astra’s hyperscale space platform.”

“Propulsion systems open new destinations,” said Apollo Fusion Founder and CEO, Mike Cassidy. “Our team is excited to combine the flexibility of in-space propulsion with the world’s most responsive launch provider.”

In addition to Cassidy, the acquisition brings a team with experience from companies such as Google, Tesla, and SpaceX, with individuals who have developed, designed and manufactured hardware flying on more than 2,000 satellites on-orbit today. This transaction will close after Astra’s business combination with Holicity (NASDAQ: HOL) is completed and is expected to be accretive to revenue starting this year.

Earlier this year, Astra and the Holicity Inc. (NASDAQ: HOL) SPAC announced a definitive business combination agreement that will result in Astra becoming a publicly traded company. The transaction reflects an implied pro-forma enterprise value for Astra of approximately $2.1 billion. Upon closing, the transaction is expected to provide up to $500 million in cash proceeds, including up to $300 million of cash held in the trust account of Holicity and an upsized $200 million PIPE led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.

“This transaction takes us a step closer to our mission of improving life on Earth from space by fully funding our plan to provide daily access to low Earth orbit from anywhere on the planet,” said Chris Kemp, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Astra. ‍

“I have long believed space provides an unmatched opportunity to benefit and enrich society,” said Craig McCaw, Chairman and CEO of Holicity. “Astra’s space platform will further improve our communications, help us protect our planet, and unleash entrepreneurs to launch a new generation of services to enhance our lives.”

With more than 50 launches in manifest across more than 10 private and public customers, including NASA and DoD, Astra has booked over $150 million of contracted launch revenue. Astra will begin delivering customer payloads this summer and start monthly launches by the end of this year. Upon the closing of the transaction, the combined company will be named Astra and will be listed on NASDAQ under the symbol “ASTR.”

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) Laser Interconnect and Networking Communication System (LINCS) satellites have arrived at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, to prepare for launch.

Using LINCS, GA-EMS, in partnership with the Space Development Agency (SDA), will conduct a series of experiments demonstrating optical communication in and from space. The LINCS satellites will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The LINCS system is comprised of two, 12U cubesats, each hosting a C-band, dual-wavelength, full duplex, Optical Communication Terminal (OCT) and an Infrared (IR) payload, with all elements internally designed and built by GA-EMS at their facilities in San Diego, California, and Huntsville, Alabama. In partnership with SDA, this is one of the first Department of Defense (DoD) contracted efforts to develop and deploy a state-of-the-art, 1550 nm OCT to test capabilities to increase the speed, distance, and variability of communication in space.

“The arrival of GA-EMS’ LINCS system at Cape Canaveral marks the start of final preparations and integration on board the Falcon 9, bringing us one step closer to demonstrating the next evolution of space-based optical communication,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “It is an honor to support SDA on their first launch and to demonstrate this critical technology that will enable the future national security space architecture.”

“The launch of our two cubesats, supporting the LINCS mission, demonstrates GA-EMS’ ability to provide a complete tailored solution of both satellites and payloads integrated into an affordable design that provides customers significant launch versatility and cost effective solutions to their missions,” said Nick Bucci, vice president of Missile Defense and Space Systems at GA-EMS.

LeoLabs, Inc., has closed a $65 million Series B financing round, jointly led by Insight Partners and existing investor Velvet Sea Ventures. With this round, LeoLabs has raised over $100 million in total capital.

LEO is rapidly emerging as the commercial frontier in space. Rapid deployment of new satellite constellations, the demand for innovative services from imaging to broadband to Internet of Things (IoT) and the billions of dollars of new investment in space-based infrastructure are redefining a domain shared by governments, space agencies, regulators, commercial operators and space insurance.

Against this backdrop of unprecedented opportunity are two challenges critical to investment and the long-term viability of LEO. The first is the need to develop LEO sustainably by addressing the threat posed by space debris. Approximately 250,000 dangerous pieces of orbital debris have gone untracked by government legacy systems that can no longer keep pace with increasing risks to satellite constellations. Sustainability is not just an arena for operators to address, but also for regulators to establish international best practices, set standards, and define rules of behavior.

The second challenge critical to the long-term viability of LEO is keeping it open and secure. As the number of private space enterprises and space-faring nations continue to grow, so does the need to track and make transparent the full range of threats to an open space environment.

“This latest round of funding is a testament to our mission to inform, secure and enable the revolution of services entering Low Earth Orbit,” said Dan Ceperley, LeoLabs CEO and co- Founder. “It sets the stage for the next phase of our growth as we build our team and our global footprint in the SSA domain. We now have the resources to accelerate the global deployment of next-generation radars for tracking small debris and satellites in LEO, and to expand development of our scalable LEO mapping and SSA platform. The single greatest challenge to both the sustainability and security threats in LEO is solving the ‘data deficit’. The number of assets in LEO doubled last year, will double again this year, and is expected to grow 25x in the next five years. LeoLabs is already the largest provider of data for LEO today, and this lead will expand rapidly as we execute on our constellation of radars.”

Ceperley continued, “The legacy government-built SSA infrastructures of the past simply cannot scale to track the new levels of LEO activity, and they have no path to get there. Our market-driven infrastructure is the only viable and scalable way to address this “data deficit.” The growth phase for LeoLabs is all about scaling our business along two dimensions. The first is infrastructure. With the Kiwi and Costa Rica space radars, we’ve proven our rapid deployment model for building radars, and we are actively evaluating additional sites. June, 2021 We intend to upscale our model to build out multiple radar sites concurrently, beginning this year. Our goal is simple, establish a global constellation of ground-based radars. The second dimension is scaling our SaaS business offering, which is a strategic advantage in deploying innovative, critical services to our customers. We are especially pleased to welcome our new lead investors who bring decades of experience in building world-class SaaS companies.”

“We are excited about LeoLabs’ vision and the progress they’ve made on both the radar network and the SSA platform,” said Nick Sinai, Senior Advisor at Insight Partners. “LeoLabs is uniquely positioned to deliver the data, analytics, and software that government and commercial customers need to understand where satellites and debris are at all times. We are thrilled to back an all-star team at LeoLabs as they develop the leading space awareness software company.” As part of the financing round, Nick Sinai will join the LeoLabs Board of Directors.

“As one of the first investors in LeoLabs, I have watched the team build an end-to-end solution, from radars to its platform that makes mission critical analytics available and actionable as a commercial off-the-shelf service to any company interested in leveraging low-earth orbit solutions as a growth driver,” said John Giampetroni, Managing Partner of Velvet Sea Ventures and LeoLabs angel investor. “Their vision for the future of the commercial space industry and their ability to execute on that vision makes LeoLabs a formidable industry leader.”

 Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) will integrate its In-line Network Encryptor (INE) into the world’s first Link 16-capable Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite that Viasat is developing for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles XVI program.

Viasat’s INE will be the first crypto deployment on a Link 16-capable LEO satellite, and will provide communications security (COMSEC) and additional enhanced cybersecurity capabilities initially associated with mission data transfer, with future evolutions expected to simultaneously secure user data; telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) management; and inter-satellite communications—at multiple security levels.

Viasat’s INE, which was designed for a very low Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) constrained system, is expected to provide radiation-tolerant network encryption aligned with the LEO space environment and will be capable of supporting speeds exceeding 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) aggregate throughput, which makes it an outstanding encryptor to secure Link 16-to-LEO communications. The INE will also be able to secure the data flow between an unclassified spacecraft bus and the classified processing domain.

“In addition to building and testing the first-ever Link 16-capable LEO satellite prototype, Viasat is also focused on delivering the first high assurance, fully-programmable crypto deployed in space,” said Craig Miller, president, Government Systems, Viasat. “Our focus is on revolutionizing space-based cryptographic and cybersecurity solutions by moving away from embedded, fixed single-application ASICs and moving to ‘plug and play,’ fully-programmable, multi-functional and highly-efficient military-grade cryptos that can be rapidly deployed by supporting commercial off the shelf technology enhancements for small satellites.”