Featured

LeoStella, a specialized satellite constellation design and manufacturer, has delivered their first, two, fully manufactured satellites from the firm’s state-of-the-art production line.

The satellites are the fifth and sixth of an ongoing Earth Observation (EO) constellation program for the global monitoring company, BlackSky.

LeoStella’s intelligent manufacturing facility opened in 2019 and is the first of its kind. The satellites were delivered to the launch facility on June 1, 2020, and have been prepared for an upcoming SpaceX launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. LeoStella’s ability to minimize costs and reduce development and manufacturing time helps meet the increasing demand for satellite constellations in a time sensitive ecosystem.

LeoStella’s new production facility was developed to change the way satellites and constellations are produced to better meet the needs of agile space customers. The factory is a fully digital and networked environment that includes intelligent workstations, connected tools, automated test equipment, statistical process control, embedded product assurance, and a custom Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) backbone that manages and tracks all activities. Coupled with the manufacturing process is a robust supply chain of industry leaders with a focus on advanced technologies that help LeoStella offer an exceptional value proposition for its customers.

The satellites weigh approximately 50-kilograms and are designed to be operated in a variety of LEO orbit altitudes and inclinations. They are compatible with a wide range of rideshare and dedicated launch vehicles. The satellites are based on a product optimized for imaging missions with high resolution, agility and stability and can be configured for alternate missions and payloads.

Based in Tukwila, Washington, LeoStella is a joint venture between Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries.

“Successful delivery of these two BlackSky satellites marks another major milestone in LeoStella’s promise of rapid, low-cost, high-performance satellite constellations,” said Mike Hettich, CEO of LeoStella. “In a short time, we have created the designs, infrastructure, tools, and processes that enable constellation production at scale. Delivery of these satellites provides an important validation of our approach. It’s exciting to see the team bring our vision to reality.”

“LeoStella is a key partner in extending our global monitoring constellation,” said Brian O’Toole, CEO of BlackSky. “Their intelligent design and inventive manufacturing have established LeoStella as a leader in new space economics. Consequently, we’re able to deliver valuable first-to-know insights at a cost that makes it accessible for both business and government customers.”

Successes abound with smallsat launch after smallsat launch with turnaround times bound to please…

Peter Beck is the founder and chief executive of Rocket Lab, a space systems company and the global leader in dedicated small satellite launch. Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab builds and launches rockets and satellites that provide access to space for organizations like NASA, the NRO, DARPA, the United States Air Force and the commercial space sector.

An associate professor in space systems, Peter led the development of ground-breaking Electron launch vehicle, which in 2019 was the 4th most frequently launched rocket in the world. Peter also leads the satellite division at Rocket Lab which is making it faster and easier to get the ideas of tomorrow on orbit today.

Rocket Labs’ ‘Birds of a Feather’ launch for the NRO.
Photo is courtesy of the company.

Rocket Lab has signed a launch agreement with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) for two back-to-back, dedicated smallsat missions aboard an Electron launch vehicle.

The missions were awarded through the NRO’s Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract, an initiative that enables the agency to explore new opportunities for launching small satellites through a streamlined, commercial approach. The RASR-3 and RASR-4 missions are scheduled for launch within weeks of each other in late spring 2021 from two separate pads at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 (LC-1).

By launching the missions separately from pads LC-1A and LC-1B, Rocket Lab is able to eliminate the pad recycle time typically required when launching from a single pad. This unique ability enables Rocket Lab to launch missions just days or even hours apart, making truly responsive space a reality for small satellite operators and the U.S. national security community.

Construction of Launch Complex 1 Pad B commenced in December 2019 and will be complete by the end of this year. Pad LC-1B is Rocket Lab’s third launch pad, joining the existing pad at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, as well as the new pad at Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia, USA.

The RASR-3 and RASR-4 missions follow on from two recent Rocket Lab launches for the NRO; the ‘Birds of a Feather’ mission in January 2020, and the ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ mission in June 2020.

“Maintaining resilient space architecture and having the ability to deploy assets exactly when and where they’re needed is paramount for U.S. national security in these dynamic times,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO. “We’re proud to continue enabling that flexible, responsive space access and once again deliver a proven launch solution for the NRO and the nation.”

Lars Hoffman, Rocket Lab’s SVP of Global Launch Services, said, “Given the threat to space capabilities posed by potential adversaries, there simply cannot be a waiting room to get on orbit. With Electron launch vehicles on standby for rapid call-up and three launch pads capable of supporting up to 130 missions per year, we stand ready to respond to the national security community’s needs with speed and precision, every time. We look forward to working with the dedicated team at the NRO once again for these important missions.”

A Long March-2D carrier rocket, carrying the satellite Gaofen-9 03, is launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Northwest China’s Gansu province, June 17, 2020.
Photo is courtesy of Xinhua

China has launched a new Earth observation satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center that is in northwest China — the launch occurred at 3:19 p.m. Wednesday (Beijing Time).

The satellite — Gaofen-9 (03) — was sent into orbit by a Long March-2D carrier rocket. This is an optical remote-sensing satellite with a resolution up to the sub-meter level.

The satellite will be mainly used for land survey, city planning, land right confirmation, road network design, crop yield estimation and disaster prevention and mitigation, as well as providing information for the construction of the Belt and Road.

Via the same carrier rocket, two other satellites were also sent into space. One of them, developed by Zhejiang University, will be used to test smallsat technologies.

The other satellite, developed by Beijing-based China HEAD Aerospace Technology Co., will be used to collect global information on ship and flight statuses and the Internet of Things.

Wednesday’s launch was the 335th mission of the Long March rocket series.

Spaceflight’s historic SSO-A mission carrying 64 smallsats aboard a Falcon 9. Photo is courtesy of SpaceX.

Spaceflight Inc. has inked an agreement with SpaceX to secure rideshare capacity on multiple launches.

This agreement between the two companies secures Spaceflight capacity to launch manifest payloads on several SpaceX launches through the end of 2021, providing launch schedule assurance to smallsat customers needing frequent, reliable, and cost-effective launches to Sun-synchronous orbit.

According to a recent research study by Bryce Space and Technology, delays are commonplace throughout the launch industry. “Launch delays are inevitable and are typically out of the control of rideshare customers. In order to offer launch flexibility and minimize the impact of significant delays, it’s critical to have capacity on a wide range of launches to easily re-manifest customers from one launch to another,” said Devon Papandrew, VP of business operations at Spaceflight. “Having this guaranteed capacity with SpaceX improves our customers’ odds of getting on orbit when they need to and helps us ensure flights are as full as possible, lowering costs for all and minimizing environmental impacts.”

The agreement builds on a long-standing relationship between the two companies. Spaceflight and SpaceX have partnered for several industry firsts, including SSO-A, the first dedicated rideshare mission with 64 smallsats aboard a Falcon 9 in December 2018.

Additionally, Spaceflight and SpaceX teamed up on the first-ever rideshare mission to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit carrying a commercial lunar lander in February 2019. Spaceflight also announced today it will launch two rideshare payloads aboard SpaceX’s tenth Starlink mission, marking the first SpaceX Starlink mission that will be accompanied by Spaceflight rideshare payloads.

Spaceflight works with a large portfolio of launch vehicles, including Falcon 9, Antares, Electron, Vega, and PSLV, to provide a variety of launch options to its customers. The company has launched more than 270 satellites across nearly 30 rideshare missions. In 2019, the company successfully executed nine missions, the most it’s ever launched in one year, sending more than 50 payloads to space.

“By offering a variety of launch options, we can better meet our customer’s specific launch needs and offer increased launch flexibility,” said Curt Blake, president and CEO of Spaceflight. “This agreement with SpaceX will be particularly attractive to smallsat customers. SpaceX’s consistent launch schedule coupled with our deep expertise in mission management and integration services offers rideshare options with greater reliability. This agreement will allow us to package multiple payloads onto a single port to significantly reduce the cost per spacecraft for the end-customer.”

“Spaceflight is one of the most experienced companies offering mission management and integration services for smallsat operators, and we are proud to offer their customers the best launch solution on the market,” said SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales, Tom Ochinero. “Together, Spaceflight and SpaceX are providing small satellite operators access to space in the most reliable and cost-effective way possible.”

Upcoming Spaceflight events…

• Spaceflight’s SXRS-1 mission with SpaceX will launch in the coming weeks
• Spaceflight’s Vega-1 mission will launch on Thursday, June 18
• The launch window for Spaceflight’s RL-3 mission opens Friday, July 3 UTC

On Saturday, June 13, at 5:21 a.m. EDT, 9:21 UTC, SpaceX successfully launched their ninth Starlink mission, carrying 58 Starlink satellites and three of Planet’s SkySats — this mission marked SpaceX’s first SmallSat Rideshare Program launch.

Falcon 9’s first stage previously supported Dragon’s 19th and 20th resupply missions to the International Space Station. Following stage separation, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 first stage successfully landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship.
Photo is courtesy of SpaceX.

One half of Falcon 9’s fairing previously flew on the JCSAT-18/Kacific1 mission and the other half previously flew on SpaceX’s third Starlink mission. Planet’s SkySats were deployed sequentially beginning about 12 minutes after liftoff and then the Starlink satellites were deployed approximately 26 minutes after liftoff.

Artistic rendition of Planet’s SkySat smallsats.
Image is courtesy of the company.

Rocket Lab’s statement …

Rocket Lab, a space systems company and the global leader in dedicated small satellite launch, has successfully launched its 12th Electron mission and deployed satellites to orbit for NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra Space. 

The ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ mission launched from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 05:12 UTC, 13 June 2020. The mission was Rocket Lab’s 12th Electron launch and continued the company’s record of 100 percent mission success for customers since Electron’s first orbital mission in January 2018. Rocket Lab has now deployed 53 satellites to orbit with the Electron launch vehicle.

This launch is the first conducted by Rocket Lab since Covid-19 national restrictions were eased earlier this month, demonstrating the company’s rapid launch and responsive space capability for small satellite customers.

The satellites deployed as part of this rideshare mission include NASA’s ANDESITE (Ad-Hoc Network Demonstration for Extended Satellite-Based Inquiry and Other Team Endeavors) satellite created by students and professors at Boston University to study Earth’s magnetic field as part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI); three payloads designed, built and operated by the NRO; and the M2 Pathfinder satellite, a collaboration between the UNSW Canberra Space and the Australian Government, to test communications architecture and other technologies.

This latest mission marks the second time NASA and the NRO have launched payloads on Electron, following dedicated missions for each organisation in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Rocket Lab founder and chief executive, Peter Beck, said the mission highlighted Electron’s continued ability to meet the needs of government missions, whether payloads required a dedicated mission or could fly as part of a rideshare.

“It was a privilege to once again provide access to space for the NRO and NASA, and to welcome UNSW Canberra Space to orbit for the first time,” he said. “Missions like this one are testament to the flexibility we offer small satellite operators through our ability to deploy multiple payloads to precise and individual orbits on the same launch. This collaborative mission was also a great demonstration of Rocket Lab’s capability in meeting the unique national security needs of the NRO, while on the same mission making space easy and accessible for educational payloads from NASA and UNSW Canberra. I’m also incredibly proud of the way our team has quickly adapted to working safely and efficiently to ensure our customers remain connected to space through the challenges posed by COVID-19.” 

With Covid-19 restrictions now easing, Rocket Lab has also returned to full production of Electron launch vehicles and Photon satellites. Rocket Lab is now delivering a launch vehicle off the production line every 18 days to meet a busy launch manifest for the rest of the year. Final checks are being completed in the lead up to Rocket Lab’s first launch from its new U.S. launch site, Launch Complex 2 in Virginia — a dedicated mission in partnership with the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program and the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Small Launch and Targets Division. The mission is scheduled for Q3 2020. Details of Rocket Lab’s next launch from Launch Complex 1 will be announced shortly.

Momentus recently signed a launch service agreement with NCKU Space Laboratory and ODYSSEUS Space.

The company is supporting the IRIS-A mission, which is of strategic importance to Taiwan and is the first of three satellite launches, with follow up missions IRIS-B and IRIS-C due to reach space in 2022 and 2023. IRIS-A will be equipped with Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to achieve a Doppler shift estimation and improve the quality of downlink signal, increasing the efficiency of future IoT constellations of smallsats intended to monitor objects from space.

ODYSSEUS is a young startup based in Taiwan created by French professionals coming from the European space sector. They have experience and expertise both in Asia and in Europe to uniquely address the booming global market of small satellites applications.

ODYSSEUS has been working with National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) of Tainan, Taiwan, for many years now. IoT is a hot topic in Taiwan and Momentus is delighted to be working with leaders in the sector to bring the technology to space.

The Momentus Vigoride solution is highly innovative and provides smallsat developers, such as NCKU and ODYSSEUS, with long awaited flexibility in the choice of their orbit and their timeline.

National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) of Tainan, Taiwan, team.

ASTERIA was deployed from the International Space Station on
November 20, 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Long before it was deployed into low-Earth orbit from the International Space Station in Nov. 2017, the tiny ASTERIA spacecraft had a big goal: to prove that a satellite roughly the size of a briefcase could perform some of the complex tasks much larger space observatories use to study exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. A new paper soon to be published in the Astronomical Journal describes how ASTERIA (short for Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics) didn’t just demonstrate it could perform those tasks but went above and beyond, detecting the known exoplanet 55 Cancri e.

Scorching hot and about twice the size of Earth, 55 Cancri e orbits extremely close to its Sun-like parent star. Scientists already knew the planet’s location; looking for it was a way to test ASTERIA’s capabilities. The tiny spacecraft wasn’t initially designed to perform science; rather, as a technology demonstration, the mission’s goal was to develop new capabilities for future missions. The team’s technological leap was to build a small spacecraft that could conduct fine pointing control — essentially the ability to stay very steadily focused on an object for long periods. 

Based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the mission team engineered new instruments and hardware, pushing past existing technological barriers to create their payload. Then they had to test their prototype in space. Though its prime mission was only 90 days, ASTERIA received three mission extensions before the team lost contact with it last December. 

The CubeSat used fine pointing control to detect 55 Cancri e via the transit method, in which scientists look for dips in the brightness of a star caused by a passing planet. When making exoplanet detections this way, a spacecraft’s own movements or vibrations can produce jiggles in the data that could be misinterpreted as changes in the star’s brightness. The spacecraft needs to stay steady and keep the star centered in its field of view. This allows scientists to accurately measure the star’s brightness and identify the tiny changes that indicate the planet has passed in front of it, blocking some of its light. 

ASTERIA follows in the footsteps of a small satellite flown by the Canadian Space Agency called MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars), which in 2011 performed the first transit detection of 55 Cancri e. MOST was about six times the volume of ASTERIA – still incredibly small for an astrophysics satellite. Equipped with a 5.9-inch (15-centimeter) telescope, MOST was also capable of collecting six times as much light as ASTERIA, which carried 2.4-inch (6-centimeter) telescope. Because 55 Cancri e blocks out only 0.04 percent of its host star’s light, it was an especially challenging target for ASTERIA. 

“Detecting this exoplanet is exciting, because it shows how these new technologies come together in a real application,” said Vanessa Bailey, the principal investigator for ASTERIA’s exoplanet science team at JPL. “The fact that ASTERIA lasted more than 20 months beyond its prime mission, giving us valuable extra time to do science, highlights the great engineering that was done at JPL and MIT.” 

Big Feat

The mission made what’s known as a marginal detection, meaning the data from the transit would not, on its own, have convinced scientists that the planet existed. (Faint signals that look similar to a planet transit can be caused by other phenomena, so scientists have a high standard for declaring a planet detection.) But by comparing the CubeSat’s data with previous observations of the planet, the team confirmed that they were indeed seeing 55 Cancri e. As a tech demo, ASTERIA also didn’t undergo the typical prelaunch preparations for a science mission, which meant the team had to do additional work to ensure the accuracy of their detection.

“We went after a hard target with a small telescope that was not even optimized to make science detections – and we got it, even if just barely,” said Mary Knapp, the ASTERIA project scientist at MIT’s Haystack Observatory and lead author of the study. “I think this paper validates the concept that motivated the ASTERIA mission: that small spacecraft can contribute something to astrophysics and astronomy.”

While it would be impossible to pack all the capabilities of a larger exoplanet-hunting spacecraft like NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) into a CubeSat, the ASTERIA team envisions these petite packages playing a supporting role for them. Small satellites, with fewer demands on their time, could be used to monitor a star for long periods in hopes of detecting an undiscovered planet. Or, after a large observatory discovers a planet transiting its star, a small satellite could watch for subsequent transits, freeing up the larger telescope to do work smaller satellites can’t. 

Astrophysicist Sara Seager, principal investigator for ASTERIA at MIT, was recently awarded a NASA Astrophysics Science SmallSat Studies grant to develop a mission concept for a follow-on to ASTERIA. The proposal describes a constellation of six satellites about twice as big as ASTERIA that would search for exoplanets similar in size to Earth around nearby Sun-like stars. 

Thinking Small 

To build the smallest planet-hunting satellite in history, the ASTERIA wasn’t simply shrinking hardware used on larger spacecraft. In many cases, they had to take a more innovative approach. For example, the MOST satellite used a camera with a charge-coupled device (CCD) detector, which is common for space satellites; ASTERIA, on the other hand, was equipped with a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) detector — a well-established technology typically used for making precision measurements of brightness in infrared light, not visible light. ASTERIA’s CMOS-based, visible-light camera provided multiple advantages over a CCD. One big one: It helped keep ASTERIA small because it operated at room temperature, eliminating the need for the large cooling system that a cold-operating CCD would require. 

“This mission has mostly been about learning,” said Akshata Krishnamurthy, co-investigator and science data analysis co-lead for ASTERIA at JPL. “We’ve discovered so many things that future small satellites will be able to do better because we demonstrated the technology and capabilities first. I think we’ve opened doors.” 

ASTERIA was developed under JPL’s Phaeton program, which provided early-career hires, under the guidance of experienced mentors, with the challenges of a flight project. ASTERIA is a collaboration with MIT in Cambridge; MIT’s Sara Seager is principal investigator on the project. Brice Demory of the University of Bern also contributed to the new study. The project’s extended missions were partially funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California.

Artistic rendition of the Telesat Phase 1 LEO smallsat.
Image is courtesy of Surrey Satellite Technology.

Telesat and Telefónica International Wholesale Services (TIWS) have completed live, on-orbit testing across a wide range of applications on Telesat’s LEO Phase 1 satellite.

With a mission to increase agility and improve operational efficiencies, TIWS partnered with Telesat on a rigorous testing campaign to explore the performance and feasibility of leveraging LEO satellites for high-end services. Testing demonstrated that Telesat LEO could be a viable option for wireless backhaul and presents a substantial improvement in performance over geostationary orbit (GEO) links, without the use of compression or TCP acceleration techniques that are typically required in 650ms latency GEO environments.

Applications tested over Telesat LEO resulted in observed round trip latency of 30-60 msec without any packet loss.  Test scenarios included:

• High definition video streaming, without interruption
• Video conference with teams, demonstrating consistent fluidity of movement and voice transmission with user experience matching terrestrial and cellular connections
• Remote desktop connection to seamlessly manage a remote computer
• VPN connection without any delay or outages
• FTP encrypted file transfers of 2 GB in both directions. IPSec tunnel encryption with no reduction in the performance of the link

Gustavo Arditti, TIWS Satellite Business Unit Director, said that the company is eager to explore how cutting-edge technologies, such as Telesat LEO, can integrate with the firm’s global connectivity infrastructure. Across every application tested, Telesat LEO delivered an outstanding performance, with significant improvements over what TIWS can achieve via GEO satellites today.

Erwin Hudson, VP, Telesat LEO Network, added that the ability to demonstrate fiber-like performance via satellite across a number of applications that perform poorly on GEO satellite backhaul is a testament to the capabilities of the Telesat LEO network. With its high-throughput links, ultra-low latency, and disruptive economics, Telesat LEO offers an unparalleled value proposition to expand the reach of 4G and 5G networks.