Triton-X is a new competitive and multi-mission European smallsat platform product line currently under development as part of ESA’s program of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) and is designed to give low-cost and fast-track access to LEO for commercial and institutional applications.

The first satellite developed under the Triton-X multi-mission platform program for LEO is now on its way to be integrated onto the launcher for the upcoming inaugural flight.

Developed under an ESA Partnership Project with LuxSpace, the Triton-X Genesis smallsat will demo the performances of newly developed and highly innovative elements that include the avionics architecture that embeds a high-performance on-board computer, a telecommunications system that will enable to command, control and monitor the satellite as well as a star tracker that will provide pointing accuracy of the satellite.

The satellite was built in less than 10 months using generic, off-the-shelf building blocks, high-performance field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and micro-controllers.

The Triton-X platform can accommodate payloads up to 90 kg for a wide range of applications including telecommunications, Earth Observation (EO), situational awareness and on-orbit demonstration and validation.

Tailored to be compatible with the new generation small launchers, rideshare and hosted payload mission architectures, Triton-X Genesis is due to be launched on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 in October.

Six ESA member states have subscribed to Triton-X Partnership Project. The program is led by LuxSpace in Luxembourg together with six industrial partners and ten suppliers in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, and across Europe.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of the Transporter-8 mission to LEO is expected to occur at Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E), at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The 57 minute launch window opens at 2:19 p.m. PT (21:19 UTC). If needed, there is a backup opportunity on Tuesday, June 13th, with the same window.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah-1, SWOT, and four Starlink missions.

Following 1st stage separation, Falcon 9 will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Transporter-8 is SpaceX’s eighth dedicated smallsat rideshare mission. There will be 72 payloads on this flight, including smallsats, a re-entry capsule and orbital transfer vehicles (OTV) carrying spacecraft for orbit deployment at a later time.

A live webcast of this mission will start about 15 minutes prior to liftoff at this direct link…

As a member of this mission, Space Systems Command (SSC)’s Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDA&CP) and partner Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is preparing to launch the Department of Defense‘s Space Test Program (STP)-CR2301 mission to deliver three experimental satellites to LEO.v

The three experimental satellites to be delivered by STP-CR2301 to LEO include two Modular Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (MISR) CubeSats and an XVI military communications spacecraft. The MISR CubeSats demonstrate two-way communications with ground devices as well as experiment with novel methods for the DoD to tactically leverage smallsat capabilities. The XVI CubeSat will test the capacity of the Link-16 network to communicate to space.

STP-CR2301 is another example of demonstrating commercially available rideshare solutions for placing USSF satellite capabilities on-orbit, providing flexibility and resiliency for the USSF, and supporting warfighter requirements in an increasingly contested environment.

STP-CR2301 is managed by the DoD STP office located at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. SSC’s SDA&CP headquartered at Los Angeles Air Force Base, administers the DoD STP which delivers experimental demonstrations of new capabilities and expedient space access solutions for research and development experiments.

SDA&CP is the program executive office within SSC that is responsible for delivering ground- and space-based infrastructure and systems that identify threats to national, allied, and commercial space systems. Its innovations integrate seamlessly across the space enterprise and promote deterrence by providing advances in space-enabled warfighting capabilities to our joint military forces.

“Cultivating multiple paths to space for experimental satellites is imperative to maintain continued access as space becomes further congested and contested. STP manifests experiments based on the prioritized list of critical space technologies generated by the Space Experiment Review Board (SERB) as well as the ability of the payloads to meet the launch dates, and orbital requirements. STP is proud to be the front door for experimental satellites looking for a ride to space.”
— Lt. Col. Jonathan Shea, SSC’s director of the DoD’s Space Test Program

SSC is the U.S. Space Force’s field command responsible for acquiring and delivering resilient war fighting capabilities to protect our nation’s strategic advantage in and from space. SSC manages an $11 billion space acquisition budget for the DoD and works in partnership with joint forces, industry, government agencies, academic and allied organizations to accelerate innovation and outpace emerging threats. Our actions today are making the world a better space for tomorrow.

Additional payloads manifested for the Transporter-8 mission include…

D-Orbit manifested, ION SCV-011 to be deployed by Savvy Simon

Exolaunch manifested, AFR-1 | All-DELTA | Ayris-1, -2 | Droid.001 | EIVE | GEISAT | Grégoire | ICEYE-1, -2, -3, -4, deployed for ICEYE | LEMUR 2 AADAM-ALIYAH, LEMUR 2 EMBRIONOVIS, LEMUR 2 NAZIYAH | MuSat-1 | Spacebees [Swarm] |

iQPS: QPA-SAR-6 AMATERU III

Launcher: Orbiter SN3

Lockheed Martin Corporation: Blackjack Aces-1, -2, -3 and -4

Maverick Space Systems: FOSSASAT-FEROX | GHOSt-3 | MISR-A, MISR-B | Tomorrow-R2 | Tiger-4 | XVI |

Satellogic: NewSat 40, 41, 42, 43

SatVu: HotSat-1

Skykraft: Skykraft-3

Terran Orbital: Runner-1

Varda: W-Series 1

Hexagon │ NovAtel have announced a successful test demo of their OEM7 GNSS receivers tracking Xona Space Systems PULSAR signals generated by a Spirent Communications simulator.

This test reveals that NovAtel GNSS receivers can track a Spirent, simulated L-band signal identical to the PULSAR signal broadcast by Xona’s LEO satellites. The Xona LEO signals will complement GNSS, improving resiliency, security and precision for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT).

“Using Spirent’s simulated PULSAR signal, we have successfully tested our receiver’s capability to track the L-band signal planned to be broadcast from Xona’s LEO satellites. The OEM7 is a powerful platform, designed for both resiliency and flexibility; it is exciting to test our forethought by trialling this new signal type. NovAtel has a proven history of being early adopters to new positioning technologies. LEO satellite positioning is an exciting opportunity for PNT innovation, particularly around autonomous applications.”
— Sandy Kennedy, VP of innovation, Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division

“Congratulations to NovAtel for achieving such an important milestone in resilient and alternative PNT. Spirent’s flexible architecture facilitated the quick implementation of Xona signals into our PNT test environment, enabling a first-to-market solution. Spirent will continue to prioritise collaborating with leaders in PNT, like Hexagon and Xona, so users can accelerate the development and deployment of their next-gen technology.”
— Jan Ackermann, director of product line management, Spirent Communications

KSF Space has announced the firm’s plans for suborbital rocket testing — their Jupiter Rocket is set to take the lead.

Suborbital rocket testing is a crucial step in the development of space exploration technology. Suborbital rockets are designed to reach the edge of space, typically around 62 miles above the Earth’s surface, before returning to the ground. This type of testing allows space exploration companies to gather data on the rocket’s performance, including its speed, altitude, and trajectory.

Suborbital rockets are an essential component of space exploration as they provide a cost-effective way to test new technology and train astronauts. They also enable researchers to conduct experiments in microgravity, which is difficult to replicate on Earth. Suborbital rocket testing is a vital step in the development of space exploration technology, and it is the first step towards achieving space travel beyond our planet’s orbit.

KSF Space is an NGO that is dedicated to advancing space exploration technology, they founded the NEP certification, the world’s first Nanosatellite Engineering Professional Certification with more than 1,700 students who became NEP certified, plus their in-house, less expensive cubesat kit for education outreach. The Jupiter Rocket is reusable and is designed to take payloads up to 12,000 feet to suborbital altitudes.

KSF Space’s Jupiter is scheduled to conduct a fire test for its rocket engine in July of 2023 at the aerospace dept at Kansas University. During the engine fire test, the rocket’s engine will be ignited for a short period of time to evaluate performance. This test is designed to ensure that the engines are functioning correctly and can withstand the extreme conditions of spaceflight.

The engine fire test is an essential step in the development of the Jupiter Rocket and will provide valuable data on the engine itself, allowing KSF Space to make any necessary adjustments before moving forward with the next phase of testing.

“The Jupiter Rocket, which will be able to carry three cubesat payloads, is powered by a solid engine, which are more environmentally friendly than traditional rocket engines.”
— Dr. Mohamed El Kayyali, Chairman, KSF Space

HawkEye 360 Inc. has announced that the company’s Cluster 7 satellites have begun operation.

This latest satellite trio achieved initial operating capability in record time after successfully launching into orbit on April 15, 2023. A new 300 MHz whip antenna provides better coverage in the 270MHz – 330 MHz range, fueling more robust data collection.

The company’s rapidly growing constellation can collect data up to 24 times per day – as often as once every hour – over a region of interest, allowing HawkEye 360 to offer the most timely, actionable, and broadest commercial RF data and coverage on the market.

HawkEye 360 operates a growing constellation of 21 satellites that detect, characterize and geolocate radio frequency signals from a broad range of emitters used for communication, navigation and security. HawkEye 360 has geolocated more than 200 million RF signals, providing situational awareness to an array of activities, including early-warning radar activity, military activities, illegal fishing, illegal mining, and indicators of GPS interference.

HawkEye 360 will continue expanding the constellation to address clients’ increasing demands for RF Intelligence, aiming for a total of 60 satellites (20 clusters of three) in 2025. HawkEye 360 anticipates the launch of two additional clusters in Q4 2023.

“With the introduction of our seventh satellite cluster, HawkEye 360 showcases the profound impact that commercial space can have on national defense and global security while enabling us to uncover unprecedented insights into human activities and behavior,” said . “Our invaluable collaborations with the U.S. government and allied nations across the globe play a pivotal role in cultivating a safer planet, including safeguarding the Middle East and Indo-Pacific regions.”
— Rob Rainhart, COO, HawkEye 360

“As geopolitical tensions continue to increase around the world, Cluster 7 is extending and improving data collection in the 30MHz – 18 GHz frequency range to meet growing demand. With this latest satellite cluster operating in a polar orbit, HawkEye 360 will further enhance the global RF situational awareness we provide to our clients.”
— Alex Fox, Chief Growth Officer, HawkEye 360

The second Lijian-1 launch vehicle (Lijian-1 Y2 , 力箭一号遥二) launched 26 small satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu Province, China, on 7 June 2023, at 04:10 UTC (12:10 local time). The satellites will be mainly used for technology verification and commercial remote sensing information services.

The Lijian-1 rocket, also known as ZK-1A and Kinetica-1, is a four-stage solid-propellant launch vehicle jointly developed by the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and CAS Space (Beijing Zhongke Aerospace Exploration Technology Co., Ltd.). According to CAS Space, the second Lijian-1 mission has successfully launched 26 small satellites into low-Earth orbit.

Credit: China Central Television (CCTV)/CAS Space Kinetica-1 launch

The Satellite Applications Catapult and Open Cosmos have signed an agreement to build and launch a key demo satellite to join the Open Cosmos OpenConstellation — the satellite will be launched as early as Q1 of 2024

The satellite will host a miniaturized Earth Observation (EO) payload, with integrated onboard processing capabilities able to acquire, process, compress, store and forward medium-resolution hyperspectral imagery for Atlantic coastal and maritime areas. The mission will demonstrate a concept of operations for a constellation performing pole-to-pole observation of the Atlantic Ocean involving systematic acquisition of images from pre-defined land and maritime targets, and on-board image processing.

The OpenConstellation is a global shared satellite infrastructure built and managed by Open Cosmos to provide diverse, frequent and reliable data of our changing planet. Countries, institutions and companies are contributing satellites to create the world’s biggest, mutualized constellation. Open Cosmos is already delivering satellites to the OpenConstellation, which have been contributed by leading space organisations in the UK, Spain and Portugal, and with Satellite Applications Catapult being a key UK partner. The constellation will provide key insights to address the climate emergency and monitor a sustainable use of natural resources.

This satellite will also demonstrate, on-orbit, some of the capabilities and solutions that a future constellation to monitor the Atlantic will deploy at scale. This constellation is an ambitious project to use data collected from satellites to deal with the challenges in the Atlantic Ocean from ocean pollution to illegal fishing. Data and imagery gathered from this satellite and others in the constellation will be used for marine ecosystem research and climate change monitoring, based on fast coverage and frequent revisits of areas of interest. Scientific organisations, commercial businesses and national and international governments will all be able to access this essential data.

The satellite is part of the Catapult’s In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) program that is funded by Innovate UK and the UK Space Agency. The IOD program offers partners a fast-track, low-cost opportunity to test their service or technology on a CubeSat mission launched into LEO, accelerating the time to market for innovative products and services from space.

Open Cosmos had previously been selected as the satellite platform provider for IOD. Today’s announcement confirms that Open Cosmos will also provide the payload, ground segment, operations systems and data processing and distribution for the mission.

“We are delighted to have the Satellite Applications Catapult joining the OpenConstellation. This satellite will be instrumental in better understanding global environmental challenges – especially the ones affecting the Atlantic Ocean and coastal areas. Our mission is to make space more accessible and I am sure that together with the Catapult we can help a lot more organisations to have access to this critical information.”
— Rafel Jordá Siquier, CEO, Open Cosmos

“Open Cosmos continues to innovate and make exceptional progress as one of our leading small satellite companies. It’s testament to their success that they have not only been selected to provide the platform for this mission, but the payload as well, and that is down to the strength of their idea and their long-term goals for the OpenConstellation project. The IOD programme was designed for exactly this kind of mission and for companies leading the evolution of the sector like Open Cosmos.”
— Stuart Martin, CEO of the Satellite Applications Catapult

MDA Ltd. (TSX:MDA) has been awarded a contract from L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) as part of the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 1 Tracking Layer program.

MDA will design and build 14 flight sets of Ka-b,and steerable antennas and control electronics for L3Harris as part of SDA’s LEO constellation. The antennas and control electronics will be designed, built, assembled and tested at MDA’s state-of-the-art high-volume, satellite production facility in Montreal.

MDA technology has been integrated into more than 350 satellite missions to date, with more than 2,000 antenna subsystems and 3,000 electronic subsystems on approximately 850 satellites currently in orbit.

“We are very pleased to work with L3Harris on this important space security program as the need for space-based capability increases. This award from one of the largest U.S. defence industry primes is a strong endorsement of MDA’s best-in-class design and manufacturing capabilities and another example of our strategy in action as we expand MDA’s share of the growing global LEO constellation market.”
— Mike Greenley, CEO, MDA

Speedcast and OneWeb have launched OneWeb’s maritime LEO connectivity service — following successful engineering trials, OneWeb’s maritime terminals have been installed on the RV Polarstern, in partnership with Reederei F. Laeisz and Speedcast, delivering the first fully managed service and support.

Speedcast customer Reederei F. Laeisz is a leading German shipping company with a diverse fleet of more than 30 vessels, with experience in conducting remote operations in the polar regions for more than 25 years.

The Research Vessel Polarstern, managed by Reederei F. Laeisz and operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), is a key player in Germany’s polar research and the designated resupply vessel for AWI’s Neumayer Station III, the base for German Antarctic Research. It has been in operations for more than 40 years in the Polar regions.

OneWeb’s maritime LEO connectivity service enables delivery of a high-speed, low-latency, globally consistent experience for customers – even in the most remote sea lanes and maritime communities.

In addition to the OneWeb LEO service, as part of a hybrid connectivity solution deployed on the Polarstern, Speedcast is also providing additional, LEO-based and L-band services – integrated via Speedcast’s SIGMA network management platform for complete traffic prioritization. The fully managed solution is deployed to offer the Polarstern’s crew, as well as the scientific expedition participants from around the world, with high-throughput services for their operations in the North Sea, Arctic regions and all the way up to the North Pole.

In order to provide OneWeb’s low-latency broadband mobility service, Speedcast has deployed Intellian’s latest maritime user terminal, the OW70M. These terminals are some of the most network efficient in the OneWeb portfolio with the technology to deliver the highest bandwidth packages available to cruise, superyacht, energy, fishing and commercial shipping customers. The OW70M’s additional heating module allows it to withstand extreme temperatures of up to -40oC, ideal for Polarstern’s Arctic expedition. Speedcast and Intellian previously announced a multi-year partnership agreement in 2022.

OneWeb and Speedcast signed a distribution partnership agreement last year, provisioning the addition of OneWeb’s enterprise-grade, high-speed LEO connectivity to Speedcast’s Unified Global Platform (UGP), which is one of the largest technology-agnostic networks in the world. This integrates LEO as a connectivity pathway, joining GEO, MEO and 4G/5G for high-demand applications. Since then, successful customer trials have solidified the LEO service now offered for Speedcast’s maritime customers.

OneWeb’s maritime service offers +100 Mbps and more of enterprise-grade connectivity for applications at sea. The solution’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) model offers customers added flexibility, underpinned by guaranteed service levels defined by straightforward CIR (Committed Information Rate) and MIR (Maximum Information Rate) package options.

“We’re excited to partner with OneWeb on the first live deployment of its LEO maritime connectivity network for our customer, supporting the research efforts of AWI and international scientists aboard the RV Polarstern. This project represents an important step forward in a changing industry landscape, where customers now have more options than ever to ensure reliable and seamless connectivity while operating in the most remote places on earth. We’re proud to work with innovative partners, such as OneWeb and Intellian, to deliver critical connectivity solutions as customers continue to embrace the benefits of multi-path, multi-orbit technologies.”
— Andre Eerland, Vice President, Commercial Maritime at Speedcast

“Fittingly, in the light of Nor-Shipping’s overarching theme of #PartnerShip, OneWeb is launching its LEO connectivity services at sea hand-in-hand with our industry partners, who have years of experience in developing, deploying and servicing certified, scalable and responsible connectivity solutions to the maritime industry. OneWeb is working collaboratively with the industry and connecting customers via established industry expert distribution partners such as Speedcast.”
— Carole Plessy, VP Maritime and Europe at OneWeb