Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing (NYSE: BA) company, has successfully demonstrated the ability of deployable tether technology to significantly reduce the time a satellite remains on-orbit after service life completion.

Dragracer is the first, direct comparison of a drag tape on two identical satellites. The satellite, outfitted with a 70 m Terminator Tape® developed by Tethers Unlimited, burned upon reentry to Earth’s atmosphere after eight months. The satellite without tape will naturally de-orbit unaided on its journey back to Earth after at least seven years.

The Terminator Tape® creates additional surface area that interacts with the Earth’s atmosphere to create drag, which draws satellites back to Earth faster. The tape is deployed with a simple mechanism when a satellite is ready to de-orbit. And, because the tape is so lightweight, it has no effect on the satellite’s primary mission.

Millennium Space designed and developed Dragracer in just nine months – and Dragracer then launched from Auckland, New Zealand, on November 19, 2020. The program was a collaborative effort with Tethers Unlimited, mission launch service provider TriSept and launch vehicle provider, Rocket Lab.

“Thousands of satellites will launch over the next decade, creating serious congestion in low Earth orbit,” said Patrick Kelly, Ph.D., Dragracer program manager at Millennium Space Systems. “What we’ve proven is a way to safely and deliberately deorbit retired satellites. If a satellite has a two-year operational life, you’re looking at a big piece of space debris sticking around for potentially decades. With drag tape, we significantly reduce the time it remains space debris, and it’s one less piece of debris to track.”

“Dragracer is the first complete demonstration of safe and rapid deorbit of a satellite by the Terminator Tape Deorbit Module,” said Robert Hoyt, president of Tethers Unlimited. “The Terminator Tape is an affordable, lightweight, patented, and now flight-proven solution for responsible end-of-mission disposal of satellites to help ensure the long-term sustainability of space operations.”

AAC Clyde Space has founded AAC Space Africa to capitalize on the rapidly growing market for satellites and space services in Africa.

AAC Space Africa will design, build, and deliver space missions to the continent from its Cape Town base in South Africa’s Western Cape Province. The new subsidiary will also be the group’s center of competence for advanced radio communication for the entire AAC group, becoming the worldwide supplier of advanced radio systems for AAC’s space missions.

The new company will be managed by Dr. Robert Van Zyl as Managing Director and Francois Visser as Technical Director. They bring more than 40 years of smallsat experience to the company, having pioneered the African cubesat industry through several missions, including the first cubesat launched by the continent. Their expertise spans all facets of New Space technologies, with a special focus on communications.

The team will initially focus on radio communication systems as well as sales and marketing. The team is expected to grow quickly in the coming year to meet demand from the African space economy, which is set to grow to $10 billion by 2024 (NewSpace Africa Industry Report 2019).

AAC selected South Africa as the base for its new subsidiary AAC Space Africa, as the country has an established space industry as well as a strong position in communication systems, with highly skilled engineers and data scientists. AAC Clyde Space has previously been active in the African market through its European companies’ hubs, most recently by supporting Mauritius in its efforts to become a space nation and to track ocean currents with earth observation technologies.

“The ability to provide data from space and monitor key issues across the continent will help Africa develop at a far more rapid pace over the next decade. Adding local presence and expert knowledge to our existing commercial offering will put AAC in an excellent position to address these growing needs. We look forward to taking an active role in the South African space community and the wider market,” said CEO Luis Gomes. “The need for space services in Africa is growing rapidly as Government, companies and communities seek efficient ways to support development and build out crucial infrastructure. We see great potential for small satellites to provide timely, accurate and targeted data for sectors such as weather forecasting, ocean monitoring, agricultural planning, and land management.”

NorthStar Earth & Space (NorthStar) has received approval in principle from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) authorizing NorthStar to use all of the company’s requested radio frequency spectrum allocation for the firm’s planned 52-satellite constellation that will deliver a suite of information services related to Earth and space sustainability.

Specifically, ISED has authorized use for all NorthStar requested Ka- and X-band radio-frequency ranges, ensuring that NorthStar will have the bandwidth required to deliver millions of images per day of highly detailed, information-rich imagery from multiple sensor types. The ISED approval in principle confirms NorthStar’s Canadian spectrum application is in full compliance with the Radio Regulations of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency of the United Nations.

The full NorthStar 52-satellite constellation will be deployed in two segments. The initial 12-satellite constellation, named “Skylark,” is designed with optical sensors directed to near-Earth space and will deliver services to enhance Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and the safety of the space environment. NorthStar will launch a further 40 satellites to enhance Skylark with additional optical sensors, while deploying a combination of hyperspectral and infrared (IR) sensors to provide unique and valuable Earth observation capabilities.

NorthStar’s Skylark satellites will enable the delivery of near real-time high-fidelity SSA information services, elevating traditional SSA to the level of Space Information & Intelligence (SI2). With a comprehensive view of all near-Earth orbits (LEO, MEO, GEO and beyond), Skylark’s space-based sensors will deliver precise observations of more space objects with higher revisit frequency per object than any current system, according to the company. Skylark will deliver a suite of decision-quality information services derived from its unparalleled coverage, object custody, and enhanced predictive capabilities.

Following the full operating capability of NorthStar’s debut Skylark SSA constellation, the follow-on 40 satellite constellation will deploy a combination of hyperspectral and IR sensors to provide exceptional Earth observation capabilities, generating information-rich content enabling unique and valuable Earth Information and Intelligence (EI2) services for a wide range of industry, government and military customers.

“As NorthStar is advancing towards the launch of its first three Skylark satellites, this authorization from ISED to operate NorthStar’s planned 52-satellite constellation with the radio-frequency spectrum that we’ll need is an important milestone” said Stewart Bain, CEO of NorthStar Earth & Space.

Astroscale’s End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) successfully tested its ability to capture its client spacecraft using the servicer’s magnetic capture system in a demonstration performed on Wednesday, August 25 (UTC).

A major challenge of debris removal, and on-orbit servicing in general, is docking with or capturing a client object; this test demonstration served as a successful validation of ELSA-d’s ability to dock with a client, such as a defunct satellite.

When ELSA-d was launched and commissioned, a mechanical locking mechanism held its servicer and client spacecraft together. The first step of this demonstration was to unlock this mechanism. Once unlocked, the magnetic capture system alone held the client to the servicer, preparing ELSA-d to repeatedly capture and release the client in future demonstrations.

The client was then separated from the servicer for the first time and captured to validate the magnetic capture system. During the release and capture period, Astroscale’s Mission Operations and Ground Segment teams checked out and calibrated the rendezvous sensors and verified relevant ground system infrastructure and operational procedures.

The successful completion of this phase paves the way for the remainder of Astroscale’s pioneering demonstrations of space debris removal. The Engineering and Mission Control teams are now preparing for “capture without tumbling,” where the client will be separated to a greater distance, and the method of rendezvous and docking will rely on a combination of on-board autonomous software and advanced ground processing of telemetry and commands.

This demonstration is expected to be completed in the coming months and will be followed by the “capture with tumbling” phase, in which the client will simulate an uncontrolled, tumbling space object. The final capture demonstration will be “diagnosis and client search,” in which the servicer will inspect the client, withdraw to simulate a far-range search, then approach and recapture the client. 

“This has been a fantastic first step in validating all the key technologies for rendezvous and proximity operations and capture in space,” said Nobu Okada, Founder and CEO of Astroscale. “We are proud to have proven our magnetic capture capabilities and excited to drive on-orbit servicing forward with ELSA-d.”

Dawn Aerospace has now conducted five flights of the company’s Mk-II Aurora suborbital spaceplane — the flights were to assess the airframe and avionics of the vehicle and were conducted using surrogate jet engines.

The campaign was run from Glentanner Aerodrome in New Zealand’s South Island. Taxi testing commenced in early July and five flights occurred between the 28th and 30th of July and reached altitudes of 3,400 feet.

Dawn is creating reusable and sustainable space technologies – suborbital and orbital rocket-powered planes – that operate much like a fleet of aircraft, taking off and landing horizontally at airports. Mk-II is a suborbital plane designed to fly 100 km above the Earth and aims to be the first vehicle to access space multiple times per day.

The vehicle serves as a technology demonstrator for the two-stage-to-orbit-vehicle, the Mk-III. Mk-II will also be used to capture atmospheric data used for weather and climate modelling, and to conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations.

On December 9, 2020, Dawn announced the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had granted Dawn a certificate to fly Mk-II Aurora spaceplane from a conventional airport without exclusive airspace restrictions. Dawn tests various vehicles and systems in a number of locations across New Zealand’s South Island, and has agreements in place with a number of potential launch locations globally – the view is to one-day emulate the aviation-industry’s model and, in doing so, provide unprecedented access to space; operating globally with key hubs across the world.

Initial testing was conducted using surrogate jet engines. The Mk-II will be fitted with a rocket engine that is already in the later stages of testing. This will unlock higher performance for supersonic and high-altitude testing of the vehicle.

“Dawn are focussed on sustainable and scalable access to space and our Mk-II vehicle is entirely reusable,” said Stefan Powell, CEO. “The team have successfully captured extensive data enabling further R&D on the capability of Mk-II. I’m hugely proud of our engineering team for designing and building a vehicle that flies beautifully first time and just as predicted. We are delighted with the results and demonstrating rapid turnaround – we conducted five flights within three days, and two flights occurred within ninety minutes of each other. We were successful in demonstrating our ability to integrate with other airspace operators. Fixed-wing aircraft and local helicopter companies continued their operations unaffected. It’s fantastic being part of the Glentanner Aerodrome community. Viewing opportunities will be publicly notified in future, but for now we’re allowing our operational team to focus on the important task at hand.”

Skykraft’s recently revealed launch contract with SpaceX is a harbinger of change for the Australian Space Industry.

Just 10 months away, this single satellite is larger than all previous Australian-built satellites combined and will propel Australia into the global satellite market, with Skykraft’s global Air Traffic Management constellation.

The satellite is designed and built by Skykraft in Canberra, Australia. Using manufacturers in places such as Albury-Wodonga, Melbourne and Queanbeyan, it will be launched from the USA on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in June of next year.

The smallsat constellation technologies underpinning the June 2022 launch positions Skykraft to roll out their commercial Air Traffic Management constellation and also offers unique value and truly sovereign, sustainable capability to upcoming Defence programs, such as Space Domain Awareness (JP 9360), Satellite Communications (JP 9102), and Geospatial Intelligence (Def 799).

Skykraft are bringing along the wider community by offering a program called Skyride that gives innovators, scientists and enthusiasts the opportunity to ride along on this and future launches. This can be for education in universities and schools, or to demonstrate systems in space for commercial or research groups. Demonstrating systems in space using Skyride is an accelerated pathway to attaining NASA Technical Readiness Level 7 or 8.

Skykraft Chief Engineer, Dr. Doug Griffin, said, “This is a great time to be an engineer working in space. We have the technology and tools to build and launch satellites in a much more streamlined way than the past.”

L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) is expanding its satellite production site to include advanced production of unclassified satellites, which will deliver experimental capabilities for national defense.

The Central Florida location is home to more than 100,000 square feet of space used for development, manufacturing and testing of full satellites and components which already deliver complex, classified capabilities for national defense.

The increased production capability allows L3Harris to develop and test the experimental Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), which is a priority program for the U.S. Air Force. Facility investments also make it possible to develop and integrate three sizes of small-to-medium responsive satellites in support of urgent U.S. Department of Defense missions addressing evolving threats.

Two of the company’s eight buildings have recently been upgraded to manufacture multiple end-to-end satellites per month. L3Harris has built eight satellites at the expanded Palm Bay facility that are currently on-orbit and another 10 are in various stages of development. The company plans to add more production capacity by the end of the year to produce six satellites per month.

“Our customers face urgent threats that must be addressed in months rather than years,” said Ed Zoiss, President of L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems. “We prioritized facility investments to meet their accelerating timelines.”

During the 36th Space Symposium, Spaceflight Inc. announced the company had achieved 100% mission success for both its primary and secondary missions for SXRS-5, including the commissioning and successful firing of Astra’s Apollo Fusion electric propulsion system to enable orbital transfers.

The mission, which launched on June 30 aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-2 mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, featured two of the company’s innovative next-generation Sherpa orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) — Sherpa-LTE1 and Sherpa-FX2.

Spaceflight’s electric propulsion OTV, Sherpa-LTE1, successfully ignited thrusters on its first attempt on-orbit. Credit: Spaceflight Inc.

For the primary mission, the avionics systems on the two OTVs were tasked with separating 35 payloads, including six microsatellites and 29 cubesats, with a hosted payload remaining on board.

Following the successful deployment of all customer spacecraft, Sherpa-LTE1 initiated the mission’s second objective, ensuring all systems were operational and in good health as well as commissioning the propulsion system for additional orbital maneuvers.

All the data collected from these experiments will provide valuable insights before Sherpa-LTC1, Spaceflight’s first chemical propulsion OTV, launches on board SpaceX’s Transporter-3 mission, targeted for no earlier than December 2021.

Spaceflight successfully completed all of its identified mission goals over the past eight weeks. Milestones accomplished include:

• Avionics sequencers (R2A) on board the two Sherpa OTVs executed commands successfully, deploying 100% of customer payloads as planned within 24 hours.

• All Sherpa subsystems were confirmed operational and healthy. System temperatures, voltages, and other data were all within the predicted limits.

• Sherpa-LTE1 de-tumbled and commissioned the Astra/Apollo Fusion electric propulsion system.

• Sherpa-LTE1 successfully performed thruster ignition and operation on its first attempt and is now preparing to enter its tertiary phase of the mission, where it will maneuver to various orbits and conduct automated maneuvers on a weekly basis.

• Successful demonstration of modular subsystems, including Sherpa’s propulsion and command-and-control operations, proving rapid prototyping by going from kickoff to flight in less than six months.

• Spaceflight’s free flyer OTV, Sherpa-FX2, successfully demonstrated payload hosting, similar to Sherpa-FX1 which launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-1 mission in January.

• Contact was made with 34 of the 36 payloads within hours of launch, with several customers communicating with their spacecraft before the deployment sequence was complete.

• All spacecraft separation data was shared with the industry’s space object tracking body, 18th Space Control Squadron, as planned within 48 hours for ongoing tracking and monitoring.

As the only company to have successfully flown three OTVs in six months, including the industry’s first electrical propulsion version, Spaceflight has plans to launch two more OTVs later this year, including the firm’s first chemical propulsion vehicle, Sherpa-LTC. Building on the success of these Sherpa missions and the company’s experience managing 41 missions to date, Spaceflight is actively planning Sherpa missions beyond LEO to GEO and cislunar orbital insertions.

“The success of this mission has exceeded our expectations, an indication the technology we designed will be effective in executing a wide variety of missions,” said Phil Bracken, VP of engineering for Spaceflight. “With its versatility and modular architecture, Sherpa will be capable of not only deploying satellites, but hosting them on orbit, supporting infrastructure development, using various kinds of propulsion — all at unmatched development speeds. We are excited to continue building on the success of SXRS-5 and innovating new ways to use Sherpa to support our customers’ missions.”

“The successes of Sherpa-LTE1, and the promise of Sherpa-LTC, demonstrate the capabilities of our groundbreaking innovations to take spacecraft to any orbit — from LEO, medium Earth orbit, geostationary orbit, lunar or beyond, in a way that has never been accomplished before,” said Grant Bonin, SVP of business development at Spaceflight. “We are committed to the overall development of space and our Sherpa program is a significant component of our vision to offer the most comprehensive launch solutions to get our customers’ payloads to space — whenever and wherever they want.”

OneWeb has unveiled their newest and smallest user terminal that offers high-speed internet connectivity to businesses, governments and communities across the globe as well as in remote locations.

Developed in partnership with Intellian Technologies, Inc. and Collins Aerospace, the Compact-Electronically Steered Antenna OW1 user terminal, will play a key role in realizing OneWeb’s vision of bringing high-performance, easily installed, affordable communications services to the world’s least-connected regions and industrial sectors.

The OW1 terminal will bring performance, adaptability and a low profile that will make it ideal for delivering OneWeb-powered satellite broadband in a wide range of settings. The flat-panel antenna at the heart of the unit is easily installed, only requiring basic mounting and wiring skills to install and, coming in at 50x43x10 cm and around 10 kg, is about the size of a briefcase.

The flat-panel antenna will integrate with a OneWeb satellite modem in an environmentally sealed outdoor unit, can be installed using an optional stabilized J-mount and will connect via a single combined power and data cable to an indoor unit that will in turn provide connectivity to the end user devices, such as laptops or routers.

The new device follows the successful completion of OneWeb’s ‘Five to 50’ launch program that has delivered the satellites required to bring OneWeb services to Canada, the UK and Northern Europe later this year. OneWeb is on track to deploy its full fleet of satellites by 2022.

Michele Franci, OneWeb’s Chief of Delivery, said, “We are so excited to bring this user terminal to market, and we thank Intellian and Collins for their invaluable partnership in making it a reality. OneWeb’s vision of connecting the world requires the hardware to do it, and we are pleased to be able to offer an affordable, compact and easy-to-install user terminal. It will connect and empower communities and small to medium-sized businesses, opening up applications for a wide variety of purposes, including community Wi-Fi in remote regions; rural retail point-of-sale systems; agricultural Internet of Things functions; and internet service in hotels, health clinics, research stations and more, located in places that the status quo has left unconnected.”

“This agreement marks another exciting milestone in our great partnership with OneWeb, delivering another unique Intellian user terminal to address new markets and requirements with a high bandwidth and low latency user experience,” said Eric Sung, President and CEO, Intellian Technologies Inc. “The OW1 is our first flat-panel antenna, following years of investment in R&D, expanding our comprehensive OneWeb portfolio. This user terminal is a continuation of our ongoing mission of ‘Empowering Connectivity’, allowing customers in remote and challenging environments to access a cost effective and enhanced user experience otherwise inaccessible to them. The OW1 from Intellian along with OneWeb’s LEO service, can enable business growth, empower education and support the delivery of critical services in communities on a global scale.”