News

NanoAvionics has been selected by OQ Technology to build the company’s MACSAT satellite mission aiming to demonstrate 5G Internet-of-Things service from LEO.

NanoAvionics will build and test a 6U smallsat platform to host the MACSAT communication payload.

The mission is planned for launch in 2021/2022 and will be a flagship for demonstrating advanced 5G IoT services in strategic satellite frequencies and for different end-customers.

The on-orbit pathfinder mission (MACSAT) aims to foster Luxembourg and European space industry partnerships and is supported by the Luxembourg National Space program (“LuxIMPULSE”).

Japanese camera maker Nikon has bought a majority stake in U.S. startup Morf3D, an aerospace supplier whose customers include Boeing, in a deal estimated at nearly 10 billion yen ($91 million), Nikkei has learned.

The acquisition, which took place on Friday and will be announced Tuesday, gives Nikon a foothold in the supply chain for small satellites, a growing field of the aerospace industry.

Driving the move is the shrinking market for one of Japan’s leading camera brands.

California-based Morf3D was founded in 2015 and mainly makes parts for satellites using 3D printing. The company has received funding from Boeing’s venture capital arm and also does business with other American and European aerospace companies.

Nikon gains representation on Morf3D’s board of directors and will send engineers to the startup to solidify their operational ties.

Satellite components must be both strong and lightweight, with as few bolted or other joints as possible.

Nikon has strength in optical processing machines, a kind of 3D printing technology used to build up metal components from a powder-like material. The company will apply this technology to making aerospace components for sale through Morf3D’s sales channels.

The small-satellite market is expected to grow to $7.1 billion in 2025 from $2.8 billion in 2020, according to Indian research firm MarketsandMarkets.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to launch a network of 12,000 satellites to provide global high-speed internet access, while Amazon looks to put into orbit over 3,000 communication satellites.

Suyoshi Tamehiro, Nikkei staff writer, Nikkei Asia

OFFICINA STELLARE SpA has been awarded the contract for the supply of a set of medium and long-range telescopes to be installed in a test facility located in the southern hemisphere — this contract has a total value of approximately $1.5 million.

Gino Bucciol, Head of OS’ Business Development, said, “[..] this contract positions us, internationally, among the most important players in the defense sector, a strategic area that we have been overseeing for some years, in which we aim to grow thanks to the consolidated technical-engineering skills and the level of absolute excellence achieved by our opto-mechanical instrumentation. This result is a further confirmation of the defense industry’s confidence in our industrial model characterized by an almost completely internal value chain that guarantees efficiency, versatility and the ability to optimize production processes.”

Additionally, last month, the company was awarded the contract for the supply of the ground Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) station that is to complete the already existing geodetic infrastructure at the Yebes Observatory in Spain.

This ground station was designed for extremely versatile use and is also different from those that are specifically related to laser measurements, such as laser communications.

This contract is part of the important scientific project YDALGO, promoted by the National Center of Geographic Information, and led by the Spanish company TTI and further supported by the German DiGOS that specializes in the development of turnkey SLR stations.

OHB Sweden AB, subsidiary of space and technology group OHB SE, has signed a contract for a dedicated launch with Rocket Factory Augsburg AG (RFA) for an upcoming mission that is scheduled for mid-2024. 

OHB Sweden is a Swedish provider of space systems and develops, builds, tests and operates satellites for different kinds of space missions within communications, EO, space research and exploration. From low-orbiting satellites via geostationary ones and all the way up to interplanetary missions. The company recently sealed the Arctic Weather Satellite (AWS) with ESA as the prime contractor, marking the beginning of OHB Sweden’s future towards small satellite constellations.

Rocket Factory, a start-up backed by the German satellite maker OHB as a strategic investor, and Venture Capital firm Apollo Capital Partners, is currently developing a launcher system called RFA One for smallsats with a payload performance of up to 1300 kg to LEO. The first launch is scheduled for the end of 2022. The company recently qualified the upper stage tank system during cryogenic tests and currently is running a test campaign to hot-fire the main engine in Esrange, Sweden.

RFA features high-performance engine technology, coupled to lowest-possible-cost production techniques, and is essentially new to Europe. Through the support of OHB, RFA managed to acquire key technologies and talent that will propel the business case of the RFA One launch vehicle to allow it to compete on a global scale.

Recent firing tests have demonstrated that RFA is on a winning path to resolve Europe’s most efficient and most powerful rocket engine technology. Recently, RFA won the first round of the German micro-launcher competition of the German Space Agency DLR, which granted RFA with a letter of support to receive 500.000 € of funding within ESA’s Boost! program. In the next round of the competition, DLR and ESA will award a launch contract worth 11,000,000 euros for institutional payloads.

“OHB Sweden and Rocket Factory share a common philosophy to provide the highest quality and reliability at the lowest possible prices. OHB Sweden with its extensive experience of over three decades in the design, development and testing of low-cost small satellite missions has found its counterpart in the launch service market,” said Benoit Mathieu, Managing Director at OHB Sweden. “We are closely following the development activities of RFA from the very beginning. The team has shown an impressive track record over the last two years and we are confident that RFA will keep this pace for the upcoming milestones. Our intention with this contract is to secure a launch slot for one of our commercial customers. This agreement allows us to be able to offer a highly integrated and cost-effective solution to our customers.”

“Signing on with your first commercial customer is always something special,” said Jörn Spurmann, Chief Commercial Officer at RFA. “We are particularly proud that OHB Sweden selected our highly competitive launch service, which is a great demonstration that we achieve traction in the commercial market. Specifically, since OHB Sweden is at the forefront of NewSpace, with the quick turnaround time on the GMS-T mission launched in January, we believe that this will be the starting point of a great partnership.”

Dr. Stefan Brieschenk, Chief Operating Officer at RFA, added, “We are truly excited to provide the outstanding capabilities of the RFA ONE launch service to OHB Sweden. This marks a major milestone for future European access to space in a new environment that allows for commercial solutions that are highly cost-effective with a strong customer focus. The orbital stage of the RFA ONE vehicle can position the payloads precisely where the customer wants them to go, while providing a new dimension of flexibility that traditional launch services and solutions do not cover.”

Original release…
The launch date of the four Axelspace satellites (GRUS-1B, 1C, 1D, 1E) is set for March 20, 2021, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

These smallsats will become part of the AxelGlobe Earth Observation System and this will be the second launch for the company, after the successful deployment of GRUS-1A in December of 2018.

Launch Campaign Members in Axelspace hoodies have been working on final preparation for the launch.

Gilmour Space Technologies and Fleet Space Technologies are joining forces to launch smallsats to orbit.  

Fleet Space launched Australia’s first commercial smallsats in 2018 and its fifth just last week with their technology already transforming critical industries that range from energy and utilities to mining. 

Established well before Australia’s two-year-old Space Agency, Gilmour and Fleet were the first New Space start-ups to raise venture capital funding in Australia. The companies were seeded by Sydney-based venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures, which has since invested in subsequent rounds.

“We have signed a contract to launch six Fleet Space Centauri nanosatellites on our Eris rockets in 2023,” said Adam Gilmour, the CEO of Gilmour Space, which is tracking to launch their first commercial payloads to orbit next year. “This is a great example of how homegrown space companies are scaling and partnering to meet the world’s growing demand for innovative small satellite applications and affordable launch.”

“This launch is going to involve an Australian-built payload in an Australian-built satellite, on an Australian-built rocket,” added Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO of Fleet Space, which is building a ‘global digital nervous system’ to power the next industrial revolution. “This announcement is the start of an ongoing launch service relationship as we work towards our planned constellation of 140 satellites. We are building a strong portfolio of launch service partners, and we are very excited to have Gilmour Space as one of them.”

Blackbird partner, Rick Baker, added, “Gilmour and Fleet are leading the way forward through great technology and big ambitions. We’ve been impressed with both companies’ traction and see this partnership as a milestone for the maturing space industry in Australia. It’s fantastic to see leaders like Adam and Flavia joining forces to scale further and raise our collective ambition.” 

Dubai Municipality has successfully launched and deployed their DMSat-1, an atmospheric monitoring smallsat built by Space Flight Laboratory (SFL).

DMSat-1 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket on March 22 by GK Launch Services (GKLS). 

SFL developed DMSat-1 under contract to the Dubai-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The 15-kg smallsat was built on SFL’s space-proven next generation Earth Monitoring and Observation (NEMO) platform.

SFL is a unique microspace provider that offers a complete suite of nano-, micro- and smallsats – including high-performance, low-cost cubesats – that satisfy the needs of a broad range of mission types from 3 to 500 kilograms. Dating from 1998, SFL’s heritage of on-orbit successes includes 68 satellites and distinct missions related to EO, atmospheric monitoring, ship tracking, communication, radio frequency (RF) geolocation, technology demonstration, space astronomy, solar physics, space plasma, and other scientific research.

In its 23 year history, SFL has developed a variety of form factor smallsats that have achieved more than 140 cumulative years of operation on-orbit. These missions have included SFL’s trusted attitude control and, in some cases, formation-flying capabilities. Other core SFL-developed components include modular (scalable) power systems, onboard radios, flight computers, and control software.

SFL was selected to build DMSat-1 for its compact size and performance, including the mission-critical importance of attitude control and precise sensor pointing. SFL has developed high-performance ground target tracking capabilities that enable the small satellite to execute a slewing maneuver in orbit to accurately point its sensors at selected swaths of the atmosphere.

DMSat-1 carries two instruments onboard. The primary payload is a multi-spectral polarimeter that monitors aerosols, which are typically fine particles of liquids and solids in the upper atmosphere often caused by anthropomorphic sources. Aerosols also correlate to natural phenomenon such as dust storms. The secondary payload is a pair of spectrometers for detection of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane.

DMSat-1 is the 16th SFL-built satellite launched in the past seven months. These launches include missions developed for GHGSat Inc. of Montreal, HawkEye 360 of Virginia, Space-SI of Slovenia, and a Toronto-based telecommunications company. This launch also included two communications satellites developed using SFL technology.

“We congratulate Dubai on the launch of its first atmospheric monitoring nanosatellite,” said SFL Director, Dr. Robert E. Zee. “DMSat-1 will play a key role in monitoring atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases for Dubai and the UAE. “Our ability to keep low-inertia, relatively inexpensive microsatellites like DMSat-1 pointed accurately and stably in orbit has made atmospheric monitoring missions possible at much lower cost.”