Rocket Lab has signed a rideshare agreement with Scottish / American PocketQube satellite manufacturer, Alba Orbital, to launch a cluster of smallsats designed to demonstrate innovative radio and night-time Earth Observation (EO) technologies.

The four smallsats in Alba Orbital’s cluster will fly as part of a rideshare mission on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle, lifting-off from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula in Q4, 2021. The cluster includes Alba Orbital’s own Unicorn-2 PocketQube satellites, as well as the TRSI-2, TRSI-3 and MyRadar-1 satellites for Alba Orbital’s customers. Each smallsat carries a unique sensor designed to demonstrate innovative technologies on orbit.

Unicorn-2 will be carrying an optical night-time imaging payload designed to monitor light pollution across the globe. Night-time satellite imagery, otherwise known as ‘Night Lights’ data, provides crucial insights into human activities. This data enables a host of applications such as tracking urbanization and socioeconomic dynamics, evaluating conflict and disasters, investigating fisheries, assessing greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, and analyzing light pollution and health effects.

All four PocketQubes will be deployed to a circular orbit by Electron’s Kick Stage, a nimble spacecraft that provides in-space propulsion and maneuvering capability to ensure each satellite is deployed to a precise and unique orbit defined by the customer.

The Alba cluster joins this mission alongside AuroraSat-1 from Aurora Propulsion Technologies, a Finnish company dedicated to the sustainable use of space. The mission is one of many scheduled to lift off on Electron from Launch Complex 1 this year, including three back-to-back dedicated launches for BlackSky Global, and the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon in support of NASA’s Artemis program.

“We’re delighted to be Alba Orbital’s mission partner once again,” said Rocket Lab Founder and Chief Executive, Peter Beck. “The Alba Orbital team have proven that incredibly small satellites can be highly capable and deliver tangible insights and services back down to Earth at a fraction of traditional satellite costs. Making it faster, easier and more affordable to access space is a mission we share, so we’re excited to make it possible with Electron.”

“It’s a pleasure to be working with Rocket Lab again on this exciting mission,” said Tom Walkinshaw, CEO and Founder of Alba Orbital. “We successfully flew six satellites on board Rocket Lab’s ‘Running Out of Fingers’ flight in 2019, and we are thrilled to launch the first of our imaging constellation dedicated to imaging the Earth at night on board the Electron rocket. From day one, Alba Orbital’s mission has always been to democratize access to space, and Rocket Lab has demonstrated that they are whole-heartedly committed to the same vision.”

Spaceflight is currently managing three consecutive dedicated Rocket Lab launches for its customer BlackSky, a leading technology platform providing real-time geospatial intelligence and global monitoring.

The back-to-back-to-back launches will each carry two BlackSky smallsats to LEO. Spaceflight’s RL-8, coined “Love At First Insight” by Rocket Lab, is the first of the launches and slated to launch the last week of August from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The next two launches, Spaceflight’s RL-10 and RL-11, will follow in subsequent weeks.

Since February of 2020, when travel restrictions and lockdowns started to occur around the world, Spaceflight’s U.S.-based team has managed:

• Twelve missions, seven of which launched outside the U.S. from facilities in French Guiana, India and New Zealand, requiring the team to take personal health risks traveling prior to vaccine availability, along with navigating each country’s health protocols, entry requirements, and in-person work restrictions.

• The deployment of 113 spacecraft from organizations in 11 countries, each with varying restrictions for travel, impacting spacecraft integration processing. 

The company recently deployed 36 spacecraft on its SXRS-5 mission (SpaceX’s Transporter-2) in June. The mission marked the first flight of two Sherpa orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) including Sherpa-LTE1, the industry’s first electric propulsive OTV. In addition to many traditional rideshare and dedicated missions this year, Spaceflight is preparing for the inaugural flight of Sherpa-LTC1, its chemical propulsive OTV on SpaceX’s Transporter-3 mission, scheduled to launch no earlier than December 2021.

“Our primary objective is to help our customers launch their spacecraft when and where they want,” said Curt Blake, CEO and president of Spaceflight. “The global pandemic has presented us with challenges we’ve never imagined and I’m proud that our team has continued to say, ‘challenge accepted.’ While these rapid succession launches provide BlackSky with a reliable way to get their constellation on orbit quickly, executing the launches during a global pandemic places significant demands on all the teams involved, including weeks of quarantine and being separated from their families for several months. We’re extremely grateful for all the teams’ dedication and flexibility during these very demanding circumstances. It’s also not an overstatement to say the pandemic has required personal heroics and sacrifice to deliver the unbridled service our customers rely on; we’re in awe of the team’s professionalism and adherence to health guidelines to keep everyone safe and our customers’ missions on track.”

“Spaceflight Inc. played an important role in the successful launches of Kleos’ recent missions and has proven to be a proactive and flexible partner,” said Andy Bowyer, Kleos Space CEO. “They went above and beyond the call of duty to get our scouting satellites launched in the middle of a pandemic. We are grateful to have Spaceflight’s expertise and experience at our disposal as we prepare for the launch of future clusters.” 

Ovzon has rescheduled their Ovzon 3 satellite launch to the second quarter of 2022, due to insufficiencies in key components that affect the completion of a large number of other satellites in the industry.

Ovzon 3 has been in production at Maxar in the US since the project was initiated on August 9, 2019, and was planned to launch with Arianespace by the end of 2021.

Maxar has informed Ovzon they are unable to deliver on the original timeline due to delays from subcontractor Honeywell and will, therefore, not be able to meet previously agreed date for delivery to Ovzon. Maxar and Honeywell are working hard and have developed new procedures to minimize these delays.

Ovzon has managed to secure a new launch slot in Q2, 2022, and expect Ovzon 3 to be operational during Q4 2022. Ovzon’s customers have been informed of the rescheduling and continue to be excited about using Ovzon 3 and its best-in-class performance when the satellite has reached its targeted orbital position.

This rescheduling will not affect Ovzon’s current business and deliveries to current and new customers as the company has already strategically secured leased satellite capacity for Ovzon’s expanding SATCOM-as-a-Service offering.

BlackSky Holdings, Inc. (“BlackSky”) announced the completion of a joint pilot project with Palantir TechnologiesInc. (NYSE: PLTR) that integrated BlackSky’s commercial satellite imagery and analytics into Palantir Foundry, Palantir’s enterprise platform. The capabilities of the combined solution were successfully demonstrated in a series of exercises with experienced geo-intelligence customers.

Through the collective capabilities of BlackSky and Palantir, the pilot program combined high-resolution imagery and deep analytics to inform decision makers and demonstrated the powerful impact of global monitoring from space and real-time insights. The ability to rapidly deliver worldwide intelligence that can aid in predicting events introduces a significant advantage in time-sensitive operations.

BlackSky’s data platform, Spectra AI, served as a foundational layer and was seamlessly integrated into Palantir Foundry. BlackSky demonstrated the ability to automatically deliver insights and intelligence to Palantir customers within minutes of collection, without any human interaction.

Earlier this year, BlackSky announced a planned business combination with Osprey Technology Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: SFTW). BlackSky currently anticipates closing the transaction during the third quarter of 2021.

“Our joint pilot program with Palantir highlights the vital impact of real-time insights,” said BlackSky CEO, Brian E. O’Toole. “The use of our data and analytics in these types of exercises drives demand for our geospatial intelligence as customers experience the rapid delivery of first-to-know insights that can inform proactive strategic decision making.”

“Our collaboration with BlackSky radically compresses the decision-chain for warfighters,” said Shyam Sankar, COO of Palantir Technologies. “It gives users unprecedented control over orbital sensors, and operationalizes AI insights from space to support better, faster decisions on earth. Palantir’s software continues to provide the operating system for operational decision-making at the edge across domains, from space to mud.”

Rocket Lab will launch a satellite to test space junk removal technologies for Aurora Propulsion Technologies, a Finnish company dedicated to the sustainable use of space. 

Lifting-off from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula as part of a rideshare mission scheduled in Q4, 2021, Electron will deploy AuroraSat-1 to LEO in a demonstration of the company’s proprietary propulsion devices and plasma brakes that provide efficient propulsion and deorbiting capabilities for smallsats.

The cubesat will validate the water-based propellant and mobility control of its Resistojets that can assist cubesats with de-tumbling capabilities and propulsion-based attitude control. AuroraSat-1 will also test its deployable Plasma Brakes which combine a micro-tether with charged particles in space, or ionospheric plasma, to generate significant amounts of drag to deorbit the spacecraft safely at the end of its life.  

The recently-signed launch agreement provides Aurora with an accelerated on-ramp to space at a critical phase in the company’s growth and technology development. Originally manifested to launch on a different rocket and orbital transfer vehicle, this rapid and streamlined space access, combined with the ability of Electron’s Kick Stage to precisely deliver payloads to their unique orbits, were decisive factors in Aurora selecting Rocket Lab as the launch provider for their mission. 

The AuroraSat-1 launch agreement follows a collection of other announced satellites flying onboard Electron including the first ever wooden satellite, WISA Woodsat, developed by Finnish company Arctic Astronautics. The mission is expected to follow on from three back-to-back Electron launches in August and September for BlackSky Global, and the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon in support of NASA’s Artemis program. 

“Speed to space is crucial in the development of next generation technologies like Aurora’s, made possible by the dedicated team behind Electron that delivers rapid and responsive launch for satellite operators who want to move quickly,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck. “We’re delighted to be working with Aurora to enable new and innovative systems with the safe and sustainable use of space in mind.” 

Aurora CEO, Roope Takala, said, “After earlier launch plans fell through, we greatly value Rocket Lab’s ability to offer a launch in a flight window starting just three months from our originally planned launch date. The quick response Rocket Lab offered allows us to space prove our technologies this year and keep on track with our development plans.”  

The Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket carrying British OneWeb communication satellites has been installed on the launch pad at Site 31 (Vostok) at the Baikonur spaceport, Russia’s Roscosmos state space agency said in a statement on Monday.

“The space rocket has been installed at Site 31 at the Baikonur spaceport,” the statement reads.

The Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat booster is scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur spaceport at 01:23 am Moscow time on August 20. The rocket will deliver 34 OneWeb satellites into orbit, bringing the total number of satellites in the OneWeb constellation to 288. The delivery process will take three hours and 45 minutes.

OneWeb satellites are designed to provide high-speed Internet access.

Tass Russian News Agency

On Monday, August 16, 2021, at 10:47 p.m. local time (01:47 am (UTC) on Thursday, August 17), a Vega launch vehicle operated by Arianespace lifted off successfully from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana (South America).

This mission marked Arianespace’s 7th successful launch of the year and the second with Vega in 2021. It lasted one hour, 44 minutes and 59 seconds, during which Pléiades Neo 4 separated on a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 625 km, while the four auxiliary payloads separated at 551 kilometers.

This mission’s primary purpose was to orbit Pléiades Neo 4, the second of the four satellites of the Pléiades Neo constellation, the first being launched with Vega on April 28, 2021. With 30 cm native-resolution, best-in-class geolocation accuracy and twice-a-day revisit capability, the four Pléiades Neo satellites unlock new possibilities. The satellite was fully funded and manufactured by its operator, Airbus.

Pléiades Neo 4 was the 133rd Airbus Defence and Space satellite to be launched by Arianespace. There are currently 18 Airbus satellites in Arianespace’s backlog 11 of which will be launched with Vega and Vega C launchers. The last two satellites of the Pléiades Neo constellation will be placed into orbit in 2022 ,thanks to the next generation launch vehicle, Vega C.

The 19th mission of Europe’s Vega light launcher also injected four cubesats into SSO, three for the European Space Agency (ESA) and one for the French start-up Unseenlabs:

• LEDSAT, an educational project from the University of Sapienza, Italy, participating in ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! program, that has been conceived to investigate the performances of a technology based on Light Emitting Diodes for optical Low-Earth Orbit satellites tracking
• RADCUBE, a cubesat from C3S, Hungary, to demonstrate miniaturized instrument technologies that measure in-situ the space radiation and magnetic field environment in Low Earth Orbit for space weather monitoring purposes
• SUNSTORM, a cubesat from RSL, Finland, with an innovative solar X-ray spectrometer to detect the X-ray pulses produced by coronal mass ejections – massive eruptions of many millions of tons of material from the Sun’s surface
• BRO-4, fourth cubesat from Unseenlabs, France, of the constellation BRO (Breizh Reconnaissance Orbiter), a spectrum monitoring and electromagnetic intelligence service for maritime surveillance.

The later three auxiliary payloads were under contract with SAB Launch Services. In order to meet their clients’ needs and to ensure them a quicker access to Space, Arianespace and SAB Launch Services established a collaboration to integrate all four auxiliary passengers in two PSL6U Deployers installed on the Payload Adapter.

As demonstrated by this new mission, Vega is perfectly tailored to carry the growing number of commercial and governmental smallsats and other lighter-weight payloads. Vega provides launch solutions for small and medium spacecraft headed into a wide range of orbits (SSO, LEO, Transfer to the Lagrange point L1, etc.), for Earth Observation (EO), science, education, defense and other applications.

The Vega program is the result of the cooperation of 10 European countries and has been developed under the leadership of ESA, with Italy (ASI) as the first contributor and Avio Spa (Colleferro, Italy) as a prime contractor, responsible for all industrial operations up-to lift-off from Europe’s Spaceport. Since its maiden flight in 2012, Vega has been a part of Arianespace’s family of launch vehicles.

“I would like to congratulate all the teams involved in the success of this second Vega of 2021”, said Stéphane Israël, CEO of Arianespace. “With this mission, Arianespace demonstrates yet again the incredible versatility of Vega: we delivered safely into orbit the second satellite of the innovative Pleiades Neo 4 constellation on behalf of Airbus, alongside 4 auxiliary cubesats for ESA and the French start-up Unseenlabs. More than ever, Vega is a key pillar of an autonomous access to space for Europe, allowing the expansion of benefits from space to Earth.”

Spire Global, Inc. has a new partnership and satellite mission with the firm’s first South Korean Space Services customer, Hancom Group, a leading ICT convergence company — this will be the first commercial satellite mission for a private South Korean company.

Hancom will host an optical payload on a Low Earth Multi-Use Receiver (LEMUR), Spire’s 3U smallsat named “HANCOM” to support the launch of a new product focused on the agriculture sector, including landscaping applications as well as expansion of its existing image analysis portfolio offerings.

In addition to using Spire’s services for its own operations, Hancom will also act as Spire’s first reseller within South Korea. Spire continues to expand its partnerships to serve customers across the world.

Hancom specializes in commercial and government applications of image analysis, including detection of vehicles, aircrafts and ships, changes in roads and buildings, and pine tree death detection. Leveraging the infrastructure of Spire’s LEMUR satellite, Hancom expects to be able to capture images of specific territories for its GIS mapping solutions and provide further analysis and expanded offerings, while retaining full control of the captured images and the ability to customize services to customers’ specific needs and applications.

Hancom plans to launch a constellation of up to nine satellites equipped with this type of payload in order to develop their own dedicated solution.

“South Korea’s commercial aerospace sector is making tremendous strides. Spire is proud to partner with Hancom as our first reseller partner in the country,” said Theresa Condor, Vice President of Global Development at Spire. “We’re excited that Spire’s capabilities will help Hancom meet the growing market demand for satellite imagery and geospatial analytics, and provide more insightful, tailored solutions to its customers.”