Made In Space (MIS) is helping in the fight against COVID-19 by providing frontline healthcare workers with much-needed supplies and equipment.

MIS facilities in Jacksonville, Florida, and Moffett Field, California, are using their additive manufacturing resources to provide hundreds of 3D printed face shields to local-area hospitals to augment the shortage of critical personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies.

Made in Space face shield.

The design includes a 3D printed frame with an adjustable headband that allows a clear plastic face shield to be easily snapped onto the frame. More than 200 masks have been produced over the last five days and are being distributed to local-area hospitals in Jacksonville, Florida, and Mountain View, California.

The worldwide shortage of PPE such as face shields, medical masks, and gowns increases the risk of exposure for healthcare personnel who are ill-equipped to care for COVID-19 patients. Hospitals and frontline workers are frantically implementing crisis capacity strategies to manage the inadequate supply of PPE and medical equipment.

MIS is engaging its engineering, manufacturing and design expertise to assess additional solutions to help in the fight. MIS engineers worked with local-area doctors in Jacksonville to quickly develop a rapid response ventilator adapter to enable a single ventilator to safely support multiple patients in extreme situations.

MIS Chief Engineer Michael Snyder said that in times of crisis, it is important for everyone to come together and the firm has  obligation to support those on the front lines. The Made in Space team is using every available 3D printing resource the company has to produce face shields to support local healthcare personnel.

Rocket Lab has successfully completed a mid-air recovery test – a maneuver that involves snagging an Electron test stage from the sky with a helicopter.

This successful test is a major step forward in Rocket Lab’s plans to reuse the first stage of their Electron launch vehicle for multiple missions. The test occurred in early March, before ‘Safer at Home’ orders were issued and before New Zealand entered Alert Level 4 in response to the COVID-19 situation.

To watch this test, please access this direct link to the YouTube video…

An Electron rocket liftoff. Photo is courtesy of RocketLab.

The test was conducted by dropping an Electron first stage test article from a helicopter over open ocean in New Zealand. A parachute was then deployed from the stage, before a second helicopter closed in on the descending stage and captured it mid-air at around 5,000 ft, using a specially designed grappling hook to snag the parachute’s drogue line. After capturing the stage on the first attempt, the helicopter safely carried the suspended stage back to land.

The successful test is the latest in a series of milestones for Rocket Lab as the company works towards a reusable first stage. On the company’s two most recent missions, launched in December 2019 and January 2020, Rocket Lab successfully completed guided the re-entries of Electron’s first stage.

Both stages on those missions carried new hardware and systems to enable recovery testing, including guidance and navigation hardware, S-band telemetry and onboard flight computer systems, to gather data during the stage’s atmospheric re-entry. One stage was also equipped with a reaction control system that oriented the first stage 180-degrees for its descent, keeping it dynamically stable for the re-entry. The stage slowed from more than 7,000 km per hour to less than 900 km by the time it reached sea-level, maintaining the correct angle of attack for the full descent.

The next phase of recovery testing will see Rocket Lab attempt to recover a full Electron first stage after launch from the ocean downrange of Launch Complex 1 and have it shipped back to Rocket Lab’s Production Complex for refurbishment. The stage will not be captured mid-air by helicopter for this test, but will be equipped with a parachute to slow its descent before a soft landing in the ocean, where it will be collected by a ship. This mission is currently planned for late-2020.

Rocket Lab Founder and Chief Executive, Peter Beck, said the successful mid-air recovery test is a major step towards increasing launch frequency by eliminating the need to build a new first stage for every mission. He congratulated the recovery team at Rocket Lab on a flawless, mid-air recovery test. Electron has already unlocked access to space for small satellites, but every step closer to reusability is a step closer to even more frequent launch opportunities for the firm’s customers. Rocket Lab is looking forward to pushing the technology even further this year and to return a flown stage back to the factory.

Omnispace has selected Thales Alenia Space to develop the initial component of the company’s satellite-based Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure — this will advance Omnispace’s vision to deliver a global hybrid communications network based on 3GPP standards.

Thales Alenia Space will design and build an initial set of two satellites for operation in non-geostationary orbit (NGSO).

These initial satellites will support 3GPP-defined (the 3rd Generation Partnership Project telecommunications specifications that unite standard development organizations) Narrow-Band IoT radio interface and will serve to advance the development and implementation of Omnispace’s global hybrid network.

This announcement marks a key milestone as Omnispace initiates the development of its new generation NGSO satellite constellation that will operate in the S-band.

Artistic rendition of Omnispace’s satellites.

The development of this initial set of satellites will begin immediately and they are scheduled for launch in 2021. Omnispace and Thales Alenia Space, along-side other industry stakeholders, will contribute to the development of the 3GPP NTN friendly standard for global implementation.

Ram Viswanathan, President and CEO of Omnispace LLC, stated that Thales Alenia Space has a successful track record of developing NGSO satellite constellations and is well-qualified to support the company’s vision of delivering the world’s first global 5G non terrestrial network (NTN). This investment in the firm’s next-generation satellite infrastructure allows Omnispace to progress the development of the firm’s technology and demonstrate the company’s unique capabilities as the firm continues to work towards launching the company’s broader vision of a global hybrid network.

Hervé Derrey, CEO of Thales Alenia Space, added that the company is pleased to be working with Omnispace, which is taking a holistic approach to the design, development and deployment of their next-generation, IoT-based satellite network infrastructure. Omnispace’s selection of Thales Alenia Space reinforces the firm’s leadership position as a major industrial partner and the company’s expertise in space-based IoT communications and Thales Alenia Space looks forward to collaborating with Omnispace in delivering this innovative project.

South Australian satellite connectivity company Myriota has raised A$28 million in Series B funding to bolster its satellite network and increase its workforce by 2022.

Myriota co-founders David Haley and Alex Grant at Lot Fourteen in Adelaide. Picture: Rosina Possingham.

Myriota will use the latest round of funding to increase its constellation of satellites to 25 and further its global expansion as a leader in low-cost and low-power Internet of Things (IoT) satellite connectivity.

Myriota’s technology involves tiny satellite transmitters that send low powered messages directly to a constellation of LEO smallsats. These satellites relay the messages to Earth where they are decoded and sent to the end user. The technology is particularly effective in remote areas on land or at sea that do not have access to internet or cellular networks.

The company will also use the Series B funding to grow its workforce by 50 percent in the next two years, allowing it to connect billions of devices to power energy-efficient technology and serve demand in key international markets.

Myriota raised A$15 million in Series A funding in 2018 and said all of those participants returned to take part in Series B.

Artistic rendition of a Myriota smallsat on-orbit.

The latest funding round brings Mryriota’s total funding to A$50 million, including investments from Hostplus, Main Sequence Ventures, In-Q-Tel and former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

CEO and co-founder Alex Grant said the latest round of funding would break down cost-prohibitive barriers and assist in maximizing efficiency and added that this is a critical time for IoT. Presently 90 per cent of the earth’s surface lacks connectivity. Myriota has been focused on filling that gap and overcoming constraints in existing infrastructure. With this new round of funding, the company will continue to grow the firm’s network of satellites to deliver an affordable, environmentally friendly and powerful solution to make data accessible for our global customer base.

The announcement is the latest in a string of expansions for Myriota, which has become a global leader in smallsat IoT connectivity and is based at Lot Fourteen – an innovation precinct in Adelaide, South Australia, which is also home of the Australian Space Agency.

Myriota was spun out of the University of South Australia in 2015 with funding from Canada-based data services company exactEarth.

Last month, the South Australian start-up announced it had furthered its partnership with exactEarth to acquire satellite communications assets.

The acquisition, which is subject to Canadian regulatory approval, signified the creation of Myriota’s first North American office, in Ontario, Canada. It provides Myriota with four exactEarth experts in satellite operations, satellite engineering and spectrum management. The CA$600,000 deal also increases Myriota’s capacity to deliver low-cost, low-power, secure direct-to-orbit satellite connectivity for IoT through four satellites and a global network of ground states assets.

Dr. Grant said that despite challenging global business conditions, the company was in a fortunate position to continue its international expansion plans and allow multiple industries to access its technology. He noted that this acquisition is a huge opportunity for Myriota business to grow its North American footprint. It will add industry-leading capabilities in key areas, such as satellite operations, engineering and spectrum management from an experienced team, and will fast-track the firn’s development with established ground facilities and ground stations.”

South Australia has been a significant player in the nation’s space industry and is home to major Tier 1 defence companies, the SmartSat CRC and several other emerging space start-ups, including Fleet Space Technologies and Inovor Technologies.

In 2018, Adelaide was announced as the home of the Australian Space Agency, to which a $6 million Mission Control Centre for smallsat missions and an educational Discovery Centre was added in 2019.

Story by Jessica Bassano, The Lead

Virgin Orbit has announced a new partnership with Oita Prefecture to bring horizontal launch to Japan.

With the support of regional partners ANA Holdings Inc. and the Space Port Japan Association, Virgin Orbit has identified Oita Airport as its preferred pilot launch site — yet another addition to the company’s growing global network of horizontal launch sites — in pursuit of a mission to space from Japan as early as 2022.

Virgin Orbit and Oita Prefecture have agreed to commence a joint technical study to facilitate development of the future spaceport.

Photo of Oita Airport, Japan.

LauncherOne, Virgin Orbit’s uniquely mobile launch system, will leverage sites around the world like Oita to provide flexible and responsive flights to space for a broad variety of customers. Most recently, the UK Space Agency announced a multi-million dollar grant to facilitate horizontal launches from Spaceport Cornwall. In April of 2019, Virgin Orbit revealed that it would also conduct launches from Andersen Air Force Base on the Pacific island of Guam — Virgin Orbit is also working closely with multiple governments and international organizations interested in establishing launch capabilities closer to home.

After successfully demonstrating all major vehicle assemblies and completing an extensive flight test program, the Virgin Orbit team is in the midst of final preparations for an orbital launch demonstration expected soon.

Katsusada Hirose, Governor for the Oita Prefectural Government, said, “We are eager to host the first horizontal takeoff and landing spaceport in Japan. We are also honored to be able to collaborate with brave technology companies solving global-level problems through their small satellites. We hope to foster a cluster of space industry in our prefecture, starting with our collaboration with Virgin Orbit.”

Dan Hart, the CEO for Virgin Orbit, said the global use of smaller satellites and related launch activities are expected to ramp up rapidly in the coming years, a flexible domestic launch capability becomes a crucial factor. It’s a key element in ensuring the availability and responsiveness of launch — a core enabler for the growing space economy. As Japan looks to establish a regional launch hub for Asia,
Virgin Orbit is excited to work alongside Oita to enable launch operations for space ventures, stimulate the local economy, and facilitate the growth of Japan’s broader space ecosystem.

Orbital Micro Systems (OMS) has selected Glasgow-based AAC Clyde Space to provide a 6U smallsat bus for the UK Space Launch Program (UK-SLP).

The mission is planned for 2021, which will be the first launch from UK soil through the UK-SLP project that is managed by Lockheed Martin.

Under the terms of the contract, OMS and AAC Clyde Space will collaborate to integrate the instrumentation and bus for launch. The companies previously collaborated on the IOD-1 GEMS mission, which successfully deployed the first commercial microwave radiometer in space.

AAC Clyde Space’s EPIC 6U smallsat platform.

The new 6U smallsat will carry OMS’s next generation, miniaturized, microwave radiometer as a part of the company’s Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS) constellation of satellites. The radiometer will monitor 118GHz and 183GHz frequency bands to gather temperature and humidity measurements at multiple altitudes as it orbits the earth.

According to the firm, GEMS is a groundbreaking Earth Observation (EO) solution which uses passive microwave soundings to record temperature and humidity at multiple altitudes regardless of cloud cover. The measurements can provide identification of precipitation type and density at altitude as well. The data collected by GEMS satellites magnifies the volume of microwave soundings available from government satellites and improves the precision and clarity of weather forecasts across the globe.

Orbital Micro Systems IOD-1 GEMS 3U demonstration satellite deployed 3 July 2019.

Access to the unique GEMS data is available through OMS’ International Center for Earth Data (ICED) located in Edinburgh, Scotland. Data from the IOD-1 GEMS satellite is currently provided to government and commercial entities, including the aviation and maritime sectors, as well as insurance and government organizations. When it achieves full deployment with some 50 satellites, the GEMS constellation will deliver near real-time data for any point on earth at approximately 15-minute intervals.

William Hosack

William Hosack, CEO for OMS, said the company is delighted to, once again, work with Clyde Space, and leverage their expertise and commitment to engineering outstanding bus products. Clyde Space shares in OMS’s vision in leveraging space technology for improving weather observation capabilities on Earth. The firm looks forward to working even closer with Clyde Space to deliver essential weather data to commercial and government organizations worldwide.

For more information about Orbital Micro Systems, please visit .

NASA has selected a new mission to study how the Sun generates and releases giant space weather storms – known as solar particle storms – into planetary space.

This information improve understanding of how our solar system works as well as, ultimately, helping to protect astronauts traveling to the Moon and Mars by providing better information on how the Sun’s radiation affects the space environment they must travel through.

A new NASA mission called SunRISE will study what drives solar particle storms – giant surges of solar particles that erupt off of the Sun – as depicted in this illustration. Understanding how such storms affect interplanetary space can help protect spacecraft and astronauts. Image is courtesy of NASA.

The new mission, called the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE), is an array of six cubesats operating as one very large radio telescope. NASA has awarded $62.6 million to design, build and launch SunRISE by no earlier than July 1, 2023.

NASA chose SunRISE in August 2017 as one of two Mission of Opportunity proposals to conduct an 11-month mission concept study. In February 2019, the agency approved a continued formulation study of the mission for an additional year. SunRISE is led by Justin Kasper at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

The mission design relies on six solar-powered cubesats – each about the size of a toaster oven – to simultaneously observe radio images of low-frequency emission from solar activity and share them via NASA’s Deep Space Network. The constellation of cubesats would fly within 6 miles of each other, above Earth’s atmosphere, which otherwise blocks the radio signals SunRISE will observe.

Together, the six smallsats will create 3D maps to pinpoint where giant particle bursts originate on the Sun and how they evolve as they expand outward into space. This, in turn, will help determine what initiates and accelerates these giant jets of radiation. The six individual spacecraft will also work together to map, for the first time, the pattern of magnetic field lines reaching from the Sun out into interplanetary space.

NASA JPL artistic rendition of a SunRISE smallsat.

NASA’s Missions of Opportunity maximize science return by pairing new, relatively inexpensive missions with launches on spacecraft already approved and preparing to go into space. SunRISE proposed an approach for access to space as a hosted rideshare on a commercial satellite provided by Maxar of Westminster, Colorado, and built with a Payload Orbital Delivery System, or PODS. Once in orbit, the host spacecraft will deploy the six SunRISE spacecraft and then continue its prime mission.

Missions of Opportunity are part of the Explorers Program, which is the oldest, continuous, NASA program designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space using principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to the Science Mission Directorate’s (SMD) astrophysics and heliophysics programs. The program is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for SMD, which conducts a wide variety of research and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather, the solar system and universe.

Nicky Fox, Director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, said the agency is so pleased to add a new mission to the fleet of spacecraft that help to gain better understand of the Sun, as well as how the star influences the space environment between planets. The more that is known about how the Sun erupts with space weather events, the more their effects on spacecraft and astronauts can be mitigated.

A newly established consortium is going to develop a network for LEO satellites delivering ice chart data to ships at sea.

This will significantly improve navigation for ships in rough seas and raise security for the crew on board. The network will also allow the satellite operator Sternula to launch its first of a total of 50 smallsats.

A new research project called MARIOT (Maritime IoT) is going to develop a LEO satellite network based on the new VDES (VHF Data Exchange System) technology. The network will be the first of its kind and establish a stable, low-cost data connection for maritime safety and navigation services. The consortium behind the project is headed by the Danish satellite operator Sternula.

The SATCOM developers GateHouse, Space Inventor, and Satlab as well as Aalborg University, and the Danish Meteorological Institute also participate in the project which will initially focus on the need for improved communication and navigation services in the Arctic Ocean.

VDES technology is the second generation of the Automatic Identification System (AIS). Today, the AIS standard is used to monitor marine traffic by more than 200,000 ships. However, AIS has a limited reach of only 30 nautical miles and is also limited to transfer on only certain types of data. VDES will enable global connectivity through satellite networks as well as efficient transfer of more data types.

In addition to shipping companies operating in the Arctic Ocean, the VDES network is also relevant for maritime security and navigation services, e.g., for sailing directions and coastal monitoring, and can also be used by the maritime industry to monitor marine engines and critical equipment on board. The contribution from GateHouse is mainly related to data communication—more specifically, by ensuring that data can be communicated to and from the individual satellites to the ground station. This includes inter-satellite capabilities and advanced algorithms for data routing in satellite constellations.

GateHouse, Space Inventor, and Satlab will develop the hardware and software components for the project while Aalborg University―based on its extensive experience with launching smallsats―will contribute with technology and expert knowledge. The Danish Meteorological Institute will participate with their ice chart service, which is in development and will be tailored to the VDES network. The MARIOT project will be managed by Sternula and is sponsored by the Danish Innovation Fund.

Per Koch

Business Development Manager at GateHouse, Per Koch, said that, today, the satellite communication networks used by ships in high-latitude seas are often expensive, inept for small amounts of data, and, in some cases, do not even cover seas in remote regions. This is an issue―especially in the Arctic Ocean―where optimized navigation services can significantly reduce the length of shipping routes, e.g. by placing routes closer to the Arctic. VDES offers a faster and more efficient data connection compared to other SATCOM services on the market, and after the VDES standard was assigned global radio frequencies last year, the company now has the opportunity to launch the first global VDES network improving navigation services and security for ships sailing through treacherous passages

New Mexico State University’s College of Engineering and the Department of Biology are collaborating with X2nSat in order to create a device to measure Pacific Ocean temperatures in real time during the 2020 Pacific Cup race.

The Pacific Cup is a race that started in 1980 and now takes place every other year where sailors start from San Francisco and sail the open ocean to Hawaii’s Kaneohe island. The race is usually considered something sailors do for fun; however, this year NMSU and X2nSat want to put the boats to work.

The students at NMSU, as part of the Aggie Engineering Capstone Design Program, are working to design a device capable of measuring ocean temperatures at various depths that can also store and transmit data in real time via X2nSat’s satellite communications technology.

The NMSU team working on the sensor include mechanical engineering seniors Caleb Gustin, Joseph Moseley, Dominic Blea and Makena Sutherland, industrial engineering senior Ahmad Atiah and electrical engineering senior Rodion Shishkov. They are also being advised on the environmental impact of their project by Michelle Nishiguchi, Regents Professor and Biology department head at NSMU.

X2nSat is hoping to work with the students of NMSU to provide real-time accurate data for the entire 2,000 mile race. As well as being able to run live video updates, stream movies and videos, the firm hopes to show what satellites are capable of accomplishing.

This is something that has never been done previously – despite the likely importance of these readings, the funding and infrastructure needed in order to perform something of this magnitude had been out of reach. Now, though, with the help of X2nSat and satellite, the students of NMSU can measure ocean temperatures from San Francisco to Hawaii and build a case for environmental impact.

The Pacific Cup race will kick off the week of June 29, 2020, from San Francisco and will last anywhere from a quick six, to a leisurely 17 days, depending on how long it takes each boat to arrive.

Gabe Garcia, mechanical engineering associate professor and assistant dean of student success for experiential learning, said the project will promote partnership between NMSU students and industry. In addition, the project will demonstrate the capabilities of satellite communications over a specific region of the Pacific Ocean.

Undertaking this task from the X2nSat side is CEO Garrett Hill and the crew of the boat Big Medicine, Pete Whyte, Bryan Hill, Dominic Haugh, and Ian Chadwick in addition to X2nSat’s technical support (GNSC) crew and the engineering team.

Garrett Hill

Garrett Hill, the CEO of X2nSat, said that the company is always looking to test the capabilities of our communications. The firm believes that showing satellite’s ability to maintain live readings while in the middle of the Pacific ocean, thousands of miles from land, will be something incredible.