Rocket Lab has reached an agreement to acquire Sinclair Interplanetary, a provider of high-quality, flight-proven satellite hardware — the financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

The acquisition strengthens the satellite division of Rocket Lab, which produces the Photon spacecraft line and will enable Sinclair to tap into Rocket Lab’s resources, scale, manufacturing capability and innovative technology.

Founded in 2001 by Doug Sinclair, Toronto-based Sinclair Interplanetary develops reliable, best-in-class spacecraft hardware, including reaction wheels and star trackers that support rapid-schedule small satellite programs. More than 90 satellites incorporating Sinclair hardware have been launched to orbit, including Rocket Lab-launched satellites from AstroDigital, ALE, and BlackSky.

The Sinclair team has been entrusted with developing hardware for world-first missions: BRITE, the world’s smallest space telescope; and The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2, the first satellite in Earth orbit to be propelled solely by sunlight. Satellite communications company, Kepler Communications, has also selected Sinclair reaction wheels for its constellation of 140 Internet of Things (IoT) satellites currently in development.

Rocket Lab will look to leverage Sinclair Interplanetary’s strong brand and equally impressive heritage of innovation, quality, and execution. Sinclair products will be key features of Rocket Lab’s in-house designed and built Photon satellite platforms, and Rocket Lab will bring additional resources to grow Sinclair’s already strong merchant spacecraft components business.

Rocket Lab Founder and Chief Executive, Peter Beck, said that by combining the experience and capabilities of both companies, Rocket Lab will deliver reliable and flexible satellite and launch solutions that enable customers to do more, spend less and reach orbit faster. Doug Sinclair and his team at Sinclair Interplanetary are recognized as industry leaders and, like Rocket Lab, they produce best-in-class solutions that satellite operators know they can count on. Sinclair’s dedication to quality and reliability aligns perfectly with Rocket Lab’s commitment to mission success. The company is thrilled to welcome Doug and the entire Sinclair team to the Rocket Lab family.

Doug Sinclair added that Rocket Lab has played a pivotal role in making it easy for small satellites to access space. By operating as one company, there is now the opportunity to do the same for satellite manufacturing and make Sinclair hardware available to more customers globally. The firm will be able to supply larger constellations than before and take our hardware out to the Moon and beyond.

An Australian team is using machine learning to tackle the threat of space junk wrecking new satellites.

Research to tackle the growing need to find, capture and remove junk from space is advancing at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning in Adelaide, South Australia.

Machine Learning for Space director Tat-Jun Chin and his Adelaide-based team have won a $600,000 grant from Australia’s SmartSat CRC to continue their work in detecting, tracking and cataloging space junk.

SmartSat CRC was established last year to work with the Australian Space Agency based in Adelaide, contributing to the Australian government’s goal of tripling the size of the space sector to $12 billion and creating as many as 20,000 jobs by 2030. The space junk project is based on developing a space-based surveillance network and tackling the growing challenge of crowding in space.

Associate Professor Chin said his team was one of the first to apply an effective machine learning approach to the problem of estimating the pose of space objects from an input image so it can be removed. He said that inn order to remove a piece of debris from another spacecraft, such as by casting a net, harpooning or grabbing with a robotic arm, it is vital to estimate the position and orientation of the debris relative to the approaching spacecraft.

The project involves University of Adelaide academics and researchers partnering with Inovor Technologies and a leading Australian space firm specializing in space situational awareness. It also includes scientists from the University of Queensland and the Australian National University.

Associate Professor Chin said the center was also waiting on the results of an application to partner with the giant European Space Agency (ESA) to find novel ways to approach and remove junk from space. He said the center, based in the city’s Lot Fourteen innovation neighborhood that also houses the Australian Space Agency, had capability in its lab to further the research more broadly with robotic manipulation.He hoped to work more closely with international agencies with the research, “for a fledgling space industry and a fledgling space economy, having that international connection is vital. Space presents novel problems for artificial intelligence, for example, a lot of AI algorithms require a lot of data.”

There are a growing number of satellites being launched into space with an exponential rise expected as private companies like American entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX one of several companies that intend to launch vast constellations of small satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Space junk is created by satellites continuing to orbit once they run out of fuel, run out of propulsion or their technology becomes obsolete and they are no longer required but remain in space.

Chin added that “If you have an autonomous car, relatively speaking, it’s not so hard to get that data, by capturing it from cars being driven. You can’t do that easily for a problem in space, as the cost of developing, launching and maintaining a satellite is much more significant. This presents fundamental challenges that motivate my team to look forward to work every day.”

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 emerging space start-ups, including Fleet Space Technologies, Inovor Technologies, Myriota and Southern Launch.

The Australian Space Agency officially opened its headquarters in Adelaide this year and will build a $6 million Mission Control Center for smallsat missions and an educational Discovery Centre at their Lot Fourteen site.

Article written by Belinda Willis, Contributing Author, The Lead

Exolaunch has announced that the launch of a 3U cubesat, MeznSat, for the UAE Space Agency, will be performed aboard a Soyuz-2 rocket — the purpose of the satellite is to study and monitor greenhouse gases, specifically CO2 and Methane, over the UAE.

MeznSat is a smallsat for climate observation, manufactured by Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KUST) in partnership with the American University of Ras Al-Khaimah (AURAK) and funded by the UAE Space Agency. The satellite’s primary payload will be a shortwave infrared (SWIR) spectrometer that makes observations in the 1000-1650 nm wavelength range to derive atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.

The secondary payload on MeznSat will consist of a VGA camera for post-processing that brings increased precision and accuracy to the SWIR spectrometer data. The combination of visible and SWIR bands will make MeznSat a unique CubeSat mission, specifically designed to generate a rich dataset for exploring atmospheric correction algorithms.

MeznSat is scheduled for launch in mid-2020. It is accommodated on one of the upcoming Soyuz-2 federal launches as part of the small satellite cluster launch contract between Exolaunch and Glavkosmos, the operator of international commercial activities for the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos. Glavkosmos has been a reliable partner for Exolaunch, and it is pleased that the partners from the UAE have chosen a Soyuz launch vehicle for delivering MeznSat into orbit.

Photo of a Soyuz-2 launch is courtesy of Roscosmos.

Exolaunch’s experience in cubesat launches, which includes the deployment of 89 smallsats into orbit to date, will ensure the success of this important launch and initiative.

Moreover, UAE Space Agency’s goal of developing student competencies makes this a particularly exciting collaboration, as Exolaunch will be able to use its educational background to lead students through the entire process of a launch arrangement. This Soyuz-2 mission serves as a milestone for both smallsat engineering and space education.

Jeanne Medvedeva, Commercial Director at Exolaunch, said the company is proud to apply the firm’s best-in-class launch services expertise and use the EXOpod deployer for this Soyuz-2 mission. The UAE Space Agency is nurturing some of the world’s brightest young minds who apply space-based solutions to tackle global issues. It is extremely rewarding for Exolaunch to support their vision.

Khalid Al Awadi, Director of Space Mission Management at the UAE Space Agency, added that the MeznSat project broadens the horizons of UAE’s satellite capabilities, which include remote sensing, Earth observation and communications. The key objective of the project is education, in keeping with our vision to contribute to the international space sector, strengthen scientific research methodologies and develop capabilities in the UAE. Seamless launch integration and deployment are crucial for the agency’s success, and Exolaunch has the flight heritage and proven successes that can be trusted. The UAE Space Agency is also excited to confirm the launch aboard a Soyuz-2 and continue this successful collaboration after sending the first UAE astronaut to space on the rocket last year.

A new date has been established for United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) launch of AEHF-6 for the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center. The launch to be postponed due to a mechanical malfunction.

ULA attributed the technical problem to a faulty booster valve.  The new sendoff date is Thursday, March 26. The team needed additional time to complete the booster valve replacement and retest. The two-hour launch window starts at 2:57 p.m. ET.          

United Launch Alliance will use an Atlas V 551 rocket to launch the sixth and final spacecraft in the Lockheed Martin-built Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) series for the U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center. AEHF satellites provide global, survivable, protected communications capabilities for strategic command and tactical warfighters operating on ground, sea and air platforms. Atlas V rockets successfully launched the first five AEHF satellites between 2010 and 2019.

Also onboard will be TDO-2, the multi-manifest smallsat vehicle flying with the AEHF-6 mission, that is carrying multiple U.S. Government payloads that will provide optical calibration capabilities that will support space domain awareness through optical calibration and satellite laser ranging. TDO-2 was manufactured by Georgia Institute of Technology and sponsored by Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

EZ-2 is integrated on the aft-end of the Centaur on the Atlas V 551 launch vehicle where it will deploy the TDO-2 multi-manifest satellite vehicle approximately 31 minutes after launch.

TDO-2 will deploy after Main Engine Cut Off (MECO) 2 and prior to the anchor AEHF satellite, which is only the second time this event has occurred during a National Security Space Launch mission. Previously, a hosted payload was deployed prior to AEHF-5 successfully separating.

The AEHF-6 launch will mark the 83rd Atlas V mission since the inaugural launch in 2002 and the 11th in the 551 configuration.

Kleos Space S.A (ASX:KSS, Frankfurt:KS1), a space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance data-as-a-service (DaaS) company, announced that the mission team will be traveling to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Chennai, India on March 18, to carry out the final preparation steps prior to launch approximately six days prior to handing Kleos’ nanosatellites over to New Space India (NSIL) for integration with the launch vehicle. Kleos awaits the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the launch provider, to announce the upcoming launch date. 

Kleos’ Scouting Mission satellites will detect and geolocate maritime radio frequency transmissions to provide global activity-based intelligence irrespective of the presence of positioning systems, in spite of unclear imagery and if targets are out of patrol range. These initial satellites form the foundation of a larger constellation that will deliver near real-time intelligence over key regions of maritime interest.

The preparation activities include carrying out spacecraft checkout, battery charging, fueling, setting the final spacecraft flight configuration and overseeing the dispenser integration.

Kleos’ Scouting Mission satellites will launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre aboard PSLV C49, a rideshare mission conducted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and featuring satellites from other organizations including Spire Global.

Kleos’ satellites will launch into a 37-degree inclination orbit, providing unprecedented situational awareness over crucial shipping regions including the Strait of Hormuz, South China Sea and East and West African coasts.

CEO of Kleos Space, Andy Bowyer said that the launch of their Scouting Mission satellites from Chennai is imminent. Their combined team is undertaking final preparations for their satellites to be integrated with the PSLV launch vehicle. Following launch, spacecraft operation engineers will guide the satellites from launch vehicle separation until they are established in their final orbit. This is an important milestone for Kleos as it will enable us to commence data delivery and revenue generation from early adopter contracts.

Bowyer continued saying they are seeing increasing demand for their global maritime geolocation intelligence data, which will enhance the ISR capabilities of governments and commercial entities. Their independent intelligence will complement existing datasets to enable the detection of hidden maritime activity such as drug and people smuggling, piracy, pollution and illegal fishing.

Kleos Space S.A. (ASX: KSS) is a space enabled, activity-based intelligence, data as a service company based in Luxembourg. Kleos Space aims to guard borders, protect assets and save lives by delivering global activity-based intelligence and geolocation as a service. The first Kleos Space satellite system, known as Kleos Scouting Mission (KSM), will deliver commercially available data and perform as a technology demonstration. KSM will be the keystone for a later global high capacity constellation. The Scouting Mission will deliver targeted daily services with the full constellation delivering near-real time global observation.

TriSept Corporation has completed the integration activity for NASA’s ELaNa 32 ANDESITE mission, a rideshare set to launch Boston University’s groundbreaking scientific study of the Earth’s magnetic field on a Rocket Lab Electron from New Zealand later this month.

The culmination of an eight-year collaborative research program among BU’s talented electrical and mechanical engineering students and professors, NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) will lift the university’s 6U cubesat into LEO. Once in space, this smallsat will initiate measurements of the magnetosphere with onboard sensors, later releasing eight smallsats carrying small magnetometer sensors to track electric currents flowing in and out of the atmosphere.

Josh Semeter, an electrical engineering professor with Boston University’s Center for Space Physics who first conceptualized the ANDESITE mission, said this mission with NASA will demonstrate how cubesats can play a vital role in providing an unprecedented view into the variations of electrical activity racing through space and its impact on lives here on Earth.

TriSept’s Jason Armstrong, center, and the Boston University integration team perform the final procedures during the integration of the ANDESITE payload with the mission dispenser device.

GPS services, for example, can be directly affected. If all goes as planned, the cubesat will release eight smallsat sensors into space to form a first-of-its-kind, free-flying, mesh network capable of delivering uniquely comprehensive data mapping of magnetic fields and space weather to smart phones here on campus.

Like many scientific missions, Boston University’s ANDESITE mission spacecraft and hardware will feature standard electronics components. The mission team estimates the network of satellite sensors, which will drift further apart in space during the experiment, will communicate and deliver data maps of the magnetic field and electric currents in the area for at least two to three weeks and possibly much longer.

When it comes to the name of their mission, students and faculty jokingly claim ANDESITE is one of the longest acronyms they know – Adhoc Network Demonstration for Extended Satellite Inquiries and other Team Endeavors.

Jason Armstrong, TriSept’s Director of Launch Integration Services, added that the company, the University spacecraft team and NASA have completed the initial integration of the ANDESITE mission by installing the cubesat into the dispenser device and preparing the spacecraft for shipment to Rocket Lab in New Zealand. This is an especially gratifying mission that demonstrates what NASA’s ELaNa missions are all about – opening up space access to academia and other scientific groups that otherwise might not be able to fulfill their vision and allow their students to put their experiments to the ultimate test.”

Brian Walsh, a mechanical engineering professor at Boston University who spearheaded the effort to secure the NASA rideshare, remarked that this incredible research and educational opportunity wouldn’t exist without NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI), and students and programs would be left to speculate how their missions would perform in space. Long before this upcoming milestone mission launch, ANDESITE has helped to launch the careers of Boston University students who contributed countless hours to this breakthrough experiment. Many have gone on to head and support smallsat programs for some of the biggest government agencies and corporations leading the space industry today.

Scott Higginbotham, NASA LSP ELaNa Mission Lead, noted that the agency recently celebrated the monumental deployment of the 100th CSLI selected cubesat mission into space – and that’s amazing. Hundreds of students have benefited from the real-world hands-on experience that designing, building and launching a cubesat provides. This initiative is a critical part of NASA’s efforts to engage with and prepare the next generation of space explorers, and the success and longevity of this program underscores that commitment.”

HawkEye 360 Inc. has named Dennis Burnett as the firm’s Executive Vice President (EVP) and General Counsel.

Burnett joins HawkEye 360 with several decades of experience advising high-growth domestic and international space and technology companies in transactional, regulatory and national security matters.

Dennis Burnett

Previously, Burnett served as Consulting Principal at LMI Advisors; Chief Counsel of Regulatory and Government Affairs at Kymeta Corporation and as Vice President of Trade Policy and Export Control for EADS North America. Burnett also currently serves as the Director and Treasurer of the International Institute of Space Law and as the Chair of the Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Advisory Board for the University of Nebraska College of Law. He is a graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University, the University of Nebraska College of Law and the Georgetown University College of Law.

Burnett said he is extremely pleased to contribute to the HawkEye 360 team as the company forges a new commercial frontier in space. The wave of new smallsat technology is revolutionizing commercial, scientific and defense applications in the space domain.

John Serafini, CEWO, HawkEye 360, added Dennis has molded legal strategy for many complex technologies and space-based solutions. His insight will prove invaluable, as HawkEye 360 continues to break new ground providing commercial RF signal data and data analytics from space.

Kymeta has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kepler Communications to integrate Kepler’s Global Data Service into the just-announced Kymeta™ u8 Terminal and Kymeta Connect™ offering, this occurring during the DC satellite show.

This product collaboration envisions Kymeta combining the value proposition of Kepler’s LEO satellite service with the best aspects of traditional (GEO) SATCOM and 4G/LTE communications networks. The relationship builds upon the successful integration work announced by Kepler in mid-2019, when Kepler demonstrated compatibility between its LEO satellites and the Kymeta™ u7 electronically steered antenna (ESA), becoming the first LEO operator to do so.

Kepler’s Global Data Services offers high-capacity data backhaul to areas beyond traditional satellite and communication network coverage at a more favorable rate than traditional providers globally due to the economics of Kepler’s LEO satellite network.

Kepler’s Global Data Service (GDS) covers every part of the globe, from pole to pole, and allows the movement of gigabytes of data to and from the user’s location at economic rates. Currently enabled with Kepler’s first two satellites on orbit, the capabilities of GDS will expand significantly over the course of 2020 with Kepler’s previously announced vertical integration and launch procurements.

Commercial availability of GDS within the Kymeta Connect™ offering is targeted to align with market availability of the Kymeta™ u8 Terminal (pictured above) as well as Kepler’s expanded constellation later this year, with key customer trials supporting the development effort. To express an interest in participating, connect with your Kymeta or Kepler representative.

David Harrower, SVP of Global Sales at Kymeta, said the company is xcited about the collaboration with Kepler as it finally brings to market the promise of LEO capacity to deliver connectivity to the mobility markets. By adopting the latest and best technical capabilities, Kymeta delivers what the market has demanded in terms of mobile connectivity and have done so by bringing flexible and commercially viable service offerings made possible by each party’s technical advancements.

Mina Mitry, Chief Executive Officer at Kepler, remarked that by expanding the capabilities of their Kymeta Connect™ product with the firm’s high-capacity, data backhaul service, Kymeta is delivering on an ask the firm often hears from users – ‘How do I access all available communications technologies to serve my requirements?. Customers want solutions that are ready to go and easy to deploy. Kymeta Connect™, with the Kymeta u8 Terminal, tick both those boxes. By deploying Kepler’s Global Data Service with Kymeta Connect™, the offering becomes much more powerful and able to address the requirements of a greater range of users that traditional providers are unable to accommodate.

NanoAvionics has received a full mission contract for two, 6U smallsats and the opening of a new sales and engineering support office in Columbia (IL), USA.

The mission contract includes payload integration, launch and operation services for the two nanosatellites, both of which are based on NanoAvionics’ pre-configured M6P bus. The launch of both satellites is planned for the end of this year.

The NanoAvionics Columbia,
Illinois, office.

While NanoAvionics’ US Columbia Facility is the company’s second office in the United States, it is set to be the primary NanoAvionics hub in the Unites States. It is also the first satellite factory in Illinois and the Midwest. The Columbia Facility allows NanoAvionics’ to take advantage of a great talent pool from multiple local universities and their graduates and staff equipped with nanosatellite experience. The low cost of operations and living will also allow NanoAvionics to maintain its competitive status in a tough market.

Following the opening of NanoAvionics’ US facility at the Midland Air and Space Port last year, the company will keep it as a scalable resource for high quantity smallsat bus production, for both single missions and constellations.

The advantages and benefits of NanoAvionics’ industrial approach include reducing cost by standardizing the bus design while increasing the range and capabilities of the payload. NanoAvionics estimates that more than 80% of the smallsat bus can remain the same, even when the mission and payload varies. That in return means replicability, increased reliability, lower costs and much shorter production times which lead to greater speed to market and faster revenues.

Artistic rendition of NanoAvionics smallsats on-orbit. Image is courtesy of the company.

Having been the first company to develop a pre-configured nanosatellite bus, NanoAvionics has already scaled their flagship M6P bus to achieve 12U and 16U form factors, giving customers such as video streaming media company Sen more possibilities for their missions and payloads.

F. Brent Abbott, CEO of NanoAvionics North America, said the constantly increasing demand for the company’s standardized satellite buses, and this latest mission contract from a US commercial data services company, represents a significant milestone of NanoAvionics penetration in the US market for New Space as well as in the US Civil space sector. Completing the Columbia office will support NanoAvionnics’ efforts to provide US customers with the most cost-efficient satellite buses and hosted payload flights in LEO. These reductions in cost and the much shorter production times while increasing the options for mission payload and keeping the same high standards, will enable businesses to generate real downstream revenues.
     Abbot continued by noting building hundreds of satellites for the planned constellations in a short time frame of 12-15 months requires a universal bus design and an industrial approach for the mass production of smallsat buses. This is the next step in the company’s mission to become the go-to company for manufacturing and launching smallsat constellations for businesses worldwide. Smallsat buses are becoming a commodity and the firm has been applying the same standardization and principles that have been used in the automotive industry for more than a century to create a universal smallsat vehicle, capable of hosting a broad range of payloads and to be used for diverse applications.

Hiber is celebrating a successful start to 2020 — in addition to receiving EU funding and achieving Dutch National Icon status, Hiber is also excited to announce the appointment of three eminent industry leaders to its advisory board: George Coelho, Co-Founder of Balderton Capital and advisor to European and South East Asian firm Finch Capital; Drew Caplan, a senior telecommunications executive and Lt. General Lawrence Farrell, a US military veteran and previous President and CEO of the National Defense Industrial Association.

These strategic hires come after a successful 2019 that witnessed Hiber launch their IoT network, Hiberband, that already has a portfolio of 50 global customers from a diverse range of sectors, including agriculture, oil, gas and logistics.

Identified as an innovative startup by the EU last year, in 2020 Hiber is also set to receive part of the European Innovation Council Accelerator’s grant of €278 million and direct equity investment.

Additionally, Hiber has been selected as a Dutch National Icon, a prestigious Dutch government backed initiative, whereby dutch companies with major social and economic potential are selected to receive government support. As part of its National Icon status, Hiber will receive support and expert counsel from the Dutch cabinet member, State Secretary Keijzer, for three consecutive years.

Hiber (formerly Magnitude Space) is a ‘NewSpace’ startup, founded and led by a dream team of satellite experts and tech entrepreneurs. These ‘Hibernauts’ are working on a moonshoot goal: to launch and run a smallsat constellation in space — 50 employees work on the patented technology behind Hiber and Hiberband at the firm’s offices in Amsterdam and Delft.