Smallsat missions developed and launched by Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) have achieved 100 cumulative years of on-orbit operations.

Over the past two decades, SFL has developed 25 smallsats that have been launched for space science, Earth Observation (EO), communication, radio frequency geolocation, environmental monitoring, technology demonstration, and ship detection.

SFL was established in 1998 as a self-sustaining specialty lab at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) to provide end-to-end microspace services on tight schedules and at low cost to deliver significant returns for clients around the world.

These technological breakthroughs include advanced control for formation flying and precise pointing and tracking, modular power systems for a range of spacecraft sizes, and propulsion systems tailored to sub-100 kg. platforms.

Advanced attitude control technologies have been a key differentiator for SFL since its first microspace mission launched in 2003.  Several SFL staff members were key contributors to the Canadian MOST space telescope, which proved a smallsat could achieve the stability in space for serious astronomy applications. Since then, SFL has continued to break down the barriers to what could be accomplished with nano- and microsatellites. Some notable recent missions include:

• HawkEye 360 Pathfinder constellation, three formation-flying smallsats built by SFL under contract to Deep Space Industries for HawkEye 360 Inc. Launched in December 2018 and commissioned in early 2019, the constellation is offering commercial space-based radio frequency (RF) detection and geolocation services.
• NorSat-1 and -2 smallsats developed under contract with the Norwegian Space Agency (NoSA) and launched in 2017, have achieved significant improvements in maritime ship monitoring and important international scientific objectives, resulting in SFL being awarded the development contract for NorSat-3 in 2018.
• GHGSat-D smallsat launched in 2016 by GHGSat Inc. to demonstrate that point sources of greenhouse gas emissions on Earth could be detected from orbit, leading to SFL being contracted to develop GHGSat-C1 and -C2 for commercial operations.

Including NorSat-3 and the two GHGSat microsatellites, SFL currently has 12 satellites under development at its facility in Toronto. Among these, SFL is developing an aerosol and greenhouse gas monitoring microsatellite, DMSat-1, for the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai. Additionally, SFL has completed Slovenia’s first Earth observation satellite, NEMO-HD, for capture of high-definition video and imagery, which will be launched later this year.

SFL Director Dr. Robert Zee said the company was established with the goal of creating breakthrough technologies that enable smaller satellites to cost-effectively perform complex missions once believed only possible with expensive larger satellites. SFL is proud to be a world leader in developing microspace technologies that open the door for nanosatellites and microsatellites to perform cutting-edge commercial applications. Such applications would otherwise be forestalled or precluded by the expense of traditional satellite approaches.

Helical Communications Technology (HCT) recently achieved the status of “Flight Heritage Status” when their custom-built Quadrifilar Helical Antennas was launched as part of Hiber’s smallsat mission.

The first two were launched into space at the end of 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India — few private companies have reached this milestone.

Founded in 2013 by Salvatore Bologna and Gregory O’Neill, HCT began researching and designing a unique omni-directional antenna for smallsats that capture a much larger footprint of geography and topography on the Earth. Within four years, HCT had developed a design that can be scaled depending on the customer’s requirements to have a wide range of circularly polarized antenna patterns.

Hiber, based in Amsterdam, contracted with HCT to send their smallsats on this mission with the objective to offer IoT connectivity to the 90 percent of the world that currently lacks access to a network.  The company expects to launch multiple smallsats within the next year to keep up with customer demand.

The Helios Deployable Antenna is developed for small satellite applications and features a Quadrifilar Antenna with an electrically-powered method of deployment.

HCT designed the custom-built “quadrifilar” helical antennas at their Rockledge-based operations and shipped them to the Netherlands, where Hiber is based. Hiber then shipped the smallsats to their launch destinations in California and India. In remote regions and developing countries worldwide, subscribers purchase a low-cost modem that is then integrated with existing connected technology devices and allows them to connect to Hiber’s IoT network. The goal is to have a constellation of dozens of satellites to enable customers to send SMS-sized messages in real time from IoT devices, such as sensors on fishing vessels or monitoring devices remote devices in locations such as Antarctica.

In 2017, HCT was selected for the NASA Technology Docking Program, a unique arrangement from the agreement between the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast (EDC) and NASA that awards select companies the opportunity to work with a NASA subject matter expert to review any technology hurdle they may be encountering. Typically only five companies are selected each year.  The EDC is the only EDO in the country that offers this service to their local companies.

HCT’s offices in Rockledge, Florida, also contain an anechoic chamber for testing radiation patterns without echo effects.  Manufacturing is strictly completed locally in Brevard County Florida to maintain top quality and frequent inspections. The company has plans to ramp up production rapidly as customer orders increase. They expect a significant upsurge in sales due to market expansion over the next two years as their patented technology is unique, will be manufactured  at a lower cost and can be custom built to scale locally depending on the application in any quantity.

Salvatore Bologna said this flight heritage milestone opens the company’s doors for more companies wishing to launch satellites into LEO in the future. The opportunity to offer daily internet access via modems located in remote regions of the world transmitted to Earth-bound, existing satellite stations is remarkable. HCT is proud to have been part of this much needed solution.”

Gregory O’Neill added that it t is an honor and privilege to work with a company such as Hiber, who possess strong business ethics. The company anticipates a long and successful relationship with them as they move forward to provide internet connectivity to millions of people who lack that ability in areas where cable connectivity is simply not a realistic option.

The Pacific island of Guam will become an additional launch site Virgin Orbit‘s LauncherOne service.

With the site’s remote location and close proximity to the equator, Guam serves as an excellent base of operations from which the company’s unique, 747-launched rocket can efficiently serve all inclinations, a boon to the rapidly expanding small satellite market. Most excitingly, the new location enables LauncherOne to deliver more than 450 to a 500 km. equatorial orbit.

The addition of Guam to that list enhances the flexibility of Virgin Orbit’s launch operations, adding a low-latitude site with clear launch trajectories in almost all directions, giving Virgin Orbit’s customers unparalleled control over where and when their small spacecraft are deployed.

Aerial photo of Anderson Air Force Base in Guam.

Officials at U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) have issued a letter of support for Andersen Air Force Base to host launches and other exercises with LauncherOne and its dedicated carrier aircraft’s critical step en route to a first launch from the island, which could occur in as little as a year’s time. Additionally, the largest commercial airport on the island, A.B. Won Pat International Airport, has begun the process of seeking its launch site operator’s license from the Federal Aviation Authority’s (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation, in order to serve as a future launch site for Virgin Orbit.

Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said that launching from Guam gives the firm easy access to every orbital inclination customers need. With the company’s air-launched system, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne will fly out as any other airplane, move out to sea and release the rocket. This minimal footprint, coupled with Guam’s natural launch location, results in a great match. With the continued support from Guam’s Governor Leon Guerrero and the firm’s partners in the DoD, Virgin Orbit is well on the way toward providing new launch opportunities for small satellites that have waited too long for their ride to space.

In addition to the launch site’s primary appeal to commercial missions, VOX Space also anticipates using Guam and other launch sites to provide responsive launch capability to the national security space community. As part of a series of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) with the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Space Superiority Directorate located at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, CA, among others, VOX Space is developing concepts for how commercially developed space capabilities can partner with and complement the U.S. Department of Defense’s existing mobility, transportation, and space launch systems

Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne system is now in the final phases of testing, after successfully demonstrating all major assemblies with multiple flight vehicles in production. Having just completed its fourth captive carry flight with a test rocket mated to the wing, Virgin Orbit is on track to conduct its first orbital test flight later this year.

By using a customized 747-400 aircraft as its “flying launch pad,” Virgin Orbit gains the ability to quickly transport the entire launch site to new locations around the world, launching each satellite from the optimal location. This mobile approach to launch substantially reduces the expense required for infrastructure at each launch site.

In addition to the Mojave Air and Space Port — the California launch site that will be home to the company’s first orbital launch in the middle of this year, as well as subsequent launches to high inclination orbits — other spaceports new and established have announced that they are working to prepare themselves for future missions of LauncherOne, including the Launch and Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Spaceport Cornwall in the United Kingdom, the Taranto-Grottaglie Airport in Italy, and others.

Guam’s Governor, Lou Leon Guerrero, added this is a rare opportunity for the island to be front and center of a groundbreaking space industry. Guam has always been a rare gem known for great weather, a beautiful landscape and warm people can now add space transportation to that list.

DARPA has announced the DARPA Launch Challenge, designed to promote rapid access to space within days, not years.

The U.S. space architecture is currently built around a limited number of exquisite systems with development times of as much as 10 years. With the launch challenge, DARPA plans to accelerate capabilities and further incentivize industry to deliver launch solutions that are both flexible and responsive.

The commercial small-launch (10 to 1000 kg.) industry has embraced advances in manufacturing, micro-technologies, and autonomous launch/range infrastructure. DARPA seeks to leverage this expertise to transform space system development for the nation’s defense. Frequent, flexible, and responsive launch is key to this transformation.

In late 2019, qualified teams will compete for prizes, with a top prize of $10 million. Teams will receive exact details on the payload in the days before each of the two launch events, with only a few weeks’ notice about the location of the first launch site. Once they successfully deliver their payload to LEO, competing teams will get details of the second launch site. Teams again will have just days to successfully deliver a second payload to LEO, for a chance at a prize. Final ranking for the top three prizes will depend on speed, payload, mass, and orbit accuracy.

DARPA is coordinating closely with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is responsible for granting licenses for commercial space launches and will be involved throughout the challenge. Competitors participating in the DARPA Launch Challenge are required to obtain FAA licenses for all launch activity conducted under this effort.

A competitors’ day with representatives from DARPA and the FAA will be held in Los Angeles on May 23, 2018. To register to attend or for additional guidelines on how to participate in the challenge, please visit www.darpalaunchchallenge.org.

Todd Master, the DARPA Launch Challenge program manager for DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, said current launch systems and payload development were created in an era when each space launch was a national event. DARPA wants to demonstrate the ability to launch payloads to orbit on extremely short notice, with no prior knowledge of the payload, destination orbit, or launch site. The launch environment of tomorrow will more closely resemble that of airline operations — with frequent launches from a myriad of locations worldwide.

PLD Space has taken an important step forward in the firm’s development of a European reusable launcher.

On April 11, the recovery drop test of the first stage of the MIURA 5 rocket was carried out from El Arenosillo Experimentation Center (CEDEA), of INTA (Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial). This operation, an essential part of the campaign to develop future launchers (FLPP) of the European Space Agency (ESA), serves the purpose of validating the recovery system of MIURA 5- PLD Space’s first private reusable orbital launcher. This successful drop places PLD Space in a good position for the further development of this reusable orbital launcher that will allow space access services for smallsats.

This test was carried out by the Transport Helicopter Battalion V (Bheltra V), of the Aeromobile Forces of the Army. They released the demonstrator from a height of 5 km. using a Chinook CH-47 helicopter. In the first attempt, an electric problem caused the cancellation of the mission and, after repairing it, the test was started once again. The demonstrator, 15 meters long and 1.4 meters in diameter, fell within a controlled area of ​​the Atlantic, located 6 km. from the coast of Huelva, part of a segregated space controlled by INTA.

In carefully timed sequence controlled by the electronic systems on-board, a series of three parachutes were ejected to decelerate the demonstrator, until its splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean at a speed of about 10 meters per second.

The parachute system was designed and developed by Airborne Systems North America, the company that developed the parachutes for the NASA Apollo capsule, among others. This same parachute system, used aboard the drop test, will be used on MIURA 1 and MIURA 5 flights.

Once the demonstrator impacted the water, a team of divers recovered the demonstrator, dragging it back to a nearby tugboat. The demonstrator has been returned to the port of Mazagón after its successful recovery and will be transported back to the headquarters of PLD Space, in Elche, for further analysis.

The FLPP-LPSR project has been funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) with the support of the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI).

The company reports that this project was complicated and required tremendous organization. This project’s success is due to the support that PLD Space has received from ESA, CDTI, INTA and the Army (Ejército de Tierra) as well as the coordination of companies and other organizations that have participated in the project, such as Tecnalia, Airborne Systems North America, Sensonor, Solycal, Nomasa, Itecam, Mecanizados especiales, Talleres Blasco, Sertrain, STS, Helibasket, the University of Alicante and Integral Risk Global.

Orbital Micro Systems’ IOD-1 GEMS (Global Environmental Monitoring System) satellite will be launched on April 17, 2019, from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility at 4:46 p.m., EDT, as a member of the International Space Station resupply mission, CRS-11/NG-11.

The IOD-1 GEMS satellite employs the first commercial microwave radiometer placed in orbit and the radiometer uses the first 3D-printed antenna aboard a satellite. Orbital Micro Systems is a commercial space company based in Boulder, Colorado, and Oxfordshire, England, that provides real-time, frequent, and highly accurate weather information to commercial and government organizations around the world.

This satellite is the first of a planned constellation that will be comprised of 48 cubesats that will dramatically improve the temporal frequency of global microwave radiation observations from hours and days to intervals approaching 15 minutes. Data collected by the GEMS constellation will be available to commercial, government, and research subscribers from OMS’s International Center for Earth Data (ICED).

In addition to observations from GEMS, ICED aggregates and processes weather information from a multitude of disparate sources, and provides easily consumable information to its subscribers, sometimes within minutes of collection. The data produced from ICED will have a tangible impact on the lives of millions of people in all areas of the world. This includes improved crop management in the world’s farming communities, safer route planning in the aviation and maritime industries, and better land management in areas where forest fires and other natural disasters are prevalent.

The mission is part of the In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) Program, funded by Innovate UK and managed by the Satellite Applications Catapult.

A video feed of the launch will be available at this direct link…

EXOLAUNCH and Virgin Orbit have signed an MOU for transporting EXOLAUNCH customers’ payloads on dedicated and rideshare missions with Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne, as early as 2020.

Founder Sir Richard Branson created Virgin Orbit to be the world’s premier smallsat launch service, providing dedicated launches to any LEO at any inclination. Using an air-launch approach from a 747 carrier aircraft, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne is the world’s most flexible launch service and can carry payloads up to 500 kg. LauncherOne’s frequent launch cadence will provide EXOLAUNCH customers with regular flight opportunities and schedule flexibility. EXOLAUNCH’s global clientele will receive the agility that a small launch vehicle affords as well as benefit from Virgin Orbit’s elevated customer experience.

Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl launcher 747 with LauncherOne rocket nestled underneath the aircraft’s fusilage.

EXOLAUNCH, whose current customers include a wide range of the European and North American NewSpace startups, universities, scientific institutions and space agencies, has a long and successful flight heritage in arranging smallsat launches. Focusing specifically on small satellite launch services, cluster technical integration, and mission management since the dawn of the newspace era has made them preferred experts in the industry and in 2019 alone they are contracted to deliver more than 60 small satellites into orbit.

Jeanne Medvedeva, Launch Services Commercial Director at EXOLAUNCH, said Virgin Orbit and EXOLAUNCH share a core belief in customer experience and viable launch services. For the company’s smallsat customers predominantly from Europe, Virgin Orbit will provide frequent and easy access to space out of the U.S. to reach a wide range of orbits, and EXOLAUNCH will provide diverse smallsat clusters adapted through the firm’s separation systems to the upcoming missions of LauncherOne.

Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart added that Virgin Orbit and EXOLAUNCH are naturally aligned in their ambitions to launch the global smallsat revolution, which necessitates low-cost, high-frequency access to space. Europe is on the cutting edge of science and technology when it comes to smallsats, and Virgin Orbit s motivated to provide the firm’s unique launch capabilities to this rapidly growing market.

At the 35th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, BlackSky announced that the company has successfully achieved several significant on-orbit milestones of their first two Earth-imaging spacecraft, Global-1 and -2.

Demonstrating the full operational performance of the spacecraft, the company showcased several images of economic points of interest taken by the first two smallsats in its high-revisit, Earth-imaging constellation.

This is pass one of a pre-production time-series image stack that is not fully representative of a BlackSky imagery product. Image is copyright BlackSky Global LLC. All rights reserved.

The satellites, which were developed, designed, and manufactured by BlackSky, provide 1 meter resolution color imagery with frequent revisit rates of 95 percent of the Earth’s population. The constellation’s goal is to provide a fast revisit rate critical for monitoring global events or locations, as well as low latency.

The smallsats are used in conjunction with the BlackSky platform and ground architecture; together they serve as the nucleus of the company’s commercial offering which will help organizations detect changes and threats around the world.

Artistic rendition of the Global-1 smallsat. Image is courtesy of BlackSky.

Global-1 was launched November 28, 2018, from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Center aboard a PSLV launch vehicle. Global-2 was launched the following week on December 3, 2018, on Spaceflight’s SSO-A mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The company is on track to launch Global-3 and Global-4 in the coming months and plans to launch up to six more satellites later this year.

Nick Merski, VP of space operations at BlackSky, said the company has completed the mission performance validation scenarios, successfully calibrated the systems and conducted extensive testing of the smallsats and end-to-end mission operations,. The images from Global-1 and Global-2, the firm’s first-generation spacecraft, validate the company’s ability to task, capture, and process high-quality images. With eight satellites on-orbit by the end of this year, BlackSky expects to deliver more than five revisits a day over many sites of interest; by 2020, with more than 16 smallsats on orbit, that will double and provide hourly monitoring. That’s a profound transformation for the market.

Brian O’Toole, CEO of BlackSky, added that in addition to these on-orbit milestones, the company has fully integrated the constellation with the firm’s global intelligence platform, which now puts us on track to deliver unique imaging and analytic solutions to customers. BlackSky is delivering on the promise of how the economics of high-performance smallsat constellations will enable a new era of global intelligence. With these milestones complete, the company is looking forward to commercial availability later this spring.

TESAT, KSAT and GomSpace have partnered to introduce full optical communications capability for new and innovative smallsat missions and space-based services.

Until now, this technology has mainly been used on large and expensive satellites but is now further developed, miniaturized and ready for use on smallsats and new constellations. The new technology will be launched in the PIXL demonstration mission later in 2019.

Optical communication technology offers a number of important benefits that will add to the value of future space-based infrastructures; this includes support for dramatically higher data rates and improved security through narrow beam-widths.

Artistic rendition of the PIXL mission on-orbit operating
its laser down-link.

Image is courtesy of GomSpace.

To ensure a successful and accelerated market introduction of the technology, the partners have put all their competences together to demonstrate – by end of this year – that optical downlinks are ready to be used as operational downlink technology for smallsats.

TESAT has successfully miniaturized the technology to allow its efficient use on satellites down to 3 kg. and with data rates from 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps.

KSAT, a leading ground station network provider for new space customers through its KSATLite offering, is committed to building out a compatible network of optical ground stations and scaling it with increasing customer demand.

GomSpace has – in collaboration with TESAT – validated compatibility and integration between GomSpace satellite busses and TESAT’s miniaturized optical terminals.

The PIXL demonstration mission will be launched later in 2019 to demonstrate the full capability. TESAT with research partner DLR provides the terminal, which is integrated with a GomSpace provided satellite platform. A cost-efficient ground station solution will be operated by KSAT.

The partners are looking forward to a future where optical communication will be used for satellite downlinks and inter-satellite links and will become a standard.

Helical Communications Technology (HCT) launched their custom-built Quadrifilar Helical Antenna as part of Hiber’s constellation satellites in December of 2018.

A second launch with the same technology launched from Vandenberg Air Force Station that same month. This milestone elevates HCT to the status of “Flight Heritage Status,” which indicates a company’s first successful satellite launch deployed into space —  few private companies have reached this milestone.

Founded in 2013 by Salvatore Bologna and Gregory O’Neill, HCT began researching and designing a unique, omni-directional antenna for cubesats that capture a much larger footprint of geography and topography on the Earth. Within four years HCT had developed a design that can be scaled depending on the customer’s requirements to have a wide range of circularly polarized antenna patterns.

Infographic is courtesy of Hiber.

Hiber, based in Amsterdam, contracted with HCT to send their smallsats on this mission with the objective to offer internet connectivity to millions worldwide who lack accessibility to the internet.  The company estimates launching dozens of their smaller satellites within the next year to keep up with demand. HCT also plans to multi-use this antenna to communicate with shipping containers from port of origin to final destination.

HCT designed the custom-built “quadrifilar” helical antennas at their Rockledge-based operations and shipped them to the Netherlands where Hiber’s headquarters are located. Hiber, in turn, added other cubesats and shipped to their launch destinations.  In remote regions worldwide, subscribers purchase a low-cost modem which allows them to connect to Hiber’s constellations placed in LEO. The goal is to have  a  constellation of satellites providing internet from space instead of relying on underwater or above ground cable.

In 2017 HCT was selected for the NASA Technology Docking Program, a unique arrangement from the agreement between the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast (EDC) and NASA that awards select companies the opportunity to work with a NASA subject matter expert to review any technology hurdle they may be encountering. Typically only five companies are selected each year.  The EDC is the only EDO in the country that offers this service to their local companies.

Bologna stated that this flight heritage milestone opens the firm’s doors for more companies wishing to launch satellites into LEO. The opportunity to offer daily internet access via modems located in remote regions of the world transmitted to Earth-bound, existing satellite stations is remarkable.