Blink Astro® (Blink®) has successfully launched their custom radio payload, hosted on the NanoAvionics’ M6P 6U spacecraft using the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) PSLV-C45launch vehicle.

The launch occurred at 11:57pm EDT on March 31, 2019, from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Preliminary communications have been established with the M6P host spacecraft.

The primary objective of the mission will be to demonstrate the reliability and quality of Blink’s end-to-end device connectivity solution. There will be satellite provisioning conducted by NanoAvionics for the first several weeks of this mission. Upon completion of this provisioning, Blink® will conduct ground to space testing which will last several months thereafter.
 
Specific tests to be conducted during the technology demonstration mission will include reception and coverage of Blink’s low cost IoT ground terminals, large point-to-point network architecture antenna performance, and overall signal quality.

Dr. John R. Olds, CEO of Blink® and Blink’s parent organization, SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc., said that the company’s technical teams at SpaceWorks Orbital and Blink Astro are looking forward to getting to work on testing the firm’s proprietary receiver hardware. The company is bullish on the space-based IoT market and  believe the low cost, highly efficient receiver technology and small spacecraft platforms will have a strong role to play in accelerating the growth of this global market.
 

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) will be exhibiting their latest innovations in hosted payload satellite technologies at the 35th Space Symposium, April 8-11, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

During the exhibition, GA-EMS will provide updates regarding recent contract awards and advancements in optimized hosted payload spacecraft to deliver multiple customer payloads meeting their requirement in LEO and beyond.

GA-EMS is working with NASA to host the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) payload on an optimized OTB satellite and is under contract to the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center Hosted Payload Solutions (HoPS) program for the Argos Advanced Data Collection System (A-DCS).  GA-EMS is also part of the Draper team supporting NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which will return NASA to the moon.

GA-EMS will be exhibiting in Booth #330, located in the Exhibit Center at the Broadmoor Hotel, site of the 35th Space Symposium.

Scott Forney, the President of GA-EMS, said that since last year’s Space Symposium, the company has received contracts that will leverage the firm’s scalable architectures, volume-efficient packaging, manufacturing expertise, and on-orbit experience to launch customer missions into space. Two of these contracts anticipate launch dates as early as 2021 and 2022, demonstrating the flexibility of the GA-EMS Orbital Test Bed (OTB) platform approach to rapidly and cost-efficiently accommodate specific customer payload and mission requirements.

Nick Bucci, VP of Missile Defense and Space Systems at GA-EMS, noted that this is an exciting time for the company, as the firm anticipates the imminent launch of the first OTB spacecraft on the next Falcon Heavy, which will deliver multiple payloads, including the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Deep Space Atomic Clock, to LEO. The company has generated a great deal of momentum this past year and firmly believe that the firm’s customer-centric approach to providing flexible, scalable and optimized bus designs along with launch coordination and on-orbit mission control services, is critical to delivering payloads when and where customers need them as efficiently as possible.

NanoRacks has completed their first CubeSat deployment mission on the India Space Research Organization’s (ISROs) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) — this mission was brokered on behalf of Spire, which now has four more of their LEMUR 3U CubeSats in orbit.

Artistic rendition of a Spire Lemur smallsat on-orbit.

Image is courtesy of the company.

Notably, this mission included the launch of Spire’s 100th Lemur satellite. NanoRacks announced SSO polar orbit launch opportunities after receiving significant demand and strong feedback for the customer support that the company offers. Polar orbit offerings come in addition to NanoRacks’ proven success in smallsat deployments, having deployed more than 230 satellites to date.
 
Spire’s CubeSats offer data and analytics for parts of the world where collecting data is notoriously difficult, tracking ships, planes, and weather in remote regions which often go unmonitored. To date, of the 100 satellites Spire has launched, 37 were on NanoRacks missions from the Space Station, the Cygnus Spacecraft, and now PSLV.
 

The launch of 28 satellites aboard the PSLV-C45 rocket.

Photo is courtesy of ISRO.

This PSLV opportunity was completed in coordination with Berlin-based Astro- und Feinwerktechnik Adlershof GmbH (Astrofein) to manufacture and supply deployers, and the launch opportunity with Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
 
NanoRacks’ commercial smallsat deployment opportunities in low-Earth orbit have sparked accelerated growth for numerous startup companies, provided educational opportunities, and driven the market for commercial access to space.

The ISS-based, NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer in action.

NanoRacks Payloads Director, Conor Brown, said Spire has been with the company from the start, not just as a customer, but as a partner, working alongside the firm to pioneer new capabilities across platforms on the Space Station, Cygnus and now, finally, on the PSLV. Spire’s diversified launch approach and willingness to embrace new technologies continues to foster the marketplace and NanoRacks is delighted to have deployed the 100th satellite.”

Jenny Barna, Spire’s Director of Launch, said the company enthusiastic to have shared this milestone with NanoRacks. They launched the company’s first prototypes several years ago, so it’s fitting that the company’s 100th LEMUR satellite was sent to space via their technology. That this occurred on their inaugural PSLV launch makes this a big launch for both of the firms, together.

An important mission was successful as a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle successfully lifted off the R3D2 satellite for DARPA from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 23:27, March 28th UTC (12:27, 29 March NZDT). The mission launched a prototype reflect array antenna to orbit for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The launch marks Rocket Lab’s 25th satellite deployed to orbit, continuing the company’s mission success heritage. And this is just the beginning with a busy year of launches booked for lift-off every four weeks. Rocket Lab’s consideration for the atmosphere is revealed as throughout the mission Rocket Lab’s unique Kick Stage, an additional stage designed for precise orbital deployment and equipped with the ability to deorbit itself upon mission completion to leave no orbital debris behind.

Lift-off R3D2 mission from LC-1,
Image credit Kieran Fanning and Sam Toms

The announcement from Rocket Lab is as follows:

“Congratulations to our dedicated team for delivering another important and innovative asset to space — on time and on target. The unique requirements of this mission made Electron the perfect launch vehicle to lift R3D2 as a dedicated payload to a highly precise orbit,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck. “Thank you to our mission partners. We look forward to continuing to provide frequent, reliable and rapidly-acquired launch services for innovative small satellites.”

Rocket Lab was selected for the launch because of the company’s proven mission heritage and its ability support rapid acquisition of small satellite launch capabilities. Due to Rocket Lab’s streamlined acquisition practices, DARPA’s R3D2 mission was launched just over 18 months from conception — a significant reduction in traditional government launch acquisition timeframes.

With proven flight heritage from four orbital missions, Rocket Lab is the only fully commercial small satellite launch service provider in operation. The experienced Rocket Lab team has delivered 25 satellites to orbit, including innovative new space technologies that provide vital capabilities such as weather monitoring, Earth observation and Internet of Things connectivity. The R3D2 mission was Rocket Lab’s first of 2019, as the company heads into a busy year of launches booked for lift-off every four weeks. To support the small satellite industry’s highest launch cadence, Rocket Lab is currently producing one Electron launch vehicle every 30 days across its Huntington Beach, California, and Auckland, New Zealand, production facilities.

DARPA R3D2’s payload:

DARPA’s R3D2 (Radio Frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration) spacecraft intends to space-qualify a prototype reflect array antenna to improve radio communications in small spacecraft. The 150kg spacecraft carried an antenna, made of a tissue-thin Kapton membrane, designed to pack tightly inside the small satellite for stowage during launch, before deploying to its full size of 2.25 meters in diameter in low Earth orbit. The design is intended to provide significant capability, typical of large spacecraft, in a much smaller package. The mission could lay the groundwork for a space-based internet by helping to validate emerging concepts for a resilient sensor and data transport layer in low Earth orbit — a capability that does not exist today.

Rocket Lab’s Electron Rocket:

The R3D2 mission was launched on an Electron launch vehicle, comprised of two fully carbon-composite stages, powered by a total of ten 3D printed and electric pump-fed Rutherford engines, designed and built in house by Rocket Lab at the company’s headquarters in Huntington Beach, California. The R3D2 payload was deployed to a circular orbit by Rocket Lab’s unique Kick Stage, an additional stage designed for precise orbital deployment and equipped with the ability to deorbit itself upon mission completion to leave no orbital debris behind.

Wind River® has announced that Astranis Space Technologies Corp. is using the company’s VxWorks® real-time operating system for its next generation satellite that will deliver cost-effective, high-speed internet to underserved markets.

More than half of the world doesn’t have access to the internet — and satellites are expected to play a major role in solving that problem. Astranis is building satellites that are capable of delivering broadband internet services to individuals around the globe. It targets areas where, due to the high cost of building the infrastructure, broadband internet isn’t widely available or is completely unavailable.

Astranis will use VxWorks to run the main flight computer that controls the avionics in guiding the satellite and keeping it in communication with Earth. Astranis recently announced that its first satellite will be going over Alaska, in partnership with Alaska-based internet provider Pacific Dataport, Inc.

Artistic rendition of the Astranis satellite.

Wind River’s comprehensive software portfolio for the edge supports a diverse range of customer journeys in aerospace and defense, from design to development to deployment, with technologies that span across real-time operating systems, open-source-based platforms, system simulation and virtualization.

In addition to its market-leading VxWorks for safety- and security-critical environments, the company offers Wind River Linux and other commercial-grade open source technologies for general purpose functions. The recently launched Wind River Helix Virtualization Platform is for consolidating multiple federated systems with both safety-critical and general purpose applications onto a single compute platform. For system simulation enabling unmodified target software to run on a virtual platform the same way it does on physical hardware, the company offers Wind River Simics®.

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has announced a new generation of space technology that will launch this year that will allow satellites to change their missions in orbit.

Satellites that launched one, ten or even 15 years ago largely have the same capability they had when they lifted off. That’s changing with new architecture that will allow users to add capability and assign new missions with a software push, just like adding an app on a smartphone. This new tech, called SmartSat, is a software-defined satellite architecture that will boost capability for payloads on several pioneering nanosats ready for launch this year.

This year, Lockheed Martin is integrating SmartSat technology on ten programs and counting, including the Linus and Pony Express smallsats, which will be the first to launch. These are rapid-prototype, testbed satellites using internal research and development funding, ready for 2019 launches on the first LM 50 smallsat buses:

• The Linus project delivers two 12U cubesats performing a technology demonstration mission, validating SmartSat capabilities as well as 3D-printed spacecraft components.
• Pony Express builds multiple 6U satellites destined for a low earth orbit and will space qualify state-of-the-art networking technologies. Pony Express 1 is a pathfinder for a software-defined payload that will test cloud computing infrastructure and was developed in nine months. Follow-on Pony Express missions will prove out RF-enabled swarming formations and space-to-space networking.

Cyber security is at the core of this new technology. SmartSat-enabled satellites can reset themselves faster, diagnose issues with greater precision and back each other up when needed, significantly enhancing resiliency. Satellites can also better detect and defend against cyber threats autonomously, and on-board cyber defenses can be updated regularly to address new threats.

SmartSat uses a hypervisor to securely containerize virtual machines. This is a technology that enables a single computer to virtually operate multiple servers to maximize memory, on-board processing and network bandwidth. It takes advantage of multi-core processing, something new to space. That lets satellites process more data in orbit so they can beam down just the most critical and relevant information — saving bandwidth costs and reducing the burden on ground station analysts, and ultimately opening the door for tomorrow’s data centers in space.

SmartSat uses a high-power, radiation-hardened computer developed by the National Science Foundation’s Center for Space, High-performance, and Resilient Computing, or SHREC. Lockheed Martin helps fund SHREC research, and in turn gains access to world-class technologies and student researchers.

Executive Comments

Rick Ambrose,EVP of Lockheed Martin Space, said this new type of satellite acts more like a smartphone. Add a SmartSat app to a satellite on-orbit and the mission is changed. The company is the first to deploy this groundbreaking technology on multiple missions. SmartSat will give  customers unparalleled resiliency and flexibility for changing mission needs and technology and unlocks even greater processing power in space.SmartSat is a major step forward in our journey to completely transform the way we design, build and deliver satellites. The LM 50 bus is the perfect platform for testing this new, groundbreaking technology. Lockheed Martin is self-funding these missions to demonstrate a number of new capabilities that can plug into any satellite in the firm’s fleet, from the LM 50 smallsat to the flagship LM 2100. The same technology plugs into ground stations, improving space-ground integration, as well as one day be able to connect directly with planes, ships and ground vehicles, connecting front-line users to the power of space like never before.

These two companies will be combining their talents to deliver Earth Observation images of the entire Earth from the new AxelGlobe constellation to Taiwan.

Axelspace Corporation, a Japanese company specializing in small satellite platforms development, and ODYSSEUS SPACE, a Taiwanese company developing space technologies for small satellites will provide Earth Observation data in Taiwan from the new AxelGlobe constellation. AxelGlobe is the Earth observation infrastructure for a new era. It will have the ability to image the whole civilized world with a resolution of 2.5 m—enough to distinguish large cars—every day.

Axelspace has begun the development of AxelGlobe, an Earth observation service based on a multiple-satellite single plane constellation. With it, they will be able to obtain imagery of more than half of the planet’s dry land once every single day, with consistent imagery at 2.5m resolution. As a first step to construct the constellation, the company launched the first satellite named GRUS on December 27 last year. The first light from the satellite was successfully shared and the commercial service is to begin in May 2019. After that, Axelspace expects to launch three more GRUS satellites in 2020 and to complete the entire constellation by 2022.

Jordan Vannitsen, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of ODYSSEUS Space said this is a great opportunity for Taiwan to gain large access to such fast revisit time high-quality imagery. There is a real hunger for consistent Earth Imagery data with high revisit time, and Taiwan is the perfect place to reach to startups who want to develop innovative applications for Smart Cities, Green Energy or Disaster Management. There is a huge burgeoning and enthusiastic entrepreneur community with great novel ideas here, and with this agreement, they want to help them to change how Earth Imagery is part of everybody’s life. With a partner like Axelspace, who has a reputation of high quality and high performance platforms, they are very confident that this will be reflected on the quality of the data and of the service. Developing an ecosystem in Taiwan where ODYSSEUS could have access to visual data processing expertise will be key for their own future space resources prospection activities.

Yasunori Yamazaki, Chief Business Development Officer for Axelspace added that the ODYSSEUS SPACE Team has been a great help to understand the Taiwanese market and reach to key actors in the local space industry, but also to the startup ecosystem. Taiwanese government has been receptive so far and they want to keep working in that direction with ODYSSEUS. Axelspace is of course interested in providing their data to government agencies, but they are far more interested in helping companies to grow. Axelspace is a small company themselves and they love to work with the private sector, because it is bringing the change and the disruption. Because of its size and high-tech environment, Taiwan will become the perfect laboratory to try new ideas and business models. They have already met a lot of potential users who expressed their strong interest in their data and who are looking forward to using and implementing them in their models.

Spaceflight will launch 21 spacecraft on a rideshare mission from India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center with the launch is scheduled for Monday, April 1, 2019 Indian Standard Time (Sun., March 31 PDT). Payloads aboard the mission include the Astrocast-02 3U cubesat from Swiss-based Astrocast and Flock 4a, 20 next-generation Dove satellites from Planet.

This launch represents Spaceflight’s eighth launch on a PSLV and with the completion of this mission, the company will have sent 95 spacecraft to orbit aboard PSLVs.

Spaceflight successfully launched the first test satellite of Astrocast’s IoT Nanosatellite Network on its historic SSO-A dedicated rideshare mission in December of 2018. Astrocast’s network of 64 cubesats will securely extend the reach of two-way communications to the 90 percent of the globe currently not covered by cellular networks. Using L-band frequencies, Astrocast’s small form factor modules, miniaturized antennas, and optimized data protocol make it the most advanced nanosatellite on the market today.

In what is Planet’s first launch of 2019, Flock 4a will join its current constellation of more than 100 Doves, replenishing the on-orbit fleet and providing upgrades to its imaging chain to improve image sharpness, radiometric consistency and spectral precision.

This mission marks Spaceflight’s second launch of 2019 and its first PSLV mission of the year following the successful launches of GTO-1, which deployed the first commercial lunar lander in February aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, and SSO-A, the company’s historic dedicated rideshare mission, which launched 64 unique smallsats in December of 2018. To date, the company has negotiated the launch of 224 satellites and has plans for approximately 10 missions in 2019 launching nearly 100 payloads across a wide variety of launch vehicles, include the Falcon 9, Antares, Electron, Vega, Soyuz, and LauncherOne.

Executive Comments

Curt Blake, CEO of Spaceflight, stated that PSLV missions continue to offer a reliable and proven launch option for the company’s customers. By working with Antrix/ISRO and a wide range of vehicle providers, Spaceflight is uniquely positioned to offer the greatest number of launch options to customers. Having greater flexibility in launches can minimize the negative impacts of delays which is especially valuable for organizations launching multiple spacecraft.

Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) has been awarded the prime contract to develop the next generation cluster of formation-flying microsatellites for HawkEye 360 Inc. of Herndon, Virginia.

The HawkEye Constellation, comprised of multiple clusters of three satellites each, is the first of its kind to detect and geolocate radio frequency (RF) signals for maritime, emergency response, and spectrum analysis applications.
 
SFL built the platforms and integrated the HawkEye 360 Pathfinder cluster which was launched into LEO in December 2018 and commissioned early this year. The three formation-flying Pathfinder microsatellites have successfully demonstrated geolocation of VHF, emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB), automatic identification system (AIS) and marine radar signals.

SFL is developing the next-generation cluster to service more sophisticated payloads as HawkEye 360 broadens its detection and geolocation capabilities. The cluster will incorporate SFL technologies that make on-orbit formation flying possible. Most prominent of these technologies is the high-performance attitude control system developed by SFL to keep smallsats stable in orbit.

SFL satellite technology was selected for the HawkEye 360 Pathfinder mission due to the importance of formation flying by multiple satellites for successful RF signal geolocation and analysis. The relative positions of each satellite in the constellation must be known to accurately geolocate the transmission sources of the radio frequency signals. SFL first demonstrated affordable on-orbit formation control with smaller satellites in the 2014 Canadian CanX-4/CanX-5 mission.

Established in 1998 as a self-sustaining specialty lab at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), SFL has built 25 nano- and microsatellites with nearly 100 cumulative years of successful operation in orbit to date.

HawkEye 360 Founder and Chief Technology Officer Chris DeMay said that through the development, launch and commissioning of the firm’s Pathfinder cluster, SFL demonstrated exceptional ability to deliver the required solution. Their customer-first approach and engineering prowess resulted in the first-of-its-kind RF analytics the company is generating today.
 
SFL Director Dr. Robert E. Zee added that the microsatellite bus selected by HawkEye 360 for the next-gen cluster is one the company developed specifically to address the economics of commercial space activities. SFL has developed compact, low-cost formation flying technology for commercial exploitation that is unmatched by any other satellite developer,.
 
 

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is exercising a six month option for a $5.9 million contract to Planet to advance the use of high revisit imagery and automated processing to augment and facilitate NGA analysis processes.

NGA exercised the option to continue development and evaluation of the broader National System for Geospatial Intelligence community needs for Planet’s commercial imagery data to inform customers’ future technical requirements.

The Planet subscription contract provides new daily imagery over the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility and areas of interest in the U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command areas of responsibility.

NGA also entered into a cooperative research and development agreement with Planet in April 2018, following the purchase of a $14 million subscription for Planet imagery in July 2017 and an introductory contract NGA signed with Planet in 2016.

Executive Comment

Scot Currie, NGA’s deputy director of Source Operations Group, said that over the last three years, Planet data has been used by the combatant commands to support their ongoing missions around the world and to train automated analytic systems to monitor and recognize changes in those operational environments.