KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS N SHOW DAILY SHOW Aug. 8,2019•Visitusat239T unit satellites weighing 12kilograms and12-unit that it expectedtobeableaccommodate six- of thedispenserhardware for thecubesats, but larger 12-unit cubesats. NASA will acceptproposals for bothsix-unit and which will fly six-unit cubesats only, Cox said ployed after Orion separates. Unlike Artemis 1, stage andtheOrion spacecraft,andwill bede of astageadapter ringbetween theSLSupper flying on Artemis2will bemounted on theinside itors intheCubeQuest Challenge competition. payloads from international partnersandcompet science and technology demonstration missions, this year. Thosesatellites include NASA-funded tion Mission (EM)1andrenamed Artemis1earlier on thefirstSLSmission, originally called Explora decision toaddcubesats tothemission. that meanswe gettofly cubesats,” shesaidof the has allowed us to identify performance margin, so uled for 2022. 2, thesecond flight of theSLS,tentatively sched- agency wasplanningtofly cubesats on Artemis at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, saidthe Cox, deputy managerfor SLSpayload integration Conference on Small Satellites Aug. 5, Renee cubesats onsecondSLS launch NASA seekingproposals for OFFICIAL SHOW DAILY OF THE33RD AIAA/USUCONFERENCE ON SMALLSATELLITES for thefirstSLSlaunch patiently await theirride. DAY 3 DAY Cox saidNASA hadn’t made afinal selection As with the Artemis 1 mission, the cubesats NASA announcedin2016it would fly 13cubesats “Recently we achieved alevel of maturity that At anagencytown hall meetingduring the System, even as those cubesats chosen System, even asthosecubesats chosen on thesecond flight of its Space Launch ASA is soliciting proposals to fly cubesats JEFF FOUST - - - 2 ispartof thelatest call for theCubeSat Launch well asNASA centers, with proposals due Nov. 4. U.S. companies, organizations anduniversities as of the moon or Mars. The solicitation is open to gaps” regarding robotic or human exploration address what NASA calls “strategic knowledge satellites weighing 20kilograms. Spacecraft should ring that canaccomodate six-unit and12-unitcubesats betweentheSLSupperstageandOrionspacecraft. Renee Cox, deputy managerforSLSpayloadintegration, at SmallSat onWednesday holdsamodelofanadapter The opportunity tofly cubesats on Artemis Initiative, which provides launches for cubesats to date, saidScottHigginbotham, mission to and subsidizesthelaunch of larger cubesats. launches for cubesats up tothree units insize, tional Space Station deployments. It offers free Interna through rideshare launch opportunities or developed by universities or NASA centers, either The program has launched 95cubesats DAY 3|SPACENEWS SHOW DAILY | 1 - O 2 |SPACENEWS Arizona State University that NASA selectedin them isLunaH-Map, acubesat beingbuilt at are makingfinal preparations for launch. Among on Artemis2,the 13selectedfor Artemis1remain fast aswe can,” hesaid. through the endof 2020.“We’ll keep flying as meeting, with 45more manifested for launch CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Satellite Technology Ltd. Chris Larmour, chief for Orbex,afterDeimos,Astrocast andSurrey to belaunching with theseguys.” lot of uncertainties for us.We’re really pleased ronment for ourselves,” hesaid.“It removes a U.K. “We have anend-to-endregulatory envi said, isthat bothcompanies are basedinthe revenue on thetable.” satellite issitting on theground, we’re leaving all theway through,” hetold very responsive and drive the whole schedule we getthisend-to-endservice sowe canbe a rideshare, toprovide more schedule certainty. small launch of this mission, rather than fly as interview that it decided to procure a dedicated chief executive of In-Space Missions, saidinan carry 45 kilograms of payload. Doug Liddle, launch later this year on a Rocket Lab Electron. ellite, Faraday-1, isasix-unit cubesat that will on asinglespacecraft.Thecompany’s firstsat for payloads of various types,aggregating them nies did notdisclose the terms of thecontract. developed innorthern Scotland.Thecompa- the Space Hub Sutherland spaceport to be launch theFaraday-2b satellite in2022from the launch of asmall satellite. In-Space Missions, awarded it a contract for In-Space Missions Orbex winslaunchcontract from SHOWDAILY As NASA seeksproposals for cubesats tofly In-Space Missions isthefourth customer Another factor for selectingOrbex, Liddle “We canbeaprimaryon this,which means Faraday-2b will weigh 80 kilograms and In-Space Missions provides flight services Orbex’s Primesmall launch vehicle will manager for theprogram, at thetown hall Aug. 7that anotherBritish company, launch vehicle developer, announced rbex, aUnited Kingdom-based small JEFF FOUST AD SpaceNews. SpaceNews.
A 3 DAY “If our “If our - - an Aug. 4presentation at theconference, Craig a date that hasslipped by at leasttwo years. In the first SLS launch to take place in late 2018, identify water ice deposits. abundance of hydrogen there to helpscientists ing close passesover thesouth poletomap the The six-unit cubesat will orbit themoon, mak 2015 for development andlaunch on theSLS. to place150kilograms into sun-synchronous its payload capacity. instrumentation andlarger margins, reducing demonstration launches that will carryextra of thePrime,partof aseries of three initial In-Space Missions will beon thesecond launch executive of Orbex,saidinan interview that planned inlate 2021. “on plan,” Larmoursaid,with afirstlaunch orbit. Development of therocket isproceeding ence thisweekforthelaunchofIn-Space Mission’sFaraday-2b satellite onOrbex’sPrimelaunchvehicle. In-Space MissionsCEO DougLiddle (left)andOrbexCEO ChrisLarmoursignedacontract at theSmallSat Confer- At thetimeof its selection, NASA expected When infull operations, Primewill beable - “Wondering that too!” next year ascurrent scheduled, heresponded, late he thought SLS would be ready for launch could bedelayed tosometime in2021. Asked if ule amidspeculation that theArtemis1launch and ready for delivery by March 2020. said heexpectedthespacecrafttobecompleted Hardgrove, principal investigator for LunaH-Map, in TheAzores. finalist for aproposed Portuguese spaceport launch amonth. LarmoursaidOrbexisalso a site ultimately capable of supporting one once in operation, with the Sutherland launch and solution isareally strong factor for us.” focused,” hesaid.“Thecloseness of thecustomer petitive, global market. “We’re very European customers versus thelarger, andhighly com- He added the project is keeping to that sched The company will gradually ramp up launches Orbex hasfocused on serving European S N S N -
KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS
NOAA NOAA seeks to “kick the tires” on new instruments, mission concepts
he National Oceanic and with a launch cadence in the Atmospheric Administration neighborhood of every three Tplans to conduct technology years or less,” St. Germain said, demonstrations and pathfinder adding that all NOAA’s plans are projects as it prepares to update its contingent on appropriations. “In Earth observation constellations. my ideal world, we would have NOAA plans to release a Broad competitive demonstrations and Agency Announcement (BAA) really kick the tires on some of in September for low Earth orbit the concepts.” instruments and mission con- In geostationary orbit, NOAA cepts and another focused on will need new observation tools geostationary orbit. In the BAAs, around 2030. The agency is focus- NOAA will request information ing largely on weather imagery but on technology and cost related also seeking space weather data. to instruments and missions the “The opportunities we see here agency identified as promising are less aggregation of capability in the NOAA Satellite Observing on big platforms,” St. Germain said. System Architecture study, an For example, NOAA could move extensive quantitative analysis instruments onto dedicated small completed in 2017 aimed at cre- spacecraft or send them into orbit ating a capable, affordable and as hosted payloads on commercial resilient space-based architecture. satellites. In addition, NOAA will ask One of the concepts NOAA is for new ideas. “Do you have interested in exploring is flying other mission concepts that we the same imager on spacecraft in should consider?” Karen St. Ger- geostationary and highly elliptical main, systems architecture and orbits. Imagers in geostationary advanced planning director for orbit provide NOAA with persistent NOAA’s Satellite and Information “We’re looking for demonstrations observation over lower latitudes. Service, asked Aug. 6 during the To better observe Alaska and areas NOAA Town Hall at the Small with a launch cadence in the further north, the agency could Satellite Conference. “These could neighborhood of every three years or operate satellites in Tundra or be capabilities that have become other highly elliptical orbits. available since we completed the less.” “Would operating the same analysis or option that we didn’t Karen St. Germain, NOAA Satellite and Information Service’s systems satellite and same imager in both think of. We wanted to open that architecture and advanced planning director orbits be a cost-effective way to door with both of these BAAs.” get persistent observation of high In low Earth orbit, NOAA is latitude,” St. Germain asked. “How looking for ways to augment demonstrations, by the mid-2020s,” us to replenish some of the orbits reasonable is that and how much observations from its Joint Polar St. Germain said. we’ll lose when we lose the resid- does that drive cost?” Satellite System because some Instead of flying an exten- ual Polar-Orbiting Environmental In the upcoming BAAs, NOAA of the other satellites it relies on sive suite on instruments on Satellite assets.” will ask for short proposals, which for weather data, Polar-Orbiting one spacecraft like JPSS, NOAA Unlike in the past, when NOAA might be five to 10 pages. The Environmental Satellites and is considering operating one or selected a program of record and agency then plans to conduct Defense Meteorological Satellite more small satellites. For example, carried it out over the next 10 to industry days to answer ques- Program spacecraft, are nearing microwave, infrared and radio 20 years, the agency wants to tions related to the BAAs. Based the end of their lives. occultation instruments could fly continue testing new technolo- on the proposals it receives from “I’d like to start to replenish together on one satellite. gies and mission concepts and the BAAs, NOAA officials will se- them with diversity, at least with “The idea is those would be refreshing its on-orbit capabilities. lect the ones are worth pursuing small, affordable satellites,” St. “In the case of low Earth orbit, through more extensive funded DEBRA WERNER Germain said. “That would allow we’re looking for demonstrations studies. SN KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS NOAA
DAY 3 | SPACENEWS SHOW DAILY | 3 R T 4 |SPACENEWS around acommon hub. Research Laboratory. FURL extendsandretracts with four booms stored furlable Lightweight (FURL) solarsail developed andtestedby theAir Force Satellite Conference thisweek. advantages of retractable solarsails After LightSail2success, Roccortouts within weeks. Aerospace researchers will rely on spherical shape andre-enter Earth’s atmosphere they leave thecubesats, theprobes will take on a of aluminum heldtogetherwith springs.Once cubesats contain 28“Falling Stars,” thinplates to reveal variations inEarth’s atmosphere. The associate systemsdirector, toldS engineering andtechnical futures department thing at atime,” Joseph Gangestad,enterprise tion of solarcells inorbit. proximity operations andmeasure thedegrada- study Earth’s atmosphere, prepare for satellite Aug. 7packed with sensors andexperiments to experiments, deploys from Cygnus AeroCube 10,jam-packed with SHOWDAILY Roccor holdsanexclusive license for theFlexibleUnfurlable andRe- One AeroCube 10experiment isdesigned “At Aerospace we are never satisfied doing one Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft 10 missionCube was released from the he Aerospace Corp.’s two-satellite Aero- Longmont, Colorado, small businessdemonstrated at theSmall sail 2 spacecraft will bolster interest in a retractable solar sail the occor ishoping therecent success of thePlanetarySociety’s Light DEBRA WERNER A 3 DAY paceNews. tudes,” saidGangestad. function of timeparticularly inthoselower alti- able tostudy how theatmosphere changesasa probes falling through theatmosphere. “We’ll be the U.S. Space Surveillance Network totrackthe more efficient. engineers modified the design to make them AeroCube 10cubesats are similar but Aerospace on Aerocube 7 in 2015. Thrusters onboard the iment with water vapor thrustersfirstflown nology Strategy andDevelopment department. project leader inAerospace’s Science andTech- on solarcells,” saidCatherine Venturini, asenior of experiments studying theimpact of radiation particle telescopes. “Thisispartof along series shields aswell asdosimeters andmicro charged contain a group of solar cells with different radiation radiation on solarcells. TheAeroCube 10satellites In addition, Aerospace continues toexper Researchers also will investigate theimpact of S N - of asmall satellite with a32-square-meter solarsail. need thesolarsail,” sheadded. seven-meter booms anda20-meter-square solarsail. nology for otherdeployable structures. constellation developers. Deployment Systems it issupplying toone of thelow Earthorbit mega- space. “It’s essentially ready tofly,” Turse said. in thistypeof sail.” that it’s being demonstrated on orbit, Ithink there will be a lot of interest director, told sail once it reached its destination, DanaTurse, Roccor emerging products or remain in their proper orbits. With FURL, a small satellite could retract the Conference onSmallSatellites inLogan,Utah. Dana Turse demonstrates Roccor’sdeployablesolarsailWednesday at the The PlanetarySociety announcedsuccess July 31 inraisingtheorbit At theSmall Satellite Conference, Roccor demonstrated FURL with In addition tomarketing FURL, Roccor isworking toadapt FURL tech- Roccor specializes indeployable structures, includingSolarArray FURL hasbeentestedthoroughly on theground but hasnotflown in “People are startingtotake themmore seriously,” Turse said.“Now Small satellites canemploy solarsails tocontrol attitude, changeplanes SpaceNews. - “If you want to stay there for a while, you don’t Cygnus spacestation cargotug. Two AeroCube10cubesats deployedAug.7froma S N
THE AEROSPACE CORP./KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS
KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS Orbital Micro Systems collects first microwave weather data
“Our goal is to be up to that 15-minute revisit time no later than the end of 2021.” Bill Hosack, Orbital Micro Systems president and chief executive
be followed by a Series A round. “Our goal is to be up to that 15-minute revisit time no later than the end of 2021,” he said, estimating the total amount needed for the constellation at $40–45 million. The company built IOD-1 with the support of the United Kingdom’s Satellite Application Catapult and Innovate UK, which funded the satellite based on the business potential of the system. “We went to the U.K. because a program like that did not exist in the United Orbital Micro Systems President and CEO Bill Hosack, right, talks with SpaceNews on Wednesday at the Conference States,” he said. on Small Satellites in Logan, Utah. That business includes customers in ag- riculture, insurance and transportation. “The applications cut across every vertical at mul- n Orbital Micro Systems (OMS) cubesat That data, he said, allowed the company to tiple levels,” he said. One example he offered deployed in orbit last month has col- sign a $1.8 million sole-source contract with is an airline that can use OMS weather data to A lected its first microwave radiometer the Air Force as part of the service’s commer- reroute aircraft on transoceanic routes, saving data, unlocking an Air Force contract for weather cial weather data pilot program. That contact time and fuel. data and allowing the company to move ahead covers data from the satellite as well as efforts Hosack said that OMS will work with mul- with its proposed constellation. to integrate that data with weather models. tiple analytics companies rather than develop The In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) 1 three- “It prepares them for a commercial data buy its own services based on its weather data. To unit cubesat launched in April on a Cygnus world,” he said. that end, it’s developed an information service cargo spacecraft to the International Space The IOD-1 satellite carries the first com- called the International Center for Earth Data, Station, and was deployed from the station in mercial microwave radiometer instrument, or ICED, in cooperation with the University early July. The spacecraft had its “first light,” collecting data in 20 channels across two bands. of Edinburgh, University of Colorado and or first observations using its microwave ra- The different channels measure temperature, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space diometer, in mid-July. humidity and precipitation type from the sur- Physics. ICED will combine OMS weather Bill Hosack, president and chief executive face into the upper atmosphere. data with those from national weather sys- of Boulder, Colorado-based OMS, said the IOD-1 is the technology demonstrator for a tems and potentially their commercial data, company was pleased with the data. One swath proposed 48-satellite constellation of six-unit and then process it into forms that analytics of data from the cubesat, taken across part of cubesats. Once in place, the system will pro- companies can readily use. ICED will begin the western and central United States on the vide global observations with a revisit time of operations in late September. evening of July 20, showed details like struc- 15 minutes. “It is essentially a low-resolution He emphasized that OMS wouldn’t get into ture of storm systems with better quality than global radar,” Hosack said, adding that the “tip- the value-added service business, focusing data from other weather satellites at the same ping point” for providing useful services will instead on its strengths in weather satellites. time. “We’re super excited with this,” he said. be when the company has 12 satellites in orbit. “OMS is a data infrastructure business support- To build that constellation, the company ing global weather needs,” he said. “We enable JEFF FOUST is closing a seed round of unspecified size, to all those analytics companies.” KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS SN THE AEROSPACE CORP./KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS
DAY 3 | SPACENEWS SHOW DAILY | 5 SHOW DAILY DAY 3
NanoAvionics prepares to manufacture cubesats in Midland
anoAvionics isn’t ready a European company into the U.S. to disclose names but the market,” Abbott told SpaceNews at N company has lined up the Small Satellite Conference. customers for the first nanosatellites NanoAvionics is eager to enter it plans to build in Midland, Texas, the U.S. market because about 50% NanoAvionics CEO Vytenis Buzas, of the global demand for small sat- told SpaceNews. ellites comes from U.S. customers. NanoAvionics, a spinoff of Lith- In addition, some U.S. government uania’s Vilnius University with about customers are required to buy satellites 80 employees conducting research manufactured in the United States. and development in northern and The Midland facility will manu- western Europe, is preparing to move facture satellites for the U.S. market. a significant portion of its research, It also could produce satellites for development and manufacturing any European customers who need activities to the United States in the high volume production, Abbott next year. NanoAvionics’ parent said. However, the company will company, Avellan Space Technol- not be able to export some of the ogy & Science, is refurbishing the technology it develops for the U.S. “We’ve been looking for a model to enter the U.S. market for years,” said NanoAvion- Midland manufacturing plant that market, he added. ics CEO Vytenis Buzas of the Lithuanian company’s plans to build cubesats in Texas. previously housed XCOR Aerospace. In the competitive small satellite “We’ve been looking for a model market, NanoAvionics is growing to enter the U.S. market for years,” rapidly. In the last year, the company NanoAvionics executives say Internet-of-Things constellations, Buzas said. has doubled its staff and revenues the firm will offer the lowest price Blink Astro of Atlanta and Lacuna Space In July, NanoAvionics hired F. jumped four or fivefold, Buzas said. on radiation tolerant six and 12-unit of the United Kingdom, launched Brent Abbott, a veteran of Atlas Space In June, NanoAvionics, Norway’s cubesats. The satellites are built and payloads on NanoAvionics’ M6P Operations, ÅAC Microtec U.S. and Kongsberg Satellite Services and An- tested for orbital lifespans of five nanosatellite buses. Lacuna Space Surrey Satellite Technology U.S. as its twerp Space of Belgium announced years. With redundant systems, the announced an agreement in July new NanoAvionics North America they raised 10 million euros ($11.23 satellites could last 10 years, Abbott to purchase another NanoAvion- CEO. “This is my third time bringing million) for an on-orbit demonstra- said. NanoAvionics does not publicly ics M6P nanosatellite bus, which it tion of an Internet-of-Things satellite share spacecraft prices. plans to launch in the fourth quarter DEBRA WERNER constellation. In April, two firms building of 2019. SN
Kleos, Spire embark on“Safety at Sea” collaboration pire Global and Kleos Space San Francisco-based Spire op- safety organizations spot ships at- customers worldwide.” of Luxembourg announced erates dozens of cubesats equipped tempting to evade detection. After the four Kleos cubesats S plans Aug. 6 to create new with sensors to gather atmospheric “This collaboration represents the launch, Kleos plans to move them satellite-derived products aimed at data and receivers to track ships first time that an AIS provider and RF into a loose tetrahedron formation, enhancing maritime safety. and aircraft. Kleos Space is prepar- satellite provider have entered into Bowyer said in a recent interview. “The collaboration between Kleos ing to send its first four cubesats, an agreement where these datasets With four satellites, Kleos will gather and Spire will provide unprecedented built to detect radio transmissions will be integrated,” according to the daily worldwide observations, he detection of dark vessels,” Kleos CEO and pinpoint their origin, into low Aug. 6 news release. added. Andy Bowyer said in a statement. Earth orbit in August as the primary “Spire Maritime shares a desire Kleos is funding its first satellites “The Safety at Sea Collaboration payload on a Rocket Lab Electron to illuminate parts of the world just through an initial public offering on will provide an effective tool for launch vehicle. as Kleos does,” John Lusk, Spire the Australian Stock Exchange. With governments, maritime agencies By combining Spire Automatic Maritime general manager, said revenue from the data produced by and other organizations with an Identification System (AIS) and in a statement. “We continue to the first four satellites, Kleos plans to interest in keeping our seas safe.” Kleos Radio Frequency data, the partner with the most innovative buy and launch additional satellite companies plan to create products industry experts to create new ac- to provide more frequent observa- KEITH JOHNON FOR SPACENEWS NANOAVIONICS/LACUNA SPACE DEBRA WERNER to help government and maritime cess to highly relevant datasets for tions, Bowyer said. SN
6 | SPACENEWS Lacuna Space aims to ride IoT wave with a 32-cubesat constellation
acuna Space CEO Rob Spurrett says he’s well aware L his 3-year-old startup is part of a cresting wave of Internet of Things ventures seeking to de- ploy constellations of cubesats to connect a world awash in smart devices. At least 16 companies are target- ing the IoT market with smallsats, according to NSR analyst Alan Crisp, ranging from startups like Fleet and Kepler Communications to heavyweights like Eutelsat. “Like many other people, we spotted a great opportunity to do IoT with small satellites,” Spurrett said. “The gold rush is on.” Whether Lacuna Space will Lacuna Space’s first prototype, a payload that shared a NanoAvionics-supplied satellite bus with SpaceWorks Orbital, was launched in April aboard an Indian Polar Launch Vehicle carrying more than two dozen small satellites. rise to the front is still to be deter- mined. But Spurrett believes the company’s emphasis on offering have its own bus and will launch payloads, but outsourcing the the lowest price service will make on another PSLV, he said. satellite bus, launch and ground it a winner. Lacuna Space, in contrast to communications to the prototype “We’ve always been of the some of its competitors, aims to providers, he said. view that IoT is going to be a very operate satellites that can directly The company plans to select low-cost application,” he said. pick up signals from LoRa-standard from prototype builders for the full “Driving cost out of the system IoT sensors instead of having the 32-satellite global constellation and is going to be absolutely critical. signals transferred to a dish and will likely outsource ground com- If you’re going to win this race, amplified to reach space. Spurrett munications for the system, he said. it’s going to be all about who can said this approach means Lacuna Spurrett said Lacuna Space, drive price the lowest.” Space doesn’t have to build cus- which operates out of the U.K.’s To find the lowest cost satellite tom user terminals, but can rely Harwell Science and Innovation system, Lacuna Space expects on already fielded equipment. Campus, is fully funded out to to have launched four different The trade-off, Spurrett said, is mid-2021. prototypes by the end of the year. that Lacuna Space’s satellites will The company plans to start The first, a payload that shared a need very sensitive receivers on- some revenue-generating ser- platform with another IoT startup board to pick up faint signals from vices in 2020, but will seek to (SpaceWorks Orbital) launched in remote, battery powered devices. raise about $5.5 million before April aboard an Indian Polar Satel- Semtech Corp., a Camarillo, then to further support its busi- lite Launch Vehicle. NanoAvionics California, semiconductor and ness, he said. “If you’re going of Lithuania supplied the bus. software company with more Spurrett declined to say how to win this race, A second prototype from Brit- than $600 million in net sales, much capital Lacuna Space has ish startup In Space Missions is is helping Lacuna Space link raised to date. it’s going to be all booked to launch on a Rocket Lab LoRa-based devices directly to Lacuna Space plans to oper- about who can Electron mission, Spurrett said. A satellite gateways. ate its satellites around 500 to third from Open Cosmos is sched- Lacuna Space will trial services 550 kilometers, he said. Current drive price the uled to launch on an Arianespace with its prototype satellites so prototypes suggest the final con- lowest.” Soyuz, followed by a fourth proto- that it can decide on a constel- stellation will use 6U cubesats type from NanoAvionics that will lation manufacturer in late 2020, weighing around 10 kilograms. Rob Spurrett, Lacuna Space CEO Spurrett said. They will also likely carry pro- KEITH JOHNON FOR SPACENEWS NANOAVIONICS/LACUNA SPACE CALEB HENRY The startup is building its own pulsion, he said. SN
DAY 3 | SPACENEWS SHOW DAILY | 7 T on thefirstdozen satellites of its low Earth 8 |SPACENEWS was lost during a November 2017 Soyuz failure. University of Toronto’s Space Flight Laboratory ond prototype from MaxarTechnologies and Technology Limited sinceJanuary 2018.Asec orbit from Airbuscompany Surrey Satellite the hundreds of others.” and put through all thepacesbefore we launch first ones we will launch and rigorously test, will occupy thewhole constellation, but those he said.“Thesewill bethesamesatellites that launching thefirst,call it dozen satellites or so,” will partly offset, Goldberg saidAug. 1. ment’s 85million Canadiandollar investment process with its early satellites that thegovern kilograms, but hasnotgiven anexactweight. will belarger thanOneWeb’s, which weigh 150 rural citizens. Telesat has indicated the satellites only means to bring internet tosome of its most it views theconstellation of 298satellites asthe financial support for Telesat LEOJuly 24,saying is expectedby year’s end. on designing theconstellation. Adownselect by MaxarTechnologies andThales Alenia Space Defence andSpace andaconsortium formed the satellites, but hasbeenworking with Airbus ecutive, saidduring anearningscall. operational, DanGoldberg, Telesat’s chief ex- for Canadianbuyers once theconstellation is will subsidizesatellite capacity commitment deployment phase. research anddevelopment-intensive early orbit broadband constellation aspartof a broadband constellation to buildthe298-satellite team andAirbusarevying A Maxar-Thales AleniaSpace $65 millionTelesat LEO investment Telesat outlines planfor Canada’s SHOWDAILY Telesat hashadone prototype satellite in “Part of the development phaseisjust Telesat isplanninga “very significant R&D” The Canadian government announced its Telesat hasyet toannounce who will build A separate 600million Canadiandollar ment by the government of Canada nadian dollar ($64.7million) invest- elesat planstousean85million Ca- CALEB HENRY A 3 DAY - - create a bandwidth pool available at a discount understanding, but the plans call for Telesat to 600 million Canadian dollar memorandum of and Telesat are still finalizing thetermsof the company saidJuly 24. dollars on R&Dover thenextfive years, the My own expectation isthat it will probably all will take that capacity up, we thinkpretty quickly. even some municipal governments and others that telcos, [internet service providers], maybe attractive rate,” Goldberg said.“We fully expect buying that discounted capacity. 600 million Canadiandollars from companies Goldberg said Telesat anticipates makinganother the 600million Canadian dollars over 10years. the constellation’s Canadiancapacity. gigabits,” Goldberg said, but won’t constitute all customers. to domestic internet service providers andother cess withitsearlysatellites. Telesat CEO DanielGoldberg,showabovein2018, saidAug.1that Telesat significantR&D”pro- isplanninga“very Goldberg saidtheCanadiangovernment Telesat plans to spend 215 million Canadian “We will price that poolof capacity at avery The Canadiangovernment planstospend That poolof bandwidth will likely be“multiple lites, with full service in2023at 300satellites. constellation in 2022 using around 200 satel- get taken up pre-launch.” billion dollar investment. of Telesat LEObeyond that it will beamulti- Goldberg declined toquantity theoverall cost three enablingtechnologies. spacecraft andground terminals asthetop and advances inphasedarray antennas for Blue Origin), affordable inter-satellite links He listedlow-cost launch (citing SpaceX and lation feasible, Goldberg said on the podcast. available tomake aLEObroadband constel minimum of 72satellites. constellation canreach global coverage with a Post’s “Down toBusiness”podcast, saidthat the operating ina1,000-kilometer orbit. manufacturer by theendof thisyear. Goldberg saidthecompany planstoselecta Telesat planstostartpartial service with the On boththeearningscall andpodcast Only recently have the technologies become Goldberg, speakingJuly 31on Financial Telesat LEOisdesigned asaKa-bandsystem S N -
KATE PATTERSON FOR SPACENEWS
VIASAT/KEPLER COMMUNICATIONS DAY 3 SHOW DAILY
Viasat expanding into crowded ground-as-a-service business
iasat is building out a network of nine to ensure its antennas are visible to a wide range ground stations around the world to of satellites, he said. Areas of interest include V downlink data from Earth observation Canada, Scandinavia ,the southernmost regions satellites, marking an expansion from the oper- of South America and Africa, and potentially the ator’s satellite broadband and hardware business. west coast of Africa, he said. Carlsbad, California-based Viasat doesn’t Williams said customer demand could cause think the market for ground communications the final number of RTE stations to increase or is getting too crowded despite the entrance of decrease. Large constellations and technology giants Amazon Web Services and Lockheed Martin advances could lead Viasat to incorporate flat last year. “The market space is diverse,” said John panel antennas one day, he said, since those can Williams, a vice president at Viasat who oversees link to multiple satellites simultaneously. Dish its Real Time Earth ground network. “It goes from antennas can only link to one satellite at a time. universities to small companies, new startups to Long term, Viasat wants the RTE network to big companies, to civil and defense government. be a hybrid space and ground network. Williams No one single ground station provider is going to said that vision involves using the company’s be a perfect fit for the entire marketplace.” future trio of ViaSat-3 satellites as a relay network Viasat has RTE stations in the U.S. states of for faster data retrieval. Georgia, Ohio and Hawaii. A fourth is under Remote sensing satellites, instead of waiting construction in Australia. to pass over a ground station, could instead beam Williams said the RTE network began opera- data up to a ViaSat-3 satellite in geostationary tions last summer, linking spacecraft for Surrey orbit. The ViaSat-3 satellite would then transfer Satellite Technology Limited. Recently Viasat Viasat is placing antennas like this 7.3-meter dish that data to a cloud server, he said. used the network to connect General Atomics at locations around the world to link with Earth “The concept is some kind of radio on a low observation satellites in low Earth orbit. Electromagnetic Systems’ Orbital Test Bed sat- Earth orbit observation spacecraft from one of ellite, providing initial communications, control the many providers out there,” Williams said. “As and telemetry services after its launch in June Viasat’s RTE network uses a mix of S-, X- and Ka- that Earth observations satellite collected data, it aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. band antennas, Williams said. The network can would be offloaded in real time rather than stored.” Viasat already builds antennas for both satellite provide downlink speeds reaching 6 gigabits per Williams declined to give a timeline for when operations and user terminals. That foundation second, he said. the ViaSat-3 in-space relay system would happen. gave the company confidence to expand into Viasat’s interest is in connecting satellites that That part of the RTE network first requires the ground-as-a-service since it can leverage its own need to downlink large volumes of data, making launch of ViaSat-3. The first ViaSat-3 is projected technology, Williams said. remote sensing more interesting than constella- to launch over the Americas in 2021, with the Under development for the past three years, tions of Internet of Things cubesats, Williams said. global network completed during the second Viasat wants to spread out ground stations half of 2022, according to a June filing with the CALEB HENRY around the world at high latitudes and mid latitudes U.S. Federal Communications Commission. SN
In Brief Kepler Communications linked its two demonstration satellites with an elec- tronically steered antenna from Kymeta in a series of trials, the Canadian startup said July 30. The tests demonstrated the antenna’s ability to track the low Earth orbit satellites and repeatedly achieve 15 megabits per second downlinks and 5 megabit per second uplinks. Kepler is designing a constellation of nanosatellites for Internet of Things connectivity. Its first two satellites can move gigabits of data around the planet by storing data and downlinking to ground stations when visible.
Kepler Communications has two of three prototype cubesats from ÅAC Clyde in orbit. The company plans to launch a constellation of 140 satellites for global IoT connectivity. KATE PATTERSON FOR SPACENEWS VIASAT/KEPLER COMMUNICATIONS
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