Aug. 8, 2019 • Visit us at 239T DAY 3 SHOW DAILY OFFICIAL SHOW DAILY OF THE 33RD AIAA/USU CONFERENCE ON SMALL SATELLITES NASA seeking proposals for cubesats on second SLS launch ASA is soliciting proposals to fly cubesats on the second flight of its Space Launch N System, even as those cubesats chosen for the first SLS launch patiently await their ride. At an agency town hall meeting during the Conference on Small Satellites Aug. 5, Renee Cox, deputy manager for SLS payload integration at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said the agency was planning to fly cubesats on Artemis 2, the second flight of the SLS, tentatively sched- uled for 2022. “Recently we achieved a level of maturity that has allowed us to identify performance margin, so that means we get to fly cubesats,” she said of the decision to add cubesats to the mission. NASA announced in 2016 it would fly 13 cubesats on the first SLS mission, originally called Explora- tion Mission (EM) 1 and renamed Artemis 1 earlier this year. Those satellites include NASA-funded science and technology demonstration missions, payloads from international partners and compet- itors in the Cube Quest Challenge competition. As with the Artemis 1 mission, the cubesats flying on Artemis 2 will be mounted on the inside of a stage adapter ring between the SLS upper stage and the Orion spacecraft, and will be de- Renee Cox, deputy manager for SLS payload integration, at SmallSat on Wednesday holds a model of an adapter ployed after Orion separates. Unlike Artemis 1, ring that can accomodate six-unit and 12-unit cubesats between the SLS upper stage and Orion spacecraft. which will fly six-unit cubesats only, Cox said NASA will accept proposals for both six-unit and satellites weighing 20 kilograms. Spacecraft should Initiative, which provides launches for cubesats larger 12-unit cubesats. address what NASA calls “strategic knowledge developed by universities or NASA centers, either Cox said NASA hadn’t made a final selection gaps” regarding robotic or human exploration through rideshare launch opportunities or Interna- of the dispenser hardware for the cubesats, but of the moon or Mars. The solicitation is open to tional Space Station deployments. It offers free that it expected to be able to accommodate six- U.S. companies, organizations and universities as launches for cubesats up to three units in size, unit satellites weighing 12 kilograms and 12-unit well as NASA centers, with proposals due Nov. 4. and subsidizes the launch of larger cubesats. The opportunity to fly cubesats on Artemis The program has launched 95 cubesats KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS JEFF FOUST 2 is part of the latest call for the CubeSat Launch to date, said Scott Higginbotham, mission DAY 3 | SPACENEWS SHOW DAILY | 1 SHOW DAILY DAY 3 Orbex wins launch contract from In-Space Missions rbex, a United Kingdom-based small launch vehicle developer, announced O Aug. 7 that another British company, In-Space Missions, awarded it a contract for the launch of a small satellite. Orbex’s Prime small launch vehicle will launch the Faraday-2b satellite in 2022 from the Space Hub Sutherland spaceport to be developed in northern Scotland. The compa- nies did not disclose the terms of the contract. In-Space Missions provides flight services for payloads of various types, aggregating them on a single spacecraft. The company’s first sat- ellite, Faraday-1, is a six-unit cubesat that will launch later this year on a Rocket Lab Electron. Faraday-2b will weigh 80 kilograms and carry 45 kilograms of payload. Doug Liddle, chief executive of In-Space Missions, said in an interview that it decided to procure a dedicated small launch of this mission, rather than fly as a rideshare, to provide more schedule certainty. “We can be a primary on this, which means we get this end-to-endAD service so we can be very responsive and drive the whole schedule all the way through,” he told SpaceNews. “If our In-Space Missions CEO Doug Liddle (left) and Orbex CEO Chris Larmour signed a contract at the SmallSat Confer- satellite is sitting on the ground, we’re leaving ence this week for the launch of In-Space Mission’s Faraday-2b satellite on Orbex’s Prime launch vehicle. revenue on the table.” Another factor for selecting Orbex, Liddle said, is that both companies are based in the executive of Orbex, said in an interview that Orbex has focused on serving European U.K. “We have an end-to-end regulatory envi- In-Space Missions will be on the second launch customers versus the larger, and highly com- ronment for ourselves,” he said. “It removes a of the Prime, part of a series of three initial petitive, global market. “We’re very European lot of uncertainties for us. We’re really pleased demonstration launches that will carry extra focused,” he said. “The closeness of the customer to be launching with these guys.” instrumentation and larger margins, reducing and solution is a really strong factor for us.” In-Space Missions is the fourth customer its payload capacity. The company will gradually ramp up launches for Orbex, after Deimos, Astrocast and Surrey When in full operations, Prime will be able once in operation, with the Sutherland launch Satellite Technology Ltd. Chris Larmour, chief to place 150 kilograms into sun-synchronous site ultimately capable of supporting one orbit. Development of the rocket is proceeding launch a month. Larmour said Orbex is also a “on plan,” Larmour said, with a first launch finalist for a proposed Portuguese spaceport JEFF FOUST planned in late 2021. in The Azores. SN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 manager for the program, at the town hall 2015 for development and launch on the SLS. Hardgrove, principal investigator for LunaH-Map, meeting, with 45 more manifested for launch The six-unit cubesat will orbit the moon, mak- said he expected the spacecraft to be completed through the end of 2020. “We’ll keep flying as ing close passes over the south pole to map the and ready for delivery by March 2020. fast as we can,” he said. abundance of hydrogen there to help scientists He added the project is keeping to that sched- As NASA seeks proposals for cubesats to fly identify water ice deposits. ule amid speculation that the Artemis 1 launch on Artemis 2, the 13 selected for Artemis 1 remain At the time of its selection, NASA expected could be delayed to sometime in 2021. Asked if are making final preparations for launch. Among the first SLS launch to take place in late 2018, he thought SLS would be ready for launch late them is LunaH-Map, a cubesat being built at a date that has slipped by at least two years. In next year as current scheduled, he responded, Arizona State University that NASA selected in an Aug. 4 presentation at the conference, Craig “Wondering that too!” SN KEITH JOHNSON FOR SPACENEWS NOAA 2 | SPACENEWS 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 T plans 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.