Since Our Last SIA Member News Summary, Press Releases and Posts
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SIA PRESIDENT’S REPORT – MEMBER NEWS FOR OCT 2020 Since our last SIA Member News Summary, press releases and posts from many SIA Members including AGI, Blue Origin, Hawkeye 360, Inmarsat, Integrasys, Iridium, Kymeta, Lockheed Martin, OneWeb, Planet, SES, SpaceX, Spire, Telesat and XTAR have released news. Please see the summary of stories and postings below and click on the COMPANY LINK for more details. PLANET (above) On Oct 28th, Planet announced the successful launch of nine Flock 4e latest-generation SuperDove satellites onboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from New Zealand. The Flock 4e’ SuperDoves were deployed into an approximately 500 km, morning-crossing Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO), joining the rest of the constellation providing medium-resolution Earth imagery with unprecedented coverage and frequency of update. The nine SuperDoves are equipped with 8 spectral bands that provide high image quality and accurate surface reflectance values for advanced algorithms and time-series analysis. Planet’s SuperDoves are also interoperable with publicly available imagery, like Copernicus’ Sentinel-2, enabling innovative applications and use cases. (Photo credit: Image courtesy of Planet and Rocket Lab) AGI On Oct 26th, Analytical Graphics Inc., (AGI) announced that AGI and Ansys, a leading innovator of engineering software, had entered into a definitive acquisition agreement. According to the terms of the agreement, Ansys would acquire AGI. The purchase price for the transaction, which is expected to close in Q4 of 2020 pending regulatory clearance, is $700 million. SPACEX On Oct 24th, SpaceX announced that a Falcon 9 rocket had launched 60 Starlink satellites to orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This mission also marked the 100th successful flight of a Falcon rocket since Falcon 1 first flew to orbit in 2008. SpaceX is working toward a future in which reusable rockets are the norm. Of its now 100 successful flights of Falcon rockets, SpaceX has landed a Falcon first stage rocket booster 63 times and re-flown boosters 45 times. This year, SpaceX twice accomplished the sixth flight of an orbital rocket booster. The difficulty of precision landing an orbital rocket after it reenters Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic velocity is not to be SIA PRESIDENT’S REPORT – MEMBER NEWS FOR OCT 2020 overlooked. While recovery and re-flight of an orbital rocket booster may now seem routine, developing Falcon such that it would withstand reentry and return for landing was generally accepted as impossible — and SpaceX learned many lessons on the road to reusability. IRIDIUM On Oct 23rd, Iridium posted the following – During a March 2020 humanitarian mission to a remote area of Guatemala, a group of Quebec school students and their teachers struggled to secure a flight back home to Canada, amid the rush of global border closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the looming deadlines for grounded international travel, the students were able to successfully evacuate from Guatemala within minutes of the country’s international border closure – thanks to a chartered flight from Quebec- based Nolinor Aviation. The success of this urgent flight was leveraged by the airlines’ SKYTRAC SkyWeb flight charting platform and communications powered by Iridium’s pole-to-pole satellite network. Read more at the IRIDIUM link above. TELESAT On Oct 20th, Telesat U.S. Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of leading global satellite operator Telesat, announced it is now part of the Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) team which was recently awarded the Space Transport Layer Tranche 0 contract by the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA). The Lockheed Martin-led team will provide on-orbit delivery of 10 space vehicles with optical inter-satellite links (OISLs), contributing to a total of 20 satellites in Tranche 0. As part of this team, Telesat will support a commercial interoperability exercise by working with the Lockheed Martin team to demonstrate interoperability between the OISLs of the SDA’s Transport Layer satellites and those of Telesat’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation. The OISLs native to Telesat LEO will be compatible with the SDA’s OISL standard for an assured, resilient and secure network. KRATOS On Oct 20th, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: KTOS), announced the release of two new Virtual Network Functions (VNF) as part of its OpenSpace™ platform announcement. OpenSpace is a new model for space ground systems based on Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology that enables satellite operators, Ground Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) providers and others in the space services supply chain to create fully software-defined, dynamic ground systems. OpenSpace VNFs are software applications that replace dedicated satellite hardware technology, such as modems and recorders and can run on commodity computer servers or in the cloud. Today, Kratos announced VNFs for transporting digitized IP packets more reliably, and for recording Earth Observation and Remote Sensing mission activity. IRIDIUM On Oct 16th, Iridium posted the following - When the Iridium Extreme first debuted in 2011, it was the first satellite phone with an integrated SOS emergency button, ensuring people stay safe and connected no matter where they explore… Iridium is excited to introduce our new special edition, limited quantity Iridium Extreme handsets in Safety Yellow and Sporting Camo, which can add some personalized style to your adventure. The special edition phones are available in limited quantities from select Iridium retailers around the world.“Our special edition Iridium Extreme satellite phones are designed for those who either want to make sure they’re seen and heard, with the Safety Yellow, or those who may want to stay hidden in the brush and communicate at the right time, with the Sporting Camo,” says Josh Miner, vice president of Land Mobile at Iridium. “The Safety Yellow edition is meant to be easy to spot, like construction vests or an EPIRB device on a boat. Whereas the Sporting Camo edition makes a lot of sense for those going off the beaten path during hunting season or looking for the right matching accessory to fit their lifestyle.” HAWKEYE 360 On Oct 15th, HawkEye 360 announced that AFWERX, the catalyst for fostering innovation within the U.S. Air Force, had chosen HawkEye 360 as one of the top 26 participating teams out of 809 total teams selected from across the globe competing in the EngageSpace challenge. The EngageSpace Challenge is centered around four key topics – Department of Defense Commercial Space Partnerships, Global Space Transport and Delivery, Persistent ISR and Space Asset Resiliency. HawkEye SIA PRESIDENT’S REPORT – MEMBER NEWS FOR OCT 2020 360 competed in the Department of Defense Commercial Space Partnership Challenge alongside a diverse group of teams – originating from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil and other allied countries – that represent entrepreneurial startups, small businesses, large enterprises, academic institutions and research labs all vying to enable government buyers to pursue the most promising solutions to the most pressing challenges in the space domain. HawkEye 360 will provide its on-orbit satellite constellation to collect, store and transmit shared RF GEOINT to the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and its mission partners. This proven and cost effective ISR platform will augment and collaborate with existing overhead, airborne and terrestrial systems to provide a more complete and sharable stream of actionable data to the warfighter. INTEGRASYS On Oct 15th, Integrasys announced that its CEO Álvaro Sánchez had contributed to the fight against COVID-19, by donating 1000 masks to the Michelet school, located in the town of Antella, Italy, and inviting other nobles and businessmen to take similar actions. “Álvaro inherited the title of Marquess of Antella in 2018, and since then, he has always considered the people of this small town in the south of Florence his family, especially the young students of the Michelet primary school, which he visited during Easter 2019. After having suffered the virus severely, Álvaro wanted to strengthen the security and health of the school, of the town where his marquisate belongs. Álvaro wanted to show the gratitude and affection he feels for the people of Antella, who have always welcomed him with open arms. "I have suffered Covid-19 virus during the last weeks - writes the businessman -, for children being save, and do not suffer as I suffered, I donate 1000 certified masks for you to be safe". TELESAT On Oct 14th, Telesat U.S. Services, LLC announced it had been awarded a contract by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) for the development and in-orbit demonstration of commercial low-Earth-orbit (LEO) spacecraft buses in a LEO constellation network as part of DARPA’s Blackjack program. Following Telesat’s initial 2018 contract for system engineering and interface definition under the Blackjack Phase 1 program, Telesat U.S. Services will develop and demonstrate the Blackjack Phase 2/3 Track B technology, including in-orbit testing the capabilities of Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs). As part of Phase 2, Telesat U.S. Services will deliver two spacecraft buses to DARPA in less than one year for a “risk reduction” flight. The Phase 2 base contract represents an $18.3 million program for Telesat U.S. Services. Subsequently, additional Telesat LEO spacecraft may be procured to fully populate the Blackjack constellation, which represents a total contract value of up to $175.6 million if all options are exercised. SPIRE On Oct 14th, Spire announced that Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is recognizing Spire Global CEO Peter Platzer as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2020 at its Builders + Innovators Summit. Goldman Sachs selected Peter Platzer as one of 100 entrepreneurs from multiple industries to be honored at the two-day event. Peter Platzer is the CEO of Spire.