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18 Jan 23. Sixth GPS III Satellite Built by Lockheed Martin Launches As Part of Constellation Modernization. The sixth Global Positioning System III (GPS III) satellite designed and built by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has been launched and is propelling to its operational orbit approximately 12,550 miles above Earth, where it will contribute to the ongoing modernization of the U.S. Space Force’s GPS constellation.
GPS III Space Vehicle 06 (GPS III SV06) launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:24 a.m. EST today. About 83 minutes after liftoff, U.S. Space Force and Lockheed Martin engineers at the company’s Denver Launch & Checkout Operations Center confirmed signal acuistion of GPS III SV06 and now have the space vehicle “flying” under their control.
GPS III SV06 is the 25th Military-Code satellite introduced to the constellation. The satellite will provide advanced technology to aide Space Force operators in their mission by providing positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) data to military and civil users worldwide.
“Lockheed Martin is incredibly proud to support the Space Force’s GPS team as it continues to add world-class capabilities that underpin U.S. national security with enhanced performance and accuracy,” said Andre Trotter, Lockheed Martin vice president for Navigation Systems. “With the last GPS III satellite complete and ready to launch, production of the first GPS IIIF vehicle is underway.”
GPS is a satellite-based radio navigation system that delivers the gold standard in PNT services to America’s military, U.S. allies and civil users. The satellites serve as a crucial technological foundation for internet, financial, transportation and agricultural operations, with more than 4 bn users depending on the PNT signals.
GPS III vehicles provide three times greater accuracy and eight times greater anti-jamming capability over existing satellites in the constellation. To better address mission needs and emerging threats, Lockheed Martin intentionally created GPS III with a modular design, allowing new technology and capabilities to be added in the future.
Lockheed Martin has completed production on its original GPS III SV1-10 contract, with the Space Force declaring SV10 Available for Launch on Dec. 8, 2022. GPS III SV06 will soon join SV01-05 in orbit. GPS III SV07-10 are completed and in storage at the company’s facility waiting for the U.S. Space Force to call them up for launch.
Lockheed Martin is also designing and building the GPS III Follow On (GPS IIIF) for the Space Force, which will feature even more innovative capabilities than its predecessors. GPS IIIF satellites will feature an accuracy-enhancing laser retroreflector array, a new search and rescue payload, a fully digital navigation payload and more next-generation technology. In November 2022, Space Systems Command announced it exercised the third production option valued at approximately $744 m for the procurement of three additional GPS IIIF satellites from Lockheed Martin, meaning the company is now contracted to build SV11-20.
17 Jan 23. Filecoin Foundation Announces First Mission to Deploy Decentralized File System in Space. Today, Filecoin Foundation (FF) announced a first-of-its-kind mission to deploy the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) in space. The mission will take place in 2023 aboard Lockheed Martin’s (NYSE: LMT) LM 400 Technology Demonstrator spacecraft.
Previously, in May 2022 in Davos, FF announced an initial effort with Lockheed Martin to deploy IPFS in space to improve the speed of data transfer across long distances. This mission is the next step in that project, bringing the benefits of decentralized storage to space and exploring use cases for how IPFS can enable better interplanetary communication and data transfer.
“From the beginning, IPFS was envisioned as a technology that can enable networking across ‘interplanetary’ distances,” said Marta Belcher, president and chair of Filecoin Foundation. “Today’s centralized internet model doesn’t work in space. Let’s say you’re on the moon and you’re retrieving data from Earth; each time you retrieve that data, there will be a multi-second delay. With IPFS, data doesn’t need to go back and forth from Earth with every click. That’s because, with IPFS, data is identified by what it is rather than where it is. Each piece of content has a unique ‘content ID.’ When you look for a piece of content, that content is retrieved from wherever is closest, rather than always being retrieved from a particular server. That means if someone nearby on the moon has already retrieved that data, it only has to travel a short distance and can get to you quickly instead of traveling back and forth from Earth with every click.”
This mission is the first of its kind to evaluate in-space use cases for decentralized storage. It will be hosted aboard Lockheed Martin’s self-funded LM 400 Technology Demonstrator – a software-defined satellite about the size of a refrigerator, designed to support a wide range of missions and customers. Once the spacecraft is in orbit, it will use its SmartSat™ software-defined satellite technology to upload and perform the IPFS demonstration.
“The LM 400 Tech Demonstrator mission will showcase how IPFS can make larger quantities of data from space available to multiple ground-based applications in simpler ways,” remarked Joe Landon, vice president and general manager of lunar infrastructure services at Lockheed Martin. “It will serve as the foundational infrastructure to enable more efficient interplanetary communication for our collective, long-term presence in Earth orbit, at the moon, and beyond.”
The mission will demonstrate a space-to-ground communication use case for IPFS. Data from space will be “content-addressed” using IPFS and made available on the IPFS network through a ground station. Applications using IPFS will be able to retrieve the data from the IPFS network, without needing to know the location of the specific ground station holding the data.
IPFS is a decentralized protocol for storing and sharing data that uses content-addressing to uniquely identify files. IPFS is a foundational technology for the Filecoin network, a cryptocurrency-powered decentralized storage network. The IPFS software layer for space is designed to be usable for a wide range of use cases and architectures and topologies, including space-to-space communication. The software is open-source licensed and is being developed in public.
About Filecoin Foundation
Filecoin Foundation (FF) facilitates governance of the Filecoin network, funds research and development projects for decentralized web technologies, and supports the growth of the Filecoin ecosystem and community. Its mission is to preserve humanity’s most important information. (Source: PR Newswire)
17 Jan 23. £19.4m funding to boost Leicester’s space and satellite industry. Leicester has been awarded £19.4m from the Levelling Up Fund to develop new projects around the city’s Pioneer Park.
The funding will support space and technology businesses by:
- creating new and innovative workspace that will complement the existing Dock workspaces
- developing new opportunities for high-quality production facilities linked to space and satellite technologies
- enhancing the University of Leicester’s Science Park
- transforming the vacant Ian Marlow Centre into much-needed small light industrial units.
A boost for the region
The package of projects will benefit the region by:
- supporting the city’s burgeoning space and satellite technology cluster
- accelerating the expansion of businesses in Leicester
- attracting further investment
- creating new jobs
Leicester University President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nishan Canagarajah, welcomed the success. He said:
we are particularly pleased that Pioneer Park has received a significant proportion of the funding. This will be a game-changer for ensuring that we are able to bring the benefits of the space sector to the city.
Leicester City Mayor Peter Soulsby said:
I’m delighted that the city’s bid for funding for the Pioneer Park scheme has been successful. The area is also home to some very forward-thinking, high-end technology and space science businesses, so being able to retain and develop that sector is a key part of the city’s post-Covid economic recovery.
Schemes such as this will help ensure that there are opportunities for skilled employment, meaning we retain skilled workers, develop high-manufacturing facilities and build on our reputation as a place which has much to offer businesses, and with good transport links to the rest of the region.
Find out more about Leicester’s levelling up projects: https://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council/policies-plans-and-strategies/planning-and-development/levelling-up-projects/ (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
16 Jan 23. Leading space scientists come together to enhance Australia’s space and defence capabilities. A $180m University of Southern Queensland-led consortium has been launched to advance Australia’s space and defence capabilities, dubbed the Innovative Launch, Automation, Novel Materials, Communications and Hypersonics (iLAuNCH) program.
The consortium, which is led by the University of Southern Queensland in partnership with the Australian National University, University of South Australia and 21 industry organisations, is expected to identify critical gaps in Australia’s space capabilities and accelerate technology development.
To achieve the ambitious program, Darin Lovett has been selected as executive director of iLAuNCH, and will be supported by space specialist Dr Milica Symul as chief operating officer and aerospace expert Dr Joni Sytsma as chief technology officer.
Lovett began his career as a flight test engineer with the Royal Australian Air Force, and subsequently served as senior manager at Boeing Phantom Works International and chief of strategy for the Executive Agent for Space at the US Department of Defense.
Meanwhile, Dr Symul holds a PhD in physics and has worked for leading space organisations, while Dr Sytsma holds a PhD in aerospace engineering and has worked for the Australian and US defence departments and private sector space organisations.
Dr Rosalind Dubs will lead the advisory board, having held positions on the Space Industry Innovation Council and as chair of the SmartSat CRC.
The consortium is supported by the Commonwealth’s inaugural $362.5m Trailblazer Universities Program to the tune of $50m.
It is hoped that the program will help generate some $3.65bn in economic growth for Australia y propelling the space industry.
“iLAuNCH will help unite Australia’s world-class institutions, organisations, and companies in achieving a common goal — to propel the country’s space industry forward,” Lovett said.
“Australia is on the cusp of creating a sustainable space ecosystem and this program will pave the way for viable exports in a globally competitive market.” (Source: Space Connect)
16 Jan 23. Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE: NOC) Long Duration Propulsive ESPA (LDPE)-3A spacecraft launched successfully today in support of the USSF-67 mission. This spacecraft helps advance rapid access to space for the U.S. Space Force and marks the third successful launch in the LDPE program.
The LDPE-3A was built using Northrop Grumman’s ESPAStar, providing rapid access to space by maximizing the available volume inside a launch vehicle. This bus carries hardware for five independent missions, eliminating the need for each mission to wait for a future launch opportunity.
“From conception and development of next-generation space technology, like ESPAStar, to on-orbit command and control, we are prepared to support the full lifecycle of our customer’s missions throughout the ever-evolving threat environment,” said Troy Brashear, vice president, national security systems, Northrop Grumman.
Northrop Grumman also designed, developed and implemented the command and control, and mission execution software system for the LDPE program. The software system uses a common baseline across multiple programs, putting more capability in the hands of customer operators at a lower cost.
The ESPAStar product employs a customized version of a standard ESPA ring, providing added propulsion, power and avionic subsystems. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle will deliver LDPE-3A to near-geosynchronous Earth orbit for a one-year mission life.
USSF-67 is the third mission for the LDPE program. The Northrop Grumman-built LDPE-1 launched aboard the STP-3 mission in December 2021 and LDPE-2 aboard the USSF-44 mission in November 2022. Northrop Grumman will continue to deliver future ESPAStar spacecrafts, mission systems engineering, ground software systems and hardware platforms for critical USSF missions.
13 Jan 23. Stratolaunch Completes Second Captive Carry Flight with TA-0 Test Vehicle. Stratolaunch, LLC announces the completion of its second captive carry flight with the Talon-A separation test vehicle, TA-0. It was the ninth flight for the company’s launch platform, Roc.
The flight set a new duration record lasting a total of six hours and reached a maximum altitude of 22,500 ft., representing another important step forward in the company’s near-term goal of completing separation testing with TA-0. Primary test objectives included flight outside of the local Mojave area for the first time and evaluation of the separation environment. Roc and TA-0’s onboard data systems provide critical information on the aerodynamic loads and moments prior to release of TA-0, helping to ensure safe separation of the vehicle from Roc. The flight team also practiced chase formation and communication sequencing for the upcoming separation test.
A flight data review will determine the next steps on the test timeline. Stratolaunch continues to progress toward separation test and its first hypersonic flight of TA-1 within the first half of 2023.
“Our amazing team is continuing to make progress on our test timeline, and it is through their hard work that we grow closer than ever to safe separation and our first hypersonic flight tests,” said Dr. Zachary Krevor, Chief Executive Officer and President for Stratolaunch.
“The thorough evaluation of release conditions will provide data to reduce risks and ensure a clean and safe release of Talon-A during future tests,” Dr. Krevor said. “We are excited for what’s ahead this year as we bring our hypersonic flight test service online for our customers and the nation.”
About Stratolaunch
Stratolaunch’s mission is to advance high-speed technology through innovative design, manufacturing, and operation of world-class aerospace vehicles. For the latest news and information, visit www.stratolaunch.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. (Source: PR Newswire)
16 Jan 23. GAPSAT ACQUIRES QBX Ltd to Provide Critical Spectrum Solutions for Satellite Connectivity.
GapSat Development Group Limited (“GapSat”) a BVI company providing satellite operators with in-orbit geostationary communications satellites on an interim basis, has acquired QBX Limited, an Isle of Man based satellite solutions and consulting services company with a portfolio of satellite radio frequency spectrum and intellectual property.
Satellite spectrum and associated geostationary orbit slots are a finite resource and increasingly regarded as key strategic assets for the telecom and data communications industry, in the same way as patents are for emerging high technology industries. And with wireless and mobile broadband playing an essential role in bringing high-speed, low-cost communications to the developing and developed world, the demand for mission-critical orbit spectrum resources is increasing and a so-called ‘race for space’ is emerging.
Gregg Daffner, CEO of GapSat said: “Given the rapid expansion of satellite communications in recent years, especially for HTS and UHTS, scarcity of spectrum has become a critical issue and satellite operators have been steadily moving up the spectrum ladder to higher frequencies. We have seen the move from C-band to Ku-band and to Ka-band and more recently, an interest in developing Q and V-bands. With the acquisition of QBX providing us with high priority orbital slot filings and patents to develop a global geostationary satellite constellation, GapSat is now ideally placed to meet the growing demands of the communications infrastructure sector.”
The assets comprise a patent for radically new techniques to improve in-flight safety and communications for geostationary aero-mobility services and a suite of three ITU geostationary satellite slot filings using conveniently placed orbital locations to provide for full global coverage/service from the resulting geostationary constellation, using the Ka, Q/V and E/W bands for long-term spectrum future-proofing.
With a strong background in developing existing in-orbit satellites for sale or lease and the addition of this new portfolio of radio frequency spectrum and intellectual property, GapSat is currently seeking potential partners that could be existing satellite fleet operators, aero systems integrators, aero instrumentation manufacturers or financial investors, to develop the assets for data services in the marine and aero mobility sectors.
Mark Posen, Managing Director and Principal Consultant at RPC Telecommunications Ltd, commented: “These filings have good ITU priority in parts of the geostationary arc where it is almost impossible to make usable new filings. Development of innovative approaches to leverage existing satellite spectrum is critical for satellite operators to address this increasing scarcity and complement their existing infrastructure and reach.”
Katherine Gizinski, Chief Executive Officer, ManSat Limited, commented: “We are excited to be part of this project which we see as a unique and valuable opportunity to develop key orbital resources with mid-ocean coverage to address marine and aero mobility needs worldwide”.
GapSat is advised by GH Partners LLC, the New York based boutique investment banking advisory firm and by RPC Telecommunications Ltd. a UK-based satellite regulatory engineering consultancy.
QBX is advised by ManSat Limited, the Isle of Man-based satellite spectrum solutions and related consulting services provider.
About GapSat
GapSat, founded in 2011, provides complete in-orbit geostationary communications satellites on an interim basis to satellite operators. The company is located in Asia, Europe and the USA. (Source: PR Newswire)
16 Jan 23. ULA’s Innovative Vulcan Rocket One Step Closer to Launch.
- The first Vulcan rocket is complete and headed to the launch site
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket has begun its journey to the launch site in preparation for the first test flight. The certification flight one (Cert-1) rocket was completed, loaded onto the R/S RocketShip outside of ULA’s rocket factory in Decatur, Ala. and is on a 2,000-mile voyage to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
“The first Vulcan is complete, and we look forward to the test flight this year. Vulcan is a powerful rocket with a single core booster that is scalable for all missions including heavy class performance normally requiring a Delta IV Heavy configuration,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO. “Vulcan provides higher performance and greater affordability while continuing to deliver our unmatched reliability and orbital precision for all our customers across the national security, civil and commercial markets.”
Once RocketShip arrives in Cape Canaveral, the Vulcan hardware will be transferred to ULA facilities for inspections and processing ahead of launch preparations. Vulcan will undergo a series of flight readiness verification tests including multiple tanking tests and a wet dress rehearsal, culminating in an engine flight readiness firing. Following the successful final testing, the payloads will be integrated, and the vehicle will be readied for launch.
“The ULA team has worked tirelessly to complete the rocket for the first certification flight,” said Mark Peller, vice president of Vulcan Development. “Now that production is complete, our launch team will begin processing and testing this innovative new rocket in preparation for the first mission which will deliver a payload to the Moon.”
Leveraging a legacy of 100 percent mission success launching more than 150 missions to explore, protect and enhance our world, ULA is the nation’s most experienced and reliable launch service provider with world-leading reliability, schedule confidence, and mission optimization. We deliver value unmatched by any launch services company in the industry, a tireless drive to improve, and commitment to the extraordinary. (Source: ASD Network)
08 Jan 23. World Teleport Association publishes the top operator rankings for 2022. The World Teleport Association (WTA) has published their annual rankings for the Top Teleport Operators of 2022 — the annual rankings of companies by revenue and revenue growth are compiled by surveying teleport operators around the world as well as referencing the published results of publicly-held companies.
“The past years have been a time of tremendous change in technology, assets on orbit and market needs, together with the continued impact of the pandemic and the Ukraine war,” said executive director, Robert Bell. “Agility and the intelligent management of opportunities and risks have become key competitive advantages. Our Top Operators have excelled at all three.”
The Global Top 20
The Global Top 20 ranks companies based on revenues from all customized communications sources and includes operators of teleports and satellite fleets. In order from largest to smallest, the Global Top 20 of 2022 are:
- Intelsat (USA)
- SES (Luxembourg)
- Eutelsat (France)
- Arqiva (UK)
- Speedcast (USA)
- Telespazio (Italy)
- Singtel Satellite (Singapore)
- Globecast (France)
- Hispasat (Spain)
- Telesat (Canada)
- Measat Global (Malaysia)
- AXESS Networks (Spain)
- Media Broadcast Satellite (Germany)
- Planetcast Media Services Ltd. (India)
- US Electrodynamics Inc. (USA)
- Etisalat Satellite (United Arab Emirates)
- STN (Slovenia)
- Jordan Media City (Jordan)
- Vivacom (Bulgaria)
- Atlas Space Operations (USA)
The Independent Top 10
The Independent Top 10 ranks teleport operators based on revenue from all sources. The list focuses on the independent operators at the core of the business, excluding companies whose primary business is ownership and operation of a satellite fleet or terrestrial network. In order from largest to smallest, the Independent Top 10 of 2022 are:
- Arqiva (UK)
- Speedcast (USA)
- Telespazio (Italy)
- Globecast (France)
- AXESS Networks (Spain)
- Media Broadcast Satellite (Germany)
- Planetcast Media Services Ltd. (India)
- US Electrodynamics Inc. (USA)
- STN (Slovenia)
- Jordan Media City (Jordan)
The Fast 10
The Fast 10 ranks all teleport-operating companies based on year-over-year revenue growth in their most recent fiscal years. Ranked by revenue growth, the Fast 10 of 2022 are:
- Vivacom (Bulgaria)
- Media Broadcast Satellite (Germany)
- Hispasat (Spain)
- Atlas Space Operations (USA)
- AXESS Networks (Spain)
- Eutelsat (France)
- Hughes (USA)
- Telespazio (Italy)
- Planetcast Media Services Ltd. (India)
- Etisalat Satellite (United Arab Emirates)
(Source: Satnews)
08 Jan 23. Europe’s 1st solar sail mission successfully launched. Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics) has announced the successful launch of Europe‘s first solar sail mission aboard SpaceX Transporter-6 — the 6U smallsat, nicknamed ‘Alpha,’ was manufactured for France’s Gama and is one of four satellites that was guided into LEO.
This is the first time for NanoAvionics that one of its smallsat buses has carried a solar sail payload into space. A second solar sail mission, using a 12U smallsat bus by the company, will be NASA’s composite solar sail system (ACS3).
Also on board were two other 6U smallsat (‘Birkeland‘ and ‘Huygens‘) built by NanoAvionics for a consortium of Norwegian and Dutch research centers. The MilSpace2 mission is the first known, two-satellite system to detect, classify and accurately geolocate radio frequency (RF) signals. The two satellites will fly in formation at a close proximity of 20 kilometers.
The fourth satellite carries an Earth Observation (EO) payload for an undisclosed customer.
Confirming successful communications with all four satellites, NanoAvionics’s mission control center continues executing the early operations phase (LEOP) to configure and validate the satellites for their primary mission objectives.
Vytenis J. Buzas, co-founder and CEO of NanoAvionics, said, “Solar sails are one of the future propulsion methods for small satellites exploring deep space. Being the first European company to integrate solar sails into satellite buses and test them while in orbit puts us in a unique position within the space industry.
“With this first successful launch in 2023, NanoAvionics is off to a great start. We plan to deliver and launch more than 20 satellites to customers this year, up from 15 in 2022. This plan includes our first 100+ kg satellite based on our MP42 microsatellite bus,” Buzas said. “And for the third consecutive year, we nearly doubled both our revenue and our team size.” (Source: Satnews)
08 Jan 23. AAC Clyde Space’s AIS communications satellite Kelpie-1 launches. Kelpie-1, a 3U AAC Clyde Space EPIC nanosatellite, was successfully launched on the SpaceX Transporter-6 mission on January 3, 2023. Kelpie-1 will deliver AIS data to the U.S. company ORBCOMM Inc., a global provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, under an exclusive Space Data as a Service (SDaaS) deal. It is planned to be followed by the launch of a second Kelpie satellite in the first half of 2023.
The project will leverage a SDaaS model in which AAC Clyde Space owns and operates the satellites, which will deliver Automatic Identification System (AIS) data exclusively to ORBCOMM and its government and commercial customers, enabling ship tracking and other maritime navigational and safety efforts. This joint mission with ORBCOMM represents a major milestone for AAC Clyde Space in solidifying its strategic move to a SDaaS model. The project will start generating revenue to AAC Clyde Space once the satellite is deployed.
The satellite lifted off on the Falcon 9 rocket on January 3, 2023, at 9:56 local time (14:56 UTC) from the Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The satellite is housed inside the D-Orbit orbital transfer vehicle, In Orbit Now (ION), which successfully deployed after lift-off into a 525-kilometer Sun Synchronous Orbit. Using the ION, AAC Clyde Space will enhance the lifetime of its spacecraft, enabling the company to maximize revenue generation potential while minimizing the number of spacecrafts needed. The Kelpie-1 satellite will remain in the dispenser for approximately 60 days during the orbit transfer process and will be deployed once reaching the final 640-kilometer orbit.
The state-of-the-art AIS-enabled satellite, Kelpie-1, was designed for advanced communications and hosts cutting-edge, low-noise core avionics for reliable, high-performance space data handling, a versatile Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based receiver, as well as the company’s first payload development, which incorporates three dedicated AIS receivers. The CubeSat weighs just 4 kg and features a unique antenna concept to maximise detections of all AIS message types.
“We are delighted to confirm the successful launch of Kelpie-1, which was designed for AIS communications and utilizes built-in, precision-engineered avionics with decades of heritage from our widely used CubeSat subsystems. It is one of the most innovative satellites AAC Clyde Space has ever built. We look forward to delivering the space data set to enrich ORBCOMM’s global AIS data services,”says AAC Clyde Space CEO Luis Gomes.
“The launch of the Kelpie-1 satellite brings us one step closer to providing our global customers enhanced AIS detections as well as the highest expected vessel detection rates in the industry over the long term,” says Greg Flessate, ORBCOMM’s SVP of Government and AIS.
In addition to the two Kelpie satellites in this project, AAC Clyde Space owns and operates a constellation of four satellites dedicated to SDaaS through its U.S. subsidiary AAC SpaceQuest, planned to be expanded with a further two satellites in the fourth quarter of 2023. Moreover, AAC Clyde Space has won a contract to deliver hyperspectral data from an additional three satellites, bringing the total number of satellites owned by the group for SDaaS purposes to eleven.
The two Kelpie satellites will join a satellite constellation dedicated to delivering AIS data used in maritime operations to support many applications, including domain awareness, search and rescue, environmental monitoring and maritime intelligence. ORBCOMM processes over 30m AIS messages from more than 200,000 vessels per day for government and commercial customers to deliver a complete situational picture of global vessel activity. (Source: Satnews)
10 Jan 23. No more crash, boom, bang in space — European NewSpace companies plan AI-based space traffic management solutions. Three European NewSpace companies, Neuraspace, Ienai Space, and EnduroSat have partnered for Europe’s first orbital demonstration of a collision avoidance system based on artificial intelligence (AI). Their aim is to make space-traffic-management a reality. They also want to set a baseline and show the way for the adoption of end-to-end space traffic management solutions.
Neuraspace is a Portuguese space traffic management company, Ienai Space a Spanish in-space mobility company, and EnduroSat is a Bulgarian satellite manufacturer, operator, and turnkey provider of space-as-a-service (SPaaS).
The mission will serve as a precursor for an end-to-end space traffic management (STM) solution for increased spacecraft safety. The STM will provide spacecraft operators with better space traffic data, collision detection algorithms and more efficient propulsion systems.
Ienai and Neuraspace also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on tackling the growing issue of space debris through joint traffic management products. Both companies are looking to reduce the risk of collisions in space by lowering decision times for customers. They will provide operators with more effective decision-making and execution options for collision avoidance maneuvers for their spacecrafts.
In collaboration with EnduroSat, the companies plan to demonstrate their joint collision avoidance capabilities with a mission in 2023.
The satellite, built by EnduroSat, will be launched aboard an Isar Aerospace rocket (ISAR 2). Once in orbit, it will be maneuvered by Ienai’s ‘Athena’ thrusters. The thrusters will respond to both simulated and real collision warnings and maneuvering suggestions. The warnings and suggestions will be generated by Neuraspace’s AI/ML (machine learning) driven STM solution. (Source: Satnews)
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At Viasat, we’re driven to connect every warfighter, platform, and node on the battlefield. As a global communications company, we power ms of fast, resilient connections for military forces around the world – connections that have the capacity to revolutionize the mission – in the air, on the ground, and at sea. Our customers depend on us for connectivity that brings greater operational capabilities, whether we’re securing the U.S. Government’s networks, delivering satellite and wireless communications to the remote edges of the battlefield, or providing senior leaders with the ability to perform mission-critical communications while in flight. We’re a team of fearless innovators, driven to redefine what’s possible. And we’re not done – we’re just beginning.
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