Sponsored By Viasat
www.viasat.com/gov-uk
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23 Jan 24. Albedo, the first company to offer aerial quality imagery from space – enabled by the new orbit frontier of VLEO (very low earth orbit) – today announced a $35m Series A-1 financing round led by Standard Investments, bringing the company’s total funding to $97m.
Participation in the round included new investors Booz Allen Ventures, Cubit Capital, and Bill Perkins, along with existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Shield Capital, Initialized Capital, Y Combinator, Giant Step Capital, Republic Capital, and other undisclosed participants. In addition, Ben Sampson, Managing Director of Standard Investments, will join the Albedo Board of Directors.
“The Series A-1 funding will be used to launch Albedo’s first operational satellite and accelerate constellation deployment — ultimately proving out and proliferating the world’s first high-res VLEO platform,” said Topher Haddad, CEO of Albedo.
Albedo’s mission is to provide commercial and defense users with ultra-high resolution satellite imagery to see details with clarity and then act with certainty. By rethinking the traditional approach to earth observation satellites, namely developing a stable, agile platform to operate at very low altitudes, Albedo is able to collect data at an exquisite quality with cost-effective, mid-sized satellites. The constellation under development will co-collect native 10 centimeter (cm) optical imagery and 2 meter thermal infrared imagery, the same resolutions that can only be obtained today by drones/planes, but now at a global scale with on-demand coverage at high frequency.
“Standard invests in disruptive industrial technologies, and the new orbit frontier of VLEO will open up a wide variety of exciting opportunities around enhanced imagery and data collection, which is a key unmet challenge in modernizing industry and infrastructure,” said Ben Sampson, Managing Director of Standard Investments. “We’re proud to partner with Albedo on their mission to scale aerial-quality data collection from space.”
“We were fortunate to raise this round at a step-up valuation from some of the top investors in our category,” said Haddad. “As geopolitical tensions rise and we approach an irreversible climate change tipping point, the need for innovative dual-use technologies is crucial in sustaining a safe global environment.”
About Albedo
Albedo builds VLEO satellites that collect visible and thermal imagery at the highest resolution commercially available. Once launched, the company will operate the satellites to provide imagery-as-a-service to industries including agriculture, insurance, energy, mapping, utilities, and defense. For more information, please visit https://albedo.com.
About Standard Investments
Standard Investments is a fundamentally driven investment platform focused on the intersection of industry and technology. Standard Investments deploys capital flexibly and creatively across the public and private markets, spanning the life cycle of a company, and leverages its deep industrial knowledge and operational experience to create value. To learn more, visit http://standardinvestments.com.
(Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
12 Jan 24. LUNO A RfP Issued.
ACTIVE
Contract Opportunity
Notice ID
HM157524R0001
Related Notice
HM157524R0001_draft
Department/Ind. Agency
DEPT OF DEFENSE
Sub-tier
NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (NGA)
Office
NATL GEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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General Information
- Contract Opportunity Type: Solicitation (Original)
- All Dates/Times are: (UTC-06:00) CENTRAL STANDARD TIME, CHICAGO, USA
- Original Published Date: Jan 10, 2024 02:04 pm CST
- Original Date Offers Due: Mar 26, 2024 09:00 am CDT
- Inactive Policy: 15 days after date offers due
- Original Inactive Date: Apr 10, 2024
- Initiative:
o None
Classification
- Original Set Aside:
- Product Service Code: T099 – PHOTO/MAP/PRINT/PUBLICATION- OTHER
- NAICS Code:
o 541370 – Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services
- Place of Performance:
USA
Description
Luno A will transform NGA’s approach for geospatial information and knowledge, expand access to data and services for the NSG, accelerate Analysis Workflow Modernization objectives and integrate data and services into enterprise capabilities. This approach will deliver data that enables NGA and NSG analysts to add context to analytic assessments, and have unparalleled insight into and data to quantify worldwide economic and environmental activity and military capabilities. The objective of this effort is to acquire products, data, and/or services produced from unclassified commercial GEOINT on unclassified networks, not to acquire a technology or capability to install and manage on classified networks. NGA expects industry to leverage unclassified sources and analytical capabilities available in the commercial marketplace to produce these products, data, and/or services.
The Request for Proposal (RFP) HM157524R0001 and supporting Attachments were posted to the UNCLASSIFIED Intelligence Community Acquisition Research Center (IC-ARC) website (https://acq.westfields.net/) on 10 January 2024. The title of the RFP is published as “LUNO A”. Potential Offerors should monitor the IC-ARC website for any updates or amendments to any and all documents.
Questions are due no later than 17 January 2024 at 0900 CT via the UNCLASSIFIED ARC.
Instructions to access the IC-ARC websites are provided below:
1) For accessing the UNCLASSIFIED ARC, you must create an account on the UNCLASSIFIED ARC at
https://acq.westfields.net/.
2) ACE Helpdesk support can be reached at (703) 230-6300 if you have any issues with PKI certifications or logging onto the ARC on a contractor system.
Attachments/Links
No attachments or links have been added to this opportunity.
Contact Information
Contracting Office Address
- ATTN; L13-OCSS 3838 VOGEL ROAD
- ARNOLD , MO 630106238
- USA
Primary Point of Contact
- Timothy Hull
- Phone Number3146760352
Secondary Point of Contact
- Ryan Switzer
- Phone Number3146760173
History
- Jan 10, 2024 02:04 pm CSTSolicitation (Original)
- Nov 30, 2023 10:55 pm CSTPresolicitation (Original)
(Source: Satnews)
15 Jan 24. Safran to equip LeoStella satellite constellations. LeoStella is pursuing its partnership with Syrlinks, a Safran Electronics & Defense company, that will equip LeoStella’s latest-generation of LS-300 satellite buses with its high-performance, resilient, N-SPHERE GNSS receiver for applications.
The N-SPHERE solution is a new-generation, GNSS receiver designed by Syrlinks and implements the latest state-of-the-art positioning and synchronization techniques to achieve real-time precise onboard orbit determination (P2OD). N-SPHERE can be synchronized with various GNSS systems and offers high-precision positioning, of the order of 10 centimeters.
The integration of this very high precision localization capability into the LS-300 bus gives LeoStella access to international defense customers.
“We’re delighted to be pursuing our collaboration with LeoStella, based on the selection of our advanced GNSS receiver,” said Jean-Marie Bétermier, Senior Vice President Space, Safran Electronics & Defense. “There’s no better vote of confidence than continued collaboration with a customer. It shows that our products are dependable and always at the forefront of technology.”
“Syrlinks and LeoStella have built a solid partnership over the course of several collaborative programs,” said Kylie Hall, Supply Chain Manager for LeoStella. “LeoStella is looking forward to building N-SPHERE into the development of its future satellite platforms, which marks an important milestone in our ongoing partnership.” (Source: Satnews)
14 Jan 24. Iridium unveils Project Stardust. Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) has revealed Project Stardust, the evolution of the company’s Direct-to-Device (D2D) strategy with 3GPP 5G standards-based Narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) Non-Terrestrial Network (NB-NTN) service development. As a new standards-based solution, this technology will be deployed on Iridium’s existing satellite network, giving the company the ability to offer high-quality proprietary and standardized D2D and IoT services to customers.
The early stages of programming Iridium’s LEO satellites offers a special opportunity to smartphone companies, OEMs, chipmakers, mobile network operators (MNO) and related IoT developers to have their requirements woven into the fabric of the Iridium® network. Iridium is already collaborating directly with several of these companies.
“This is an exciting moment for Iridium and is a testament to the flexibility and capability built into our satellite constellation,” said Iridium CEO Matt Desch. “The industry is moving quickly towards a more standards-based approach, and after surveying the field, we found that we’re the best positioned to lead the way using our own network, particularly given our true global coverage.”
Iridium is designing its initial NB-IoT offering to support 5G NTN messaging and SOS capabilities for smartphones, tablets, cars, and related consumer applications. Adopting the service will enable device manufacturers to add a satellite connection to standardized devices, take advantage of existing, globally allocated and coordinated Iridium spectrum, and provide a superior low-latency LEO user experience.
The Iridium network supports approximately 1,300 SOS and emergency (911 or equivalent) incidents per year, around the world and has readily available systems, processes, and partners to implement this capability for new devices.
Iridium understands the market need for its customers to develop and certify products quickly. Applying our established onboarding processes, chipmakers and NB-IoT developers can join Iridium’s ecosystem of about 500 partners, and choose a proprietary, standards-based, or dual-solution integration approach for added network redundancy. MNOs will have the opportunity to be a one-stop shop for ubiquitous coverage and off-grid use cases, with unmatched industry reliability. Iridium partners are supported by a 24/7 customer support, back office, billing, and provisioning system, all ready to support the new service upon launch.
The Iridium satellite constellation’s fully crosslinked, LEO architecture and global L-band spectrum provides a competitive service advantage versus other LEO and geostationary satellite networks. Certified to provide safety of life services by international regulatory bodies, the Iridium network has become the gold standard of reliability and continues to be the only network that provides connectivity everywhere on Earth. Operating in LEO, the Iridium constellation does not suffer from the same line-of-sight limitations, significant power requirements or outages that can affect entire regions from a single satellite as faced by geostationary systems.
As of the third quarter of 2023, Iridium subscribers have grown at a 15% CAGR over the last five years, and the company serves approximately 1.7 m IoT customers today, including about 900,000 personal trackers and satellite messengers for consumer, enterprise, and government applications. Known for its reliability, coverage, and low power requirements, the Iridium network is an ideal fit for NB-IoT NTN service.
The company is currently working with several D2D and IoT-focused companies to understand and incorporate their use cases, requirements, and end-user needs into its planned service. The company anticipates testing to begin in 2025, with service in 2026. (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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