Sponsored by MatrixSpace
http://matrixspace.com
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
31 Jul 25. Eycore and Kongsberg NanoAvionics to Collaborate on Next-Gen SAR Satellites for NATO and Allied Defence Applications.
- Their first mission will validate a fully European, all-weather imaging capability tailored to defence and security users worldwide.
Eycore, an emerging developer of compact synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) payloads, and small-satellite manufacturer Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics) today announced an agreement to place Eycore’s inaugural SAR demonstrator into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter rideshare mission in the first quarter of 2026. The flight will test Eycore’s X-band radar on NanoAvionics’ flight-proven MP42 microsatellite bus, laying the groundwork for an all-European, military-grade SAR solution that provides governments with rapid, sovereign access to sub-meter, day-night, all-weather imagery. The spacecraft will operate from a 510-kilometer, sun-synchronous orbit. At the core of the mission is Eycore’s deployable active phased-array antenna. It consists of five panels, one fixed and four unfolding in space to create a large aperture without compromising launch volume. NanoAvionics’ MP42 platform will provide the necessary peak power for the payload, data downlink, as well as the attitude control agility and stability required for various imaging modes for different intelligence requirements: Stripmap for continuous swath coverage, Spotlight for sub-meter resolution of priority targets, and ScanSAR for very wide-area awareness. Together, these modes enable operators to seamlessly shift from border-length surveillance to vehicle-level inspection, ensuring relevance across intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), border security, maritime domain awareness, and rapid disaster response. The companies have also been working in parallel on a satellite bus and next-generation payload, offering even higher resolution, wider swath, longer imaging times, higher incidence angle, and other improvements.
“Partnering with a reliable bus provider like Kongsberg NanoAvionics lets us focus on perfecting our SAR technology while de-risking the platform, launch, and operations,” said Tomasz Kusowski, Co-founder & VP of the Management Board of Eycore. “This demonstrator is the springboard for high-performance European SAR satellites that will deliver tactical data for national security and defense applications.”
Atle Wøllo, CEO of Kongsberg NanoAvionics, added: “Across Europe we are seeing rising demand for domestically controlled, all-weather Earth observation. By combining our small satellites with Eycore’s sensors, we are giving governments a fast, cost-effective path to sovereign SAR capabilities that strengthen national security and resilience.”
29 Jul 25. US Space Force kills protected satcom programme, consolidates effort. US Space Force (USSF) officials have quietly killed the Protected Tactical Satellite Communications – Resilient (PTS-R) programme, as part of a service-wide restructuring of the entire Protected Anti-jam Tactical Satcom (PATS) family-of-systems (FoS) effort, with a larger focus on rapidly maturing anti-jamming capabilities for wideband satcom assets. Service officials announced the cancellation of PTS-R in a July 2025 statement, arguing the decision to nix the effort was driven by a “focus on implementing faster and more robust capabilities … [and] prototypes into operation as quickly as possible”, USSF programme leaders said.
Aside from the PTS-R cancellation, the service’s shift in focus within the overall PATS initiative will also look to prioritise “utilising lower cost-risk contracts and providing incremental capabilities faster by operationalising current PTS prototype satellite capabilities”, said Cordell DeLaPena, program executive officer for military communications and position, navigation, and timing (PNT) at USSF.
“Opportunities to make incremental improvements to … existing prototypes will be investigated, and the new PTS FoS acquisition strategy” to meet the operational requirements within USSF that the PTS-R programme had been intended to fill, DeLaPena said in the July statement. At the time of the programme cancellation, programme officials at USSF were poised to begin prototype evaluations for both PTS-R and the Protected Tactical Satellite Communications – Global (PTS-G) systems. (Source: Janes)
28 Jul 25. The Boeing [NYSE: BA]-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is preparing to launch its eighth mission (OTV-8) from Florida’s Space Coast, with liftoff scheduled no earlier than August 21. This milestone comes less than six months after the successful completion of OTV-7.
“With each successive flight, the X-37B has demonstrated adaptability and flexibility by hosting diverse experiments and pioneering new orbital regimes,” said Michelle Parker, vice president of Boeing Space Mission Systems. “This mission continues that legacy by fielding cutting-edge technologies that advance our nation’s space capability and improve the resilience of future architectures.”
OTV-8 will fly with a service module, expanding capacity for experiments and opening new opportunities for mission partners, which include the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Innovation Unit. The mission will host demonstrations of high-bandwidth inter-satellite laser communications technologies, as well as the highest performing quantum inertial sensor ever tested in space. The U.S. Space Force will leverage insights from this mission to inform future space architectures.
“OTV-8’s laser communications demonstration will mark an important step in the U.S. Space Force’s ability to leverage commercial space networks as part of proliferated, diversified, and redundant space architectures,” said U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations, Gen. Chance Saltzman. “In so doing, it will strengthen the resilience, reliability, adaptability, and data transport speeds of our satellite communications architectures.”
The revolutionary quantum inertial sensor will demonstrate precise positioning, navigation and timing in a GPS-denied environment. Quantum inertial sensors, useful for navigation in deep and cis-lunar space, promise to push the technological frontiers of long-distance space travel and exploration.
“OTV 8’s quantum inertial sensor demonstration is a welcome step forward for the operational resilience of Guardians in space,” said Space Delta 9 Commander Colonel Ramsey Hom. “Whether navigating beyond Earth-based orbits in cis-lunar space or operating in GPS-denied environments, quantum inertial sensing allows for robust navigation capabilities where GPS navigation is not possible. Ultimately, this technology contributes significantly to our thrust within the Fifth Space Operations Squadron and across the Space Force guaranteeing movement and maneuverability even in GPS-denied environments.”
Boeing and Space Force teams are preparing the spaceplane for launch at Boeing’s facility at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Since its inaugural launch in April 2010, the spaceplane has spent more than 4,200 days in space. A leading global aerospace company and top U.S. exporter, Boeing develops, manufactures and services commercial airplanes, defense products and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. Our U.S. and global workforce and supplier base drive innovation, economic opportunity, sustainability and community impact. Boeing is committed to fostering a culture based on our core values of safety, quality and integrity.
17 Jul 25. L3Harris has the future of PNT ready now. L3Harris payloads and components have been on board every U.S. GPS satellite—more than 70 missions since the 1970s. Our technology is at the core of GPS availability, accuracy and integrity. L3Harris recently demonstrated a cutting-edge Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) solution for the U.S. Space Force’s (USSF) Space Systems Command that is adaptable to different platforms, is fully reprogrammable on-orbit, and is scalable to support additional signals and increased power to address evolving threats. This ready-now solution can provide the USSF with the ultimate flexibility to efficiently field smaller, multi-launch capable satellites to augment or disaggregate the constellation. During a two-day event, the company conducted a comprehensive Design Concept Review (DCR) showcasing a Resilient-GPS (R-GPS) prototype that performed beyond current requirements. The session demonstrated the ability to accelerate the existing USSF R-GPS roadmap for a more resilient PNT infrastructure. Using their Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) reprogrammable payload and National Security Agency-certified reprogrammable cryptography, L3Harris successfully simulated the commanding of an R-GPS satellite to transmit navigation signals that were acquired and tracked by a monitor station receiver, as well as Military User Equipment and commercial receivers, signifying that R-GPS can seamlessly and efficiently be integrated into the existing GPS infrastructure.
L3Harris followed a “prototyping with purpose” approach, which is much more than a laboratory demonstration. The review showcased maturity far beyond a traditional Preliminary Design Review, translating into a low-risk, achievable plan for future development phases of the R-GPS program. The L3Harris R-GPS design includes capabilities aligned to future Lite Evolving Augmented Proliferation, providing an opportunity for roadmap acceleration and reduction in lifecycle costs. The DCR conveyed how the L3Harris R-GPS satellite will minimize impact on the Control Segment and maintain backward compatibility with current and in development user equipment to ensure operational compatibility. L3Harris is the only company to support the entire GPS enterprise across all operational segments. As a critical contributor, the company has provided navigation technology for every U.S. GPS satellite ever launched. In 2024, L3Harris was selected to design concepts for Phase 0 of the R-GPS program through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) Other Transaction Authority (OTA) vehicle, managed by National Security Technology Accelerator (NSTXL). The new, agile R-GPS satellite program will dramatically reduce costs by launching eight smaller, more capable space vehicles at one time. This enables the U.S. to quickly and affordably augment, modernize, and upgrade the GPS space layer for resiliency, significantly increased power to combat terrestrial jamming and enhanced security and cryptography.
Our team transmitted, tested, and validated the core set of R-GPS signals across the entire enterprise to showcase a fully reprogrammable, resilient PNT solution for the Department of Defense,” said Ed Zoiss, President, Space and Airborne Systems, L3Harris. “We leveraged best in class commercial technology in the payload and spacecraft bus and the government’s investment in cutting-edge NTS-3 PNT technologies. Conducting an end-to-end demo using fielded Space Force user equipment in just six months is an unprecedented accomplishment. Using NTS-3’s advanced technology, L3Harris’ R-GPS solution is the most advanced capability offering supporting PNT proliferation to augment or disaggregate the constellation.”
Zoiss added, “Our approach supports satellite design verification, proves compatibility with the Control Segment and User Equipment, and allows for early enterprise integration opportunities. As a global PNT leader for more than five decades, we understand the challenges in aligning three segments of the GPS enterprise (Space, Control and User), so we showcased a holistic, aligned approach.” (Source: Satnews)
22 Jul 25. ULA continues launch prep of Vulcan for U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command USSF-106 mission. The first U.S. national security launch aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket will be the United States Space Force (USSF)-106 mission. Liftoff will occur at an as-yet-to-be-determined launch date from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. ULA is set to launch a Vulcan Centaur VC4S rocket, with four solid rocket boosters, to send USSF-106 directly to geosynchronous orbit for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command. This will be the first National Security Space Launch (NSSL) mission on a Vulcan rocket. From its inception, the Vulcan rocket was designed to deliver heavy payloads to any orbit. The upcoming USSF-106 mission utilizes this capability with Centaur V launching a multi-manifest U.S. national security payload directly to geosynchronous orbit for the Space Force. ULA technicians at Cape Canaveral are assembling the most powerful Vulcan rocket yet. Together with its twin BE-4 main engines and four side-mounted GEM 63XL solid rocket boosters, Vulcan will generate three m pounds (13 meganewtons) of liftoff thrust to launch the USSF-106 mission. (Source: Satnews)
26 Jul 25. The four Airbus-built CO3D (Constellation Optique 3D) satellites have been successfully placed into orbit by an Arianespace Vega-C rocket from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The satellites, developed in partnership with the French Space Agency (CNES), will now commence their mission to create a highly detailed 3D map of the Earth’s surface. The dual-use CO3D satellites will deliver a global high-resolution Digital Surface Model (DSM), providing 50 cm stereo imagery to CNES, and 2D imagery to government and commercial clients, further strengthening Airbus’s comprehensive suite of optical and radar satellite solutions.
“The successful launch of the CO3D constellation is a testament to European ingenuity and a major step forward in our first class Earth observation capabilities,” said Alain Fauré, Head of Space Systems at Airbus. “Thanks to our strong partnership with CNES, these satellites, based on our next-generation S250 product, can now deliver a game-changing 3D map of our planet and provide high revisit and high resolution observation capabilities. This programme, which is already attracting significant interest in today’s geopolitical context, showcases our commitment to technological, industrial, and commercial innovation.”
The four 285 kg satellites are now in a Sun synchronous orbit at an altitude of 502 km. Over the next six months, they will undergo in-orbit testing before beginning an 18-month campaign to deliver a 3D map of France and the ‘crisis arc’ to CNES. The data will feed a cloud-based ground segment operated by Airbus to produce the final 3D map, supporting critical military and civil applications ranging from geology and hydrology to urban planning and civil security. The CO3D satellites feature several technological innovations, including a new observation mode, called Step and Stare. Each satellite uses its matrix detector to shoot images (Stare) and pave the area of interest with images of about 7km x 5km. The spacecrafts’ outstanding agility allows them to quickly reposition between successive pictures (Step) allowing each of them to provide the user with 7, 14, 21 or 28km swath images. The CO3D programme benefits from manufacturing expertise gained from the OneWeb constellation satellites’ development, utilising a modern, digitalised assembly line in Toulouse that draws inspiration from the automotive and aeronautical industries. Several pieces of equipment use commercial off the shelf components that are adapted for use in Space to provide CO3D with the best performance from the wider industrial domain as well as a customised level of space-ready quality. Also successfully deployed on the same launch was the MicroCarb satellite, a joint mission between CNES and the UK Space Agency. Equipped with a high-precision Airbus-made spectrometer, Microcarb will map atmospheric carbon content on a planetary scale, providing vital data to climate scientists.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Founded in 2017, MatrixSpace is creating the next generation of artificial intelligence enabled sensing solutions to digitize the outdoors beyond the limits of human perception.
The company combines novel artificial intelligence and radar technologies to identify movement and provide context in real-time. MatrixSpace sensors are the smallest, lightest and most portable high-performance systems on the market powered by AI. They deliver actionable insights that empower a broad range of public and private enterprises to protect assets and maintain safety with superior situational awareness.
For the modern, mobile battlespace, MatrixSpace provides both high performance 4D radar and jam-resistant mesh networked communications engineered to perform in the harshest conditions—day or night, in any weather, and in remote, rugged locations. Designed for flexibility, our radar systems can be integrated with tactical vehicles or mounted on structures like buildings, TOCs, or stanchions. Offering 360° coverage, they provide unmatched field-of-view advantages, while low energy consumption allows for solar/battery-powered operation in off-grid environments at twice the duration and a fraction the cost of alternatives. The MatrixSpace AI platform removes clutter and classifies objects, so operators can act confidently without specialized radar expertise.
The MatrixSpace expeditionary radar kit fits in a standard daypack and contains everything needed to deliver actionable detections to an ATAK mobile device in less than 5 mins.
MatrixSpace solutions are designed and developed in the United States, without ITAR export restrictions, manufactured under the highest ISO and IATF standards and rigorously tested for quality, reliability and compliance.
Visit maxtrixspace.com
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————