Lifeboat Foundation

WASHINGTON — Two of the world’s largest geostationary satellite fleet operators said March 10 that launch providers who compete with them by deploying their own constellations could influence their choice of rockets.

Executives from SES and Eutelsat at the Satellite 2020 conference here said they are watching as SpaceX deploys its own Starlink constellation of broadband satellites, which could make SpaceX one of their competitors.

Blue Origin could also become a competitor if it launches Amazon’s Kuiper broadband constellation, according to Eutelsat Deputy CEO Michel Azibert and Hughes President Pradman Kaul, since Jeff Bezos owns both Amazon and Blue Origin.

DARPA has entered into a partnership with Northrop Grumman subsidiary Space Logistics LLC to develop robotic technologies for servicing and extending the service lives of orbital satellites. Based on the Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1), which recently docked with a communication satellite in geosynchronous orbit, the technology will be used by the agency’s Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program to develop a dexterous robotic servicer that would be operated by private companies.

Founded in 2016, the RSGS program completed a Payload Critical Design Review in 2019 and is developing key technologies in the run up to the first space launch scheduled for 2023. As part of this effort, DARPA says it is funding the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to bring together components like the robotic manipulator arms, a variety of interchangeable tools, cameras, sensors, software, and avionics into a functioning robotic payload.

Meanwhile, Space Logistics will provide the spacecraft bus based on the MEV and integrate the robotic payload, as well as providing launch and orbital operation services. Once the spacecraft has been checked out and demonstrated its capabilities, the technology will be marketed to commercial and government organizations.

That’s no longer the case. Blue Canyon Technologies, AAC Clyde Space, GomSpace, NanoAvionics, Tyvak and several others are ready and willing to build cubesats en masse. So it came as a surprise to many cubesat manufacturers when Kepler Communications announced plans in January to manufacture its constellation of 140 Internet of Things satellites in-house.

Kepler is poised to become one of the world’s largest cubesat operators once its constellation is fully in orbit, a target set for the end of 2022. Only Planet currently operates a fleet that large.

Instead of formally soliciting bids from a wide range of cubesat builders, though, Toronto-based Kepler turned to the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) for help setting up its own manufacturing line. Kepler also received 1 million Canadian dollars ($760,000) from the Canadian Space Agency to mature its bus design and production techniques, leading some observers to conclude national pride could play a role. Through Kepler, Canada is establishing a robust cubesat manufacturing capability.

A sharp-eyed satellite’s launch has been pushed back from its expected Thursday (March 5) launch date until no earlier than April due to a rocket problem, according to a media report.

Arianespace, which will be providing the launch from French Guiana, has not disclosed a reason for the delay. Nor did it release a new launch date for Falcon Eye 2, which is a high-performance optical observation satellite for commercial and military users in the United Arab Emirates.

The largest private automaker in China is getting into the satellite business. Chinese automotive giant Geely has broadened its reach to include everything from trucking, to high-speed trains, to passenger drones, to Volvo over the last decade or so. But its newest effort could tie those things all together, as Geely just announced it’s going to build its own satellite network to enable what it calls a “smart three-dimensional mobility ecosystem.”

Geely announced late Monday that it will erect a satellite production facility and testing center in the port city of Taizhou in the Zhejiang province that the Chinese giant calls home. The facility will be capable of building a “variety of different satellite models,” some of which may be for non-Geely entities.

Geely says it will start launching the satellite network as soon as the end of this year, but did not say how big it will be. Reuters reports that the company is pumping around $326 million into the project, and will eventually make 500 satellites a year.

Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin has completed the first nose cone of its future orbital rocket, the New Glenn — and new video of the hardware shows the true enormity of this piece of equipment. With a diameter of 7 meters, or 22 feet, the cavernous nose cone is so giant that it can completely house Blue Origin’s smaller New Shepard rocket.

The nose cone, or payload fairing, is a crucial piece of any rocket heading to space. It sits on top of the vehicle and surrounds whatever payload or satellite the rocket is carrying, acting as a shield during the ascent through the atmosphere. Once in space, the payload breaks away and exposes the satellite so that the payload can be deployed by the rocket.

Continue reading “Blue Origin shows off the finished massive nose cone for its future New Glenn rocket” »

DARPA has established a new partnership with U.S. industry to jointly develop and deploy advanced robotic capabilities in space. The agency has signed an Other Transactions for Prototypes agreement with Space Logistics, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corporation, as its commercial partner for the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program.

The RSGS program’s objective is to create a dexterous robotic operational capability in geosynchronous orbit that can extend satellite life spans, enhance resilience, and improve reliability for current U.S. space infrastructure. The first step is the RSGS program’s development of a dexterous robotic servicer, which a commercial enterprise will then operate.

“DARPA remains committed to a commercial partnership for the execution of the RSGS mission,” said Dr. Michael Leahy, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. “Building upon the successes of the DARPA Orbital Express mission and the recent successful docking of Space Logistics’ Mission Extension Vehicle-1, the agency seeks to bring dexterous on-orbit servicing to spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit (GEO), and to establish that inspection, repair, life extension, and improvement of our valuable GEO assets can be made possible and even routine.”

SAN FRANCISCO – PredaSAR, a Florida startup led by retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger Teague, raised $25 million in seed funding for its plan to build a constellation of at least 44 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites.

“The Defense Department has been after a space-based radar solution for many years,” Teague told SpaceNews. “There’s a need for a SAR moving-target indicator… I believe there is going to be strong market demand.”

PredaSAR was founded in 2019 by Marc Bell, an entrepreneur and investor who is the chairman and co-founder of Terran Orbital, which owns Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems. Bell now serves as PredaSAR’s chairman. Before closing the seed funding round, PredaSAR hired Tyvak to build its first two satellites, Bell said.

The Deep Space Climate Observatory – a satellite that warns of incoming space storms that could knacker telecommunications on Earth – is up and running again after being shut down for eight months by a technical glitch.

Launched in 2015 aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the bird, known as DSCOVR for short, was sent into orbit between the Earth and the Sun. Circling at a distance of about a million miles away from terra firma, satellite sports instruments designed to detect approaching geomagnetic storms, and alerts us before highly energetic particles from the solar wind pelt our planet.