DENVER – Cybersecurity specialist SpiderOak raised $16.4 million in a Series C investment round led by Empyrean Technology Solutions, a space technology platform affiliated with Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm.
Method Capital and OCA Ventures participated in the round.
“Today, space-based assets are mission essential in all civil and military operations and rapidly becoming mission critical for all national and corporate infrastructure,” Charles Beams, SpiderOak executive chairman, said in a statement. “The Space Force and the space industry consensus is that a cyber-attack is the most likely and most damaging threat to these assets.”
SpiderOak has quickly raised its profile in the space sector by winning U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovation Research contracts for OrbitSecure, an off-the-shelf product designed to enhance satellite and constellation cybersecurity.
“Space is a demanding environment in many ways and SpiderOak’s proven zero-trust solution, using its patented distributed ledger technology, is well positioned to address these cyber threats head-on,” said Beames, a former Defense Department principal director for space and intelligence systems.
With funding from the investment round, SpiderOak plans to complete on-orbit testing and obtain flight heritage for its second-generation space product, OrbitSecure 2.0.
In addition, SpiderOak is moving its headquarters from Chicago to Reston, Virginia, and establishing a space cybersecurity laboratory. In the new laboratory, SpiderOak will provide for hardware-in-the-loop qualification testing.
“SpiderOak brings a wealth of industry experience in cybersecurity solutions to national security, an area we are already heavily invested in,” Matt Norton, Madison Dearborn Partners managing director, said in a statement. “Their proven track record in developing commercial zero-trust technology is backed by a substantial patent portfolio.”
SpiderOak CEO Dave Pearah, said in a statement that the company’s software is “backwards compatible with legacy space systems, to allow current on orbit systems to take the step to much higher cybersecurity protections.”
For decades, open systems architectures and open standards have helped accelerate innovation to end users in aerospace and defense applications through the development of interfaces that are open, key, and well-defined. Today, space system designers and developers are truly embracing the SpaceVPX (VITA 78) standard, which leverages the OpenVPX (VITA 65.0) architecture through its slot profile and module profile level building blocks, which create interconnect solutions based on the user’s need.
Explore the basics of SpaceVPX with the designers of the VPX and SpaceVPX interconnect. Learn about the standard’s origin, the advantages of SpaceVPX vs. OpenVPX, recent changes to the standard and the importance of standard interconnects which drive down cost, results in a more robust supply chain, and maintains a path for future expansion.
SpaceVPX is a standard for creating plug-in cards (PICs) from its slot profile and module (protocol) profiles. In turn, these building blocks create interconnected subsystems and systems. Developed under the auspices of The Next Generation Space Interconnect Standard (NGSIS), it is the result of a government-Industry collaboration. The primary goal of SpaceVPX is to cost-effectively remove bandwidth as a constraint for future space systems.
SpaceVPX is based on the VITA (VMEbus International Trade Association) OpenVPX standard with enhancements that extend the standard for space applications.
The NGSIS team selected the OpenVPX standard family as the physical baseline for the new SpaceVPX standard because VPX supports both 3U and 6U form factors with ruggedized and conduction-cooled features suitable for use in extreme environments. The infrastructure of OpenVPX also allows for prototyping and testing SpaceVPX on the ground.
SpaceVPX is built upon several standards, some of which are part of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/VITA and European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) OpenVPX family:
VITA 46 VPX and its ANSI/VITA 65.0 OpenVPX derivative – baseline standard
ANSI/VITA 60 and ANSI/VITA 63 – compatible connectors
ANSI/VITA 48.2[3] – mechanical extensions
ANSI/VITA 62 – standardized power module
ANSI/VITA 66 and 67 – replacement of electrical segments with RF or optical solutions
ANSI/VITA 46.11[4] – management protocol, the basis for fault-tolerant management of the SpaceVPX system
ECSS – SpaceWire standard
ECSS – Remote Memory Access Protocol (RMAP)
ECSS – SpaceFibre standard
Gigabit Ethernet
OpenVPX is a defined set of system implementations within VPX that specifies a set of system architectures. OpenVPX organizes connections in four major interconnect planes — data, control, utility, and expansion.
Data Plane The data plane incorporates high-speed multigigabit fabric connections between modules to carry payload and mission data.
Control Plane The control plane, also a fabric connection, typically has less capacity and is used for configuration, setup, diagnostics, and other operational control functions within the payload and for lower-speed data transfers.
Utility Plane The utility plane provides setup and control of basic module functions for power sequencing, low-level diagnostics, clocks, and other base signals needed for system operation.
Expansion Plane The expansion plane may be used as a separate connection between modules using similar interfaces or to bridge heritage interfaces in a more limited topology such as a bus or ring.
Pins not defined as part of any of these planes are typically user-defined and are available for pass-through from daughter or mezzanine cards, or to rear transition modules (RTM). For maximum module reuse, the user-defined pins should be configurable so as not to interfere with modules that use the same pins in a different way. Consult ANSI/VITA 65.0 for more detail.
An evaluation of OpenVPX for space usage revealed several shortcomings. The key limitation was the lack of features available to support a full, single-fault-tolerant, highly reliable configuration. Utility signals were bused and, in most cases, supported only one set of signals via signal pins to a module. As a result, a pure OpenVPX system has opportunities for multiple failures. Additionally, a full management-control mechanism was not fully defined with VITA 46.11.
From a protocol perspective, SpaceWire is the dominant medium-speed data and control plane interface for most spacecraft, yet the typical OpenVPX control planes are peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) or Ethernet which are not generally used in space applications. (Note: Gigabit Ethernet was added to the 2022 revision of the SpaceVPX standard.)
The goal of SpaceVPX is to achieve an acceptable level of fault tolerance, while maintaining a reasonable level of compatibility with existing OpenVPX components including connector-pin assignments for the board and the backplane (Figure 1.).
Figure 1 | The goal of SpaceVPX is to achieve an acceptable level of fault tolerance by way of redundancy and switching. Illustration: VITA.
For the purposes of fault tolerance, a module (defined as a printed wire assembly which conforms to defined mechanical and electrical specifications) is considered the minimum redundancy element, or the minimum fault containment region. The utility plane and control plane within SpaceVPX are all distributed redundantly and are arranged in star topologies, dual-star topologies, partial-mesh topologies or full-mesh topologies to provide fault tolerance to the entire system.
To meet the desired level of fault tolerance, the utility plane signals must be dual-redundant and switched to each SpaceVPX card function.
A trade study, conducted in 2010 through a government and industry collaboration with the support of the SpaceVPX Working Group, compared various implementations including adding the switching to each card in various ways and creating a unique switching card. The latter approach was selected so SpaceVPX cards can each receive the same utility plane signals that an OpenVPX card receives with minor adjustments for any changes in topology. This became known as the Space Utility Management module (SpaceUM), a major foundation of the SpaceVPX standard.
A 6U SpaceUM module contains up to eight sets of power and signal switches to support eight SpaceVPX payload modules — the 3U version of the SpaceUM can support up to five. It receives one power bus from each of two power supplies and one set of utility plane signals from each of two system controller functions required in the SpaceVPX backplane. The various parts of the SpaceUM module do not require their own redundancy. They are considered extensions of the power supply, system controller and other SpaceVPX modules for reliability calculation.
Each slot, module and backplane profile in OpenVPX is fully defined and interlinked. Adapting these profiles for use in space requires specification of a SpaceVPX version of each profile.
Slot Profile A slot profile provides a physical mapping of data ports onto a slot’s backplane connector, which is agnostic to the type of protocol used to convey data from the slot to the backplane.
Module and Backplane Profiles Module profiles are extensions of their accompanying slot profiles which enable mapping of protocols to each module port. A module profile includes information on thermal, power and mechanical requirements for each module. Some module profiles for SpaceVPX are similar to OpenVPX which enables use of OpenVPX modules and backplanes for prototyping or testing on the ground. However, most module profiles for space applications are significantly different from profiles for ground applications so full specifications consistent with SpaceVPX are required. The section of the SpaceVPX standard that defines these profiles forms a majority of the standard.
Interconnects are one more critical part of SpaceVPX. As with other elements of the standard, they are based on interconnects developed for OpenVPX, but designed for the extreme space environment.
Problematic temperatures, vibration, outgassing and other factors can catastrophically compromise interconnect systems as well as signal and power integrity. For decades, designers for space applications have relied on customized interconnect designs to ensure the reliability of embedded electronics exposed to the extremes of space. The high cost and long lead times of a custom interconnect solution were once considered a worthwhile investment against failures that are extremely costly or impossible to fix in space.
Today, the use of standard interconnects drives down cost, improves availability and maintains a path for future expansion.
By leveraging the OpenVPX architecture, SpaceVPX brings in the interconnect solutions which are defined in VITA standards and have gone through extensive testing to support their use in space.
The SpaceVPX slot profiles define the use of VPX connectors (VITA 46 or alternate VPX connectors) and enable implementation of RF (VITA 67) and optical (VITA 66) modules at the plug-in module to backplane interface. Power supplies follow the VITA 62 standard, which also defines the power supply connector interface. For XMC mezzanine cards in plug-in modules, XMC 2.0 connectors per VITA 61 are recommended. Rather than defining new connectors with special characteristics, SpaceVPX slot profiles reference the appropriate VITA connector standards that support the OpenVPX architecture.
The VITA 46 VPX connector is the original VPX interconnect. It is based on TE Connectivity’s (TE) MULTIGIG RT 2 connector which was released in the VITA 46 standard in 2006.
The MULTIGIG RT connector family gives designers an easy-to-implement, modular, standardized and cost-effective interconnect system that helps ensure the reliability of their embedded-computing applications for space systems.
MULTIGIG RT connectors have gone through extensive testing by TE to establish suitability for space, including:
Compliant (press-fit) pin technology Testing has been performed at min-max board hole sizes and different printed circuit board (PCB) platings to verify the reliability of the compliant pin designs. Today, numerous space applications use compliant pin technology (as compared to traditional soldered connections), and implementation is increasing.
Vibration The VITA 72 study group was formed to address extreme vibration applications. The group devised a vibration test that subjected a 6U VPX test unit to random vibration levels of 0.2 g2/Hz for 12 hours, a severe requirement compared to the original VPX standard. TE’s MULTIGIG RT 2-R connector — featuring an enhanced quad-redundant backplane connector contact system and rugged guide hardware — tested successfully as part of this effort and has been used in highly rugged applications since 2013.
Extreme temperature MULTIGIG connectors were subjected to a temperature range of -55 ˚C to +105 ˚C when initially qualified for VPX in 2006, which met the VITA 47 standard for plug-in modules. In direct response to requirements from space-systems developers, MULTIGIG RT connectors have since been tested and survived -55 °C to +125 °C, including exposure to 1,000 hours of heat at 125 °C and 100 thermal shock cycles from -55 °C to +125 °C.
Outgassing Unlike heavy polymer plug-in module connectors used in conventional backplane connector designs, MULTIGIG RT connectors incorporate air gaps, so less polymer is required. The polymer reduction reduces weight and decreases outgassing. With MULTIGIG RT connector materials, total mass loss (TML) is less than 1% and collected volatile condensable materials (CVCM) is less than 0.01%, which meets NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) outgassing requirements.
Current capacity When VITA 78 was developed, there was a need for VPX connectors to support new pinouts (not defined in VITA 46) to support the requirements for redundant power distribution and redundant management distribution. TE completed extensive testing for current carrying capability on multiple adjacent MULTIGIG power wafers within plug-in module connectors and also released new wafer configurations to support the VITA 78 Space Utility Management module architecture.
Most space system designers use MULTIGIG RT connectors to meet their requirements with no physical change to the design or materials and finishes. If minimal changes are required (e.g., higher lead content [40%] in the contact tails is specified for increased tin-whisker mitigation), additional screening tests are required based on the user or program requirements, but the connector-manufacturing processes are relatively the same which helps improve cost and availability.
RF and optical connector modules can be integrated within an OpenVPX slot to carry signals through the backplane to/from the plug-in module. These connector modules are mounted to the boards (including standard aperture cutouts on the backplane) to house multiple coaxial contacts or optical fibers. They can replace select VITA 46 connectors within a slot. These RF and optical connector modules and contacts have been used in satellite systems and are suitable for other applications in space.
VITA 67 is the base standard for RF modules. VITA 67.3 is used for SpaceVPX architecture with apertures defined within specific slot profiles for RF and optical connector modules. VITA 67.3 offers coaxial contact solutions with the initial sub-miniature push-on micro (SMPM) contacts as well as higher-density coaxial interfaces NanoRF and switched-mode power supply (SMPS), which can increase the contact density two to three times over SMPM. A new revision to VITA 67.3 has begun to add 75 Ohm coaxial interfaces to support higher speed video.
VITA 66 is the base standard for optical modules, with MT ferrules as the primary optical interface between the plug-in module and backplane. The apertures in SpaceVPX slot profiles accommodate optical and hybrid RF/optical connector modules meeting the requirements of VITA 66.5. MT interfaces can be specified for 12 or 24 fibers for highest density.
XMC mezzanine cards can be implemented on SpaceVPX plug-in modules to add I/O and other features. VITA 61 XMC 2.0, the standard based on TE’s Mezalok connector, is the recommended XMC connector in the SpaceVPX standard. The Mezalok connector features multiple points of contact per pin, supporting the redundancy required for space applications. The connector meets outgassing requirements and has been tested to extreme environments — including 2000 thermal cycles from -55 ºC to +125 ºC with no solder joint failures.
By leveraging the OpenVPX architecture, SpaceVPX can also leverage the OpenVPX interconnect roadmap which addresses solutions having faster speeds, higher density, smaller size, and lighter weight. There is significant activity with new and revised VITA standards to define technologies supporting next-generation embedded computing.
Higher data rate MULTIGIG RT 3 connectors are available and standardized in VITA 46.30 (compliant pin) and 46.31 (solder tail) to support channels to 25-32 Gigabits per second, supporting 100G Ethernet and PCI Gen 4 and 5. These can be incorporated in a SpaceVPX slot replacing VITA 46.0 connectors.
The latest revision of the VITA 67.3 standard includes higher-density RF interfaces NanoRF and SMPS, reducing size and weight — both of which are critical for space systems — and accommodating higher frequencies to 70 GHz. A new revision to VITA 67.3 has begun to add 75 Ohm coaxial interfaces within a connector module to support higher speed video protocols.
The VITA 66.5 standard will be released in 2022, documenting higher-density optical interfaces, bringing up to three MT interfaces into a half-module and enabling integration of a fixed edge-mount transceiver. In addition, VITA 66.5 provides solutions with NanoRF contacts and optical MTs integrated into a common connector module, providing unprecedented density within an OpenVPX slot.
New VITA 62 power supply standards have addressed three-phase power (VITA 62.1) and higher 270VDC input voltages (VITA 62.2). New MULTIBEAM XLE connectors from TE with isolating fins provide this upgrade for higher voltage levels while maintaining the same VITA 62.0 interface.
SpaceVPX is a set of standards for interconnects between space system components developed to cost-effectively remove bandwidth as a constraint for future space systems.
The goal of SpaceVPX is to achieve an acceptable level of fault tolerance while maintaining a reasonable level of compatibility with existing OpenVPX components.
SpaceVPX interconnect are based on interconnects developed for OpenVPX, adapted for the extreme space environment.
TE connectors have gone through extensive testing to establish suitability for space and have been used in satellite systems and other space applications.
New and revised VITA standards continue to define technologies that support the next generation of embedded computing while reducing costs, improving availability of components, and maintaining a path for future expansion.
Download the Factors Affecting Interconnects in Space Whitepaper
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Patrick Collier is Open Systems Architect and lead systems engineer at Aspen Consulting Group. He focuses on the development and use of open architectures for both space and nonspace applications. Prior to this, Patrick was an Open Systems Architect and Systems Engineer at L3Harris. Previously he was a lead hardware engineer at PMA-209 NAVAIR, where he focused on the development of the Hardware Open Systems Technology (HOST) set of standards. His first assignment was as a senior electrical research engineer with the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate. While at AFRL, he founded the Next Generation Space Interconnect Standard (NGSIS) with Raphael Some (NASA JPL). Patrick also founded and is currently chair for the VITA 78 (SpaceVPX) and VITA 78.1 (SpaceVPXLite) efforts. He is also a cofounder of the Sensor Open System Architecture (SOSA) and chair of its Hardware Working Group. Additionally, he was a lead for the Space Universal Modular Architecture (SUMO), where he worked to incorporate existing space-related standards and architectures into SUMO.
Michael Walmsley, global product manager for TE Connectivity, has more than 40 years of experience with interconnects, primarily in engineering and product management roles. His areas of expertise include interconnect solutions for embedding computing, rugged high-speed board-level, and RF connectors. Michael is a board member for the VITA Standards Organization (www.vita.org), which drives technology and standards for the bus and board industry. He is also actively involved in both VITA and Sensor Open System Architecture (SOSA). Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Rochester and an MBA from Penn State.
WASHINGTON — Impulse Space announced Jan. 4 it will launch its first orbital transfer vehicle late this year on a SpaceX rideshare mission.
Impulse Space said its LEO Express-1 mission, using a transfer vehicle it is developing called Mira, is manifested for launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-9 rideshare mission currently scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter of 2023. LEO Express-1 will carry a primary payload for an undisclosed customer.
Barry Matsumori, chief operating officer of Impulse Space, said in an interview that the mission can accommodate additional payloads, like cubesats. The mission profile is still being finalized, but he said the vehicle, after making some initial deployments, may raise its orbit, then lower it to demonstrate operations in what’s known as very low Earth orbit, around 300 kilometers.
The performance of Mira depends on how much payload it is carrying, but he estimated that the vehicle can provide about 1,000 meters per second of delta-v, or change in velocity, with a payload of 300 kilograms. Its propulsion system, using storable propellants, has been extensively tested, with more than 1,000 seconds of runtime, while other elements of the vehicle are in various stages of design and manufacturing.
Impulse Space plans additional missions in 2024, he said. The company will take advantage of future SpaceX Transporter missions as well as opportunities on other vehicles like Relativity Space’s Terran.
Matsumori said the company is seeing growing demand for in-space transportation services. “The market for customers for either LEO transfers or other orbit transfers is developing at about the same pace as the in-space transportation capabilities are developing,” he said. “In the last three months, we’ve seen many more customers than we did in the prior six months.”
The number of options for in-space transportation services is also growing. On the Transporter-6 mission SpaceX launched Jan. 3, D-Orbit flew two of its ION satellite carriers that will deploy nine cubesats and support three hosted payloads. Momentus flew Vigoride-5, its second transfer vehicle carrying one cubesat and one hosted payload. Launcher flew its first Orbiter vehicle, with eight customers on board.
Matsumori said that Impulse Space plans to stand out from competitors based on performance. “Most everyone out there has fairly low delta-v’s for the mass they’re carrying,” he said. “We’re pretty much on the high end of the capabilities of the vehicles.”
Mira is the first in a series of vehicles Impulse Space is developing, with future vehicles capable of placing payloads into geostationary transfer orbits or direct insertions into geostationary orbit. “In-space is an infrastructure of capabilities, just like on Earth,” he said. “We have pickups, we have larger vans, and then we have 18-wheelers to be able to do logistics on Earth. Space is going to be no different.”
Raytheon’s infrared sensing payload will be integrated on a Lockheed Martin LM400
WASHINGTON — Raytheon Intelligence & Space announced Jan. 4 it selected a Lockheed Martin bus to build a missile-tracking satellite for the U.S. Space Force.
The U.S. Space Systems Command selected two satellite designs — one by Raytheon and the other by Millennium Space Systems — for a planned constellation of sensors in medium Earth orbit (MEO) to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Both companies’ proposals last year cleared Space Force design reviews.
The Pentagon is adding a layer of MEO satellites to the nation’s missile-defense architecture to provide extra eyes on enemy hypersonic missiles. Compared to current sensors in geostationary satellites, sensors in medium orbits would see closer to Earth and track a wider area than satellites in low Earth orbit.
Raytheon won a contract of undisclosed value to develop a prototype satellite, ground systems and data processing applications.
“This is an advanced solution to counter emerging missile threats facing our country,” said Roger Cole, executive director of strategic systems at Raytheon Intelligence & Space.
Raytheon’s infrared sensing payload will be integrated on a Lockheed Martin LM400, a new medium-size satellite bus the company introduced in 2021 with security features aimed at the military market.
“Lockheed Martin is excited to provide our mid-sized, rapidly-producible LM400 bus to Raytheon,” said Mike Corriea, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s overhead persistent infrared mission area.
A “system critical design review” is scheduled for 2023, and the goal is to deliver the satellite for a 2026 launch. Work for this program will be performed at Raytheon’s facilities in El Segundo, California, and Lockheed Martin’s in Aurora, Colorado.
WASHINGTON — NASA will allow three aging Earth science missions to participate in an upcoming senior review of extended missions even as the agency warns of budget pressures on its overall portfolio of missions.
During a town hall Dec. 15 at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, NASA officials said they agency had invited the Aqua, Aura and Terra missions to submit proposals in the 2023 senior review of Earth science missions that are in their extended phases.
The three spacecraft, launched between 1999 and 2004, remain functional but are running low on stationkeeping propellant. The spacecraft have started to drift from their original operational orbits, which prompted concerns about impacts on the science they can perform and data continuity.
Julie Robinson, deputy director of NASA’s Earth science division, said the agency collected feedback about those missions through a request for information and a virtual workshop in November attended by more than 500 people. “One outcome of that is that Terra, Aqua and Aura will be invited to the senior review,” she said. In a senior review, missions that have completed their original prime missions make the case for continued funding to extend their missions.
Being invited to the senior review, though, is no guarantee that the missions will be able to secure funding. Robinson said the upcoming senior review will be particularly challenging given limited funding available for mission extensions.
“The senior review is not going to be an easy one this year,” she said. “We don’t have the money in the budget to extend every mission that comes to the senior review.” The agency will ask the panel that reviews the mission to advise it on various trades it can make among the missions.
NASA requested more than $2.4 billion for Earth science in its fiscal year 2023 budget proposal. However, the omnibus spending bill enacted in late December provided just under $2.2 billion for Earth science. While that is an increase of $130 million from 2022, it comes as NASA is ramping up work on its line of Earth System Observatory missions and other projects.
At the town hall, one scientist said it was “pretty shocking” that NASA would even consider not extending those three missions given their performance and the community of researchers using data from them. Robinson again turned to financial challenges facing the overall Earth science program.
“In the case of Terra, Aqua and Aura, one of the challenges we have is that these systems, because they’ve been operating so long, they’re really expensive,” she said. NASA’s fiscal year 2023 budget request projected spending $30.7 million each on operations of Terra and Aqua and $20.5 million on Aura. One part of the senior review will be to look at reducing those operating costs, but she did offer an estimate of the range of potential reductions.
“There are really painful trades in Earth System Observatory. There are also painful trades in deciding how much money to put on extended missions and how to operate them,” she said. “I can promise we will never make everybody happy with those trades.”
WASHINGTON — An independent review warned of potential cost overruns on a future major NASA Earth science mission, prompting NASA to consider removing some instruments from it.
NASA is in the process of conducting reviews known as Key Decision Point (KDP) A for three elements of its Earth System Observatory line of missions: Atmosphere Observing System (AOS), Mass Change, and Surface Biology and Geology. The KDP-A reviews would allow the proposed missions to move into Phase A of initial development.
NASA, though, delayed the KDP-A review for AOS, which had been scheduled for December, after receiving an independent review of the Earth System Observatory effort commissioned by NASA in June and completed in October. That review concluded that AOS, which will include satellites both in polar and mid-inclination orbits, would cost $2.4 billion, $500 million more than the project’s own estimate.
“That is a warning that got a lot of attention at the agency level,” said Julie Robinson, deputy director of NASA’s Earth science division, during a town hall meeting about the mission at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union Dec. 16. “It’s a red flag.”
A major factor for the cost growth in the opinion of the independent review board (IRB) is the low technical maturity of two instruments planned for it, a dual-band Doppler radar that would operate at Ka and W bands, and a high spectral resolution (HSRL) lidar. The radar would enable measurements of clouds and precipitation, while the lidar would characterize aerosols in the atmosphere.
While the independent review suggested saving money by replacing the dual-band with a single-band one, and the HSRL lidar with a more conventional lidar, Robinson said it was too early in the development of AOS to make that decision.
“We really need more time to study it,” she said, something that can be done during Phase A of AOS. That includes studies on building the instruments in-house versus procuring them, and requests for information to assess industry’s capability to provide those instruments.
NASA now plans to hold the KDP-A review in January, a delay she said was primarily intended to coordinate work among centers involved in AOS as well as international partners. Canada and Japan are providing their own spacecraft for AOS, along with instruments from France.
The prospect of removing the dual-band radar and HSRL lidar had alarmed scientists, who worried it would significantly reduce the scientific productivity of AOS. Robinson agreed, but noted the agency had not made any decisions about those instruments. “The IRB report did discuss that these descopes are significant, and we recognize that as well. This is not what you were hoping to get out of this mission,” she said. “We have to do these Phase A studies.”
However, she said that the agency needed to find some way to reduce the cost of AOS to avoid cuts elsewhere in the overall Earth System Observatory. “If it would really be half a billion dollars more than is budgeted to do AOS,” she said, “then we would need to drop another mission.”
The independent review concluded the costs of the other two missions, Mass Change and Surface Biology and Geology, were close to project estimates: $454 million for Mass Change and $752 million for Surface Biology and Geology. The review, though, warned that Mass Change, which it described as a “near-copy” of the current GRACE-FO mission, carries risks from using that design and doesn’t improve on resolution and sampling as recommended by the Earth science decadal survey.
NASA initiated the Earth System Observatory effort in 2021, using it as the umbrella for the missions that will implement the five “designated observables” from the decadal survey: aerosols; clouds, convection and precipitation; mass change in snow, ice and water; surface biology and geology; and surface deformation and change. AOS will handle the aerosols and clouds, convection and precipitation observables.
The agency has not started formal planning yet for the mission to implement the fifth designated observable, surface deformation and change. Instead, NASA will use data from the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission scheduled for launch in 2024 to support science involving surface deformation and change.
TAMPA, Fla. —Iridium unveiled chip maker Qualcomm Jan. 5 as the partner behind plans to connect smartphones to its satellite constellation this year.
U.S.-based Qualcomm has developed a product called Snapdragon Satellite, which it said can be added to Android smartphones and other devices to support two-way communications via Iridium satellites.
Potential uses include emergency SOS services, SMS texts, and other low-bandwidth messaging applications in areas outside terrestrial networks and where Iridium’s global constellation is licensed to operate.
Any emergency messages would be routed through response teams run by Garmin, a GPS technology specialist and longtime Iridium partner.
Jordan Hassin, Iridium’s executive director of communication, acknowledged widespread speculation in the run-up to the announcement about South Korean smartphone maker Samsung being its direct-to-smartphone partner.
At one point Iridium was also rumored to be working with Apple, which in September announced a partnership with Iridium’s rival Globalstar for services currently limited to SOS.
However, rather than partnering with a specific smartphone vendor, Hassin said Iridium chose to team up with Qualcomm to enable its technology in multiple smartphone brands that run Android, the most popular operating system for mobile phones.
In addition to supporting hardware development, Qualcomm has an agreement to sell the service to companies on Iridium’s behalf.
Qualcomm’s chipsets are already commonly used in Samsung, Motorola, and other smartphone brands worldwide.
To connect to Iridium’s 66-strong constellation in low Earth orbit, smartphone makers would need to integrate the latest generation of a Qualcomm chipset that is geared toward premium phones.
Hassin said “several” Android customers are already integrating Snapdragon Satellite, with the first products expected to be released in the second half of 2023.
In a media briefing, Iridium CEO Matt Desch said it is still “being worked out” how and if smartphone customers would be charged for using its satellite-enabled services.
Apple has said it will offer satellite-enabled SOS services on its range of iPhone 14 smartphones for free for two years.
Francesco Grilli, vice president of product management at Qualcomm Technologies, told the briefing the company successfully demonstrated Snapdragon Satellite Jan. 4 in Las Vegas as part of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
He said the company was able to send basic text messages in an average of three seconds with a smartphone during the demo.
While the service will initially target smartphones, the companies said they are considering expanding to other devices, including laptops, tablets, vehicles, and small Internet of Things machines.
Desch said the company could also consider upgrading its capabilities to add higher bandwidth services later, in line with other businesses that are also looking to enter the direct-to-smartphone market.
“We certainly have aspirations to go well beyond where we are today,” he said.
In addition to Apple and Globalstar, other companies seeking to provide direct-to-smartphone services from LEO include SpaceX in partnership with T-Mobile, AST SpaceMobile, Lynk Global, and Sateliot.
In July, Qualcomm announced plans with Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson and French aerospace company Thales to demonstrate 5G on smartphones via LEO satellites.
However, Grilli said these plans are still in the research and development phase, and any commercial services would require spectrum and hundreds of new satellites to become a reality.
He said it is unlikely Qualcomm’s venture with Ericsson and Thales would “see any product before 2026 at the earliest,” and that is optimistic.
TAMPA, Fla. — Canada’s NorthStar Earth and Space said Jan. 5 it has raised $35 million ahead of plans to deploy its first three satellites this year for tracking objects in orbit.
U.S.-based private equity firm Cartesian Capital led the Series C funding round, which NorthStar CEO Stewart Bain said brings the total amount the company has raised to nearly $100 million.
NorthStar aims to use proceeds to accelerate plans for a constellation of 24 Space Situational Awareness (SSA) satellites, which would scan out from low Earth orbit (LEO) to track other satellites and debris.
The company hopes to track objects as small as one centimeter in LEO, about seven centimeters in medium Earth orbit (MEO) and “somewhere between 50 and 40” centimeters even farther out in geostationary orbit (GEO), Bain said in an interview.
Spire Global is building the first three satellites for NorthStar, each the size of 16 cubesats, for a launch around the middle of 2023 with Virgin Orbit.
Bain said it had not been decided whether these satellites would be deployed from Virgin Orbit’s base in California, or be part of the air-launch company’s first batch of missions from England.
NorthStar’s contract with Spire includes options for up to 30 satellites, and Bain said the company is now looking at “when to pull the trigger” on the next set of spacecraft.
“It’ll probably be another set of three,” he said, “and then after that we’ll probably do them in blocks of six.”
There “is an argument to be made of letting the first few get up, see how they operate, and then pushing the button on the next set,” he added, “or leading that by a certain amount of time” to help ensure the timely delivery of parts amid the industry’s supply chain issues.
The first three satellites have already secured commitments from a mix of commercial and government customers, according to Bain, although he declined to disclose them.
He said a U.S. government pilot project that picked NorthStar and five other commercial firms in December to prototype space traffic data platforms helped highlight commercial SSA opportunities and attract business.
“It’s not like we weren’t already contacting both government and private sector operators,” he said, “but that really got people to wake up and say, wow, here we go.”
Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES last year announced plans to use NorthStar’s data to help manage its fleet of satellites in GEO and MEO.
Bain said a space development fund supported by SES and Luxembourg’s government participated in NorthStar’s Series C funding round.
Other investors included the government of Quebec and a family-owned Canadian technology fund called Telesystem Space.
The Oracle spacecraft will carry an optical payload made by Leidos and AFRL’s green propellant experiment for a two-year demonstration
WASHINGTON — General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems won a contract from Advanced Space to build a satellite that the Air Force Research Laboratory plans to launch to deep space in 2025.
General Atomics, based in San Diego, California, announced Jan. 5 it will produce an ESPA-class satellite bus, integrate and test payloads for Advanced Space, the prime contractor for AFRL’s Oracle experiment.
AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate in November awarded Advanced Space a $72 million contract to develop a spacecraft for the Oracle mission, intended to monitor deep space, far beyond Earth’s orbit.
The Oracle spacecraft will carry an optical payload made by Leidos and AFRL’s green propellant experiment for a two-year demonstration.
Oracle will seek to detect objects and demonstrate spacecraft positioning and navigation techniques far beyond geosynchronous Earth orbit, in the vicinity of Earth-moon Lagrange Point 1, about 200,000 miles from Earth. The GEO belt is about 22,000 miles above Earth.
Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS, said the platform selected for Oracle, the ESPA Grande, is a modular ring shaped bus that the company also is using to build a weather imaging satellite for the U.S. Space Force.
“The AFRL Oracle spacecraft program is intended to demonstrate advanced techniques to detect and track objects in the region near the Moon that cannot be viewed optically from the Earth or from satellites in traditional orbits,” he said in a statement.
Gregg Burgess, vice president of GA-EMS space systems, said the cislunar region “continues to be a strategic area of focus for us.” The company in 2021 won a $22 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to design a small nuclear reactor for a demonstration of nuclear thermal propulsion in cislunar space.
WASHINGTON — After technical and licensing delays, Virgin Orbit is gearing up for its first launch from the United Kingdom as soon as Jan. 9.
A maritime navigation warning issued Jan. 4 identified a zone for hazardous operations for “rocket launching” off the coast of Ireland late Jan. 9, with a backup date of Jan. 18. The zone is consistent with the drop zone for Virgin Orbit’s “Start Me Up” LauncherOne mission flying out of Spaceport Cornwall in England.
Virgin Orbit spokesperson Allison Patch confirmed to SpaceNews that the navigation warning was for the upcoming launch, but said the company was not yet ready to formally announce a launch date for the mission. “All launch partners are currently working towards launch fairly soon,” she said, with a confirmation of the company’s launch plans expected in the coming days.
A separate marine notice issued by Ireland’s Department of Transport Jan. 4 listed a similar hazard area explicitly linked to the Virgin Orbit launch. In addition to the Jan. 9 and 18 launch dates, the Irish notice including potential launches on Jan. 13, 15, 19 and 20.
The hazard notices are in the event of a launch mishap involving the air-launched LauncherOne system. “Where the launch attempt proceeds as planned, no debris will enter the marine hazard area,” the Irish notice stated. “However, there is a low probability for the vehicle to produce dangerous debris if a mishap were to occur.”
Virgin Orbit had planned to conduct the Start Me Up mission last fall, flying its Boeing 747 aircraft, launch vehicle and related systems to Spaceport Cornwall in October. At one point, the company targeted a mid-December launch, only to postpone the launch days later, citing “additional technical work” on the launch system and a pending launch license from the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The CAA awarded that launch license to Virgin Orbit Dec. 21, clearing the final regulatory hurdles for the launch. “At this time, all of Virgin Orbit’s systems are green for launch,” Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said in a Dec. 22 statement. The company reported that both the vehicle and its payloads were in “good condition” to launch, but said only that a launch date would be set in the “coming weeks.”
The Start Me Up mission will place into orbit seven payloads from a variety of customers, including the U.K. Ministry of Defence, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the first satellite for the government of Oman.
