Vulcans, Elements and TraCSS
A Review of Our Top Stories for the Week Ending 10/6
There's another new rocket entering the competition for commercial and U.S. National Defense launches. The United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket successfully launched Friday on its second certification (Cert-2) flight.
Liftoff occurred at 7:25 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying experiments and demonstrations associated with future capabilities of Centaur V, the world’s highest-performing upper stage. Centaur V provides 2.5 times the energy and 450 times the endurance of its predecessors, enabling the most complex orbital insertions within the most challenging and clandestine orbits, according to ULA.
During the launch, observers noted an anomaly with one of the solid rocket boosters strapped to the main booster, though the issue did not appear to affect the ability of the rocket to reach its planned orbit.
The Cert-2 mission served as the second of two certification flights required for the U.S. Space Force’s certification process and ULA has now completed all requirements for certification.
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D-Orbit has announced the second and final closing of its €150 million ($166 million) Series C Round, making one the biggest space deals in the last 12 months.
This raise was underpinned by D-Orbit’s track record of 16 successful missions. Fourteen ION Satellite Carriers, the Company’s proprietary orbital transfer vehicle, have been launched in orbit since 2020, and a further seven launches have been planned for 2025. These missions have allowed the company to test both D-Orbit’s proprietary technologies and pioneering third party innovations in orbit.
The tests range from sensors designed to track and map the size, speed, and paths of sub-centimeters debris to help protect satellites from collisions to AI/ML applications designed, for example, to promptly detect flooding and relay flood maps to emergency responders, thereby accelerating response time to environmental crises, potentially saving lives, and minimizing damage to communities.
The round allows D-Orbit to continue developing its capabilities in space cloud computing and in-orbit servicing. It will also facilitate and accelerate its collaborations with governments and space agencies as well as broaden its customer reach across geographies and industries.
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The Office of Space Commerce (OSC) announced the acceptance of its recent orders for space situational awareness (SSA) services in support of a commercial pathfinder project on satellite owner/operator (O/O) ephemeris this week. The purpose of the project is to examine the efficacy of generating improved satellite ephemeris based on data provided by satellite O/O’s.
For the provision of SSA data services in low Earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), OSC orders on the Global Data Marketplace were accepted for fulfillment by ExoAnalytic Solutions of Foothill Ranch, California, Slingshot Aerospace of El Segundo, California, and COMSPOC of Exton, Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, SpaceNav of Boulder, Colorado, and Kayhan Space of Broomfield, Colorado, accepted orders to serve as data quality monitors for LEO and GEO observations over the course of this pathfinder.
Together, these commercial providers will support OSC as it works to define quality standards for satellite ephemerides, and means of achieving those standards, for the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS).
We're working to bring you a conversation with a representative from the OSC on the Ex Terra Podcast in the near future
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A new fully integrated satellite platform targeted towards both defense and commercial space sectors has been introduced by CesiumAstro. With adaptable, reconfigurable payloads, the Element satellite evolves with changing mission conditions, advancing satellite flexibility and capability.
Element is the next step in CesiumAstro’s product roadmap, according to the company, leveraging its core strengths to deliver integrated, scalable satellites.
Element is an advanced phased array antenna technology featuring advanced connectivity systems for improved data transmission, and reconfigurable payloads are adaptable to changing mission conditions.
We're looking forward to talking with a representative of CesiumAstro on the Ex Terra Podcast in the next few weeks.
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A Launch Services Agreement (LSA) has been signed between French satellite manufacturer U-Space and Exolaunch. The agreement includes the launch and deployment of two 12U cubesats — “SOAP” and “PANDORE” — on the Transporter-13 Rideshare with SpaceX, slated for early 2025.
U-Space, based in Toulouse, France, specializes in the design and construction of next-generation nanosatellites for commercial, scientific, and defense missions. With a heritage rooted in expertise developed at the French Space Agency (CNES), U-Space offers turnkey solutions for satellite projects, including feasibility studies, mission analysis, and satellite operations.
SOAP and PANDORE will showcase U-Space's proficiency in nanosatellites construction. SOAP represents an important milestone for U-Space by being the first space system fully designed, built, and operated by the company. Its PANDORE mission is an innovative in-orbit demonstration (IOD) that will test several technologies.
Exolaunch is set to deploy U-Space’s two satellites using its EXOpod Nova, a high-performance cubesat deployer specifically designed for larger 12U and 16U payloads.