There are 114 payloads on this flight, including CubeSats, microsats, picosats, and orbital transfer vehicles carrying spacecraft to be deployed at a later time.
Tomorrow.io is developing two demonstration satellites, Tomorrow-R1 and Tomorrow-R2, to test aradar payload on orbit, work through calibration and validation of the instrument, and providesample data for analysis. The two satellites are identical small ESPA-class satellites, approximately 75kg in mass, and approximately 50 cm x 50 cm x 100 m in size. The payload is being developed byTomorrow.io, and the spacecraft bus is being developed by Astro Digital. The spacecraft will have fullfunctionally to cease emission upon command. The satellites are scheduled to launch in October 2022on a SpaceX Transporter mission with an orbit of 550 km altitude sun synchronous orbit (LTDN 9:30).The LTDN is not critical to the mission, nor is the initial altitude of 550 km, and thus these parameterswill be driven by the launch vehicle (rideshare) or in coordination.The payload is a Ka-band (35.75 GHz) weather radar that will operate between 35.5 and 36.0 GHz ina monostatic configuration. The radar uses volume backscatter to profile precipitation verticallythroughout the atmosphere and uses scatterometry to measure parameters of the ocean surface.The radar is pulse-to-pulse reconfigurable on-orbit, and thus can utilize a variety of underlyingsampling techniques and waveforms. The sampling resolution of the radar is approximately 5 km x 5km horizontally, and 250 m vertically. The radar utilizes a 1.2 m fixed parabolic cassegrain antenna.
UNSW Canberra-based air traffic management startup Skykraft has announced the planned upcoming launch of a second tranche of its satellites aboard a SpaceX rocket, scheduled for October 2022....The June mission will feature a 300-kilogram craft, carrying an unspecified number of its own small satellites, plus planned payloads for Australian National University (ANU), CSIRO, Valiant, University of Melbourne, and Swinburne University.
By this application, Hedron Space Inc. (“Hedron”) (formerly Analytical Space, Inc.) seeks Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) authorization to conduct a demonstration satellite mission in support of the company’s long-term goal of building an in-orbit data relay satellite network that will enable near real-time knowledge of the Earth’s surface for Earth imaging systems by increasing average data offload rates and providing a continuous low-latency link for other satellite operators.1 The Cornicen mission is Hedron’s third satellite demonstration mission2 and is partially funded by the Department of Defense, Department of the Air Force, Space and Missile Systems Center under contract number FA8808-20-C-0016 P00003.The Cornicen mission will demonstrate a new type of satellite service. Through formation flying, Cornicen will serve as an in-orbit communications relay for a partner Maxar Legion satellite (“Maxar Satellite”).3 Cornicen will also demonstrate experimental hardware and software developed by Hedron and the MITRE Corporation (“MITRE”), involving the Frequency-scaled Ultra-wide Spectrum Element (“FUSE”) payload and conduct tests of radiofrequency (“RF”) sensing capabilities of signals having no communications content (i.e., S-band radar) or for which MITRE is authorized to transmit. Hedron partners will each independently seek authority to transmit to Cornicen, as part of the experimental demonstrations.
Transporter mission schedules https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1501307339651141637
his request is for a companion license and is related to the NTIA spectrum authorization filing forthe PACE-2 mission. PACE-2 is a NASA Ames Research Center 6U spacecraft. It is the secondspacecraft in the PACE series and serves as a pathfinder for the subsequent PACE tech demos. Theobjective of the PACE-2 mission is to demonstrate the functionality and performance of theimproved PACE-2 avionics, EPS, ADCS, Propulsion, and Comm systems, and test the SEEKER imageanalysis payload. PACE-2 orbit is 525km circular, 97.5 deg Inclination (SSO). ...As described in the PACE-2 filing, the CubeSat will launch no earlier than October 2022 and isexpected to be in operation for not more than 8 months. NASA Ames will notify the FCC of thedates of actual operation once those dates have been firmly established.
VR-5 has a planned launch on a Falcon 9 rideshare in October 2022. VR-5 will beaffixed directly to the Falcon 9 vehicle and deployed into a targeted sun-synchronous orbit withapproximately a ~97.5 degree inclination and an insertion orbit between 500 to 600 km circularorbit.7 After separation from the launch vehicle, VR-5 will undergo commissioning and, uponcompletion, will deploy payloads 2 to payload 7.After those initial payload deployments, VR-5 will conduct orbital maneuvers to reach a538 km circular sun-synchronous orbit with a ~97.5 degree inclination. VR-5 will then deploypayload 8 (ZEUS-1) and subsequently commence hosted payload operations.Afterwards, VR-5 will conduct further orbit maneuvers and inclination adjustments to atargeted 538 km x 350 km elliptical orbit with a ~98 degree inclination.
Following the mission success of Alba Cluster 3 & 4 in the new year, Alba Orbital and AMSAT-EA (Spain) today announced a rideshare agreement to launch another PocketQube satellite (‘URESAT-1’) on-board Alba Cluster 6 in Q4 2022, a project managed by AMSAT-EA, a non-profit amateur radio association, on behalf of Union de Radioaficionados Españoles (URE), the Spanish Radio League Association. The mission is scheduled to fly via SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle using Alba Orbital’s flight-proven AlbaPod to deploy the pico-satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
Intensive work is underway to make URESAT-1 available before the end of the year. If all goes according to plan, URESAT-1 will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in October.
A French startup has raised an initial round of funding to begin testing of solar sails it believes can sharply reduce the cost of deep space missions.Paris-based Gama announced March 22 it raised 2 million euros ($2.2 million) in seed funding to start work on solar sails, including a demonstration mission it plans to launch in October. The funding came from the French public investment bank BPI, the French space agency CNES and several private investors.The funding will allow the company to complete its first spacecraft, Gama Alpha, which is scheduled to launch in October on a SpaceX rideshare mission. The six-unit cubesat, using a bus provided by NanoAvionics, will test the deployment of a solar sail with an area of 73.3 square meters.
Transporter-6 NET October 2022
Radar imaging startup PredaSAR is preparing to deploy its first satellite on the SpaceX Transporter 6 rideshare, projected to launch in October.The company is planning a constellation of 96 radar satellites “to be fully deployed by the end of 2026,” Michael Moran, senior vice president of defense and intelligence systems at Terran Orbital Corp., told SpaceNews.
Satellite operator Prométhée has contracted mission integrator NanoAvionics to build the first nanosatellite for the French company’s planned constellation of Earth observation nanosatellites and image analysis platform. “ProtoMéthée-1” will be based on NanoAvionics’ flight-proven 16U nanosatellite bus M16P.In addition to the satellite with onboard camera and propulsion, NanoAvionics will also provide Prométhée with full mission services – testing, integration, launch, licensing, and initial satellite operations. The “ProtoMéthée-1” is intended to be launched towards the end of 2023 in low Earth orbit (LEO).
Another possible payload?QuoteSatellite operator Prométhée has contracted mission integrator NanoAvionics to build the first nanosatellite for the French company’s planned constellation of Earth observation nanosatellites and image analysis platform. “ProtoMéthée-1” will be based on NanoAvionics’ flight-proven 16U nanosatellite bus M16P.In addition to the satellite with onboard camera and propulsion, NanoAvionics will also provide Prométhée with full mission services – testing, integration, launch, licensing, and initial satellite operations. The “ProtoMéthée-1” is intended to be launched towards the end of 2023 in low Earth orbit (LEO). https://nanoavionics.com/news/nanoavionics-builds-first-nanosatellite-for-promethees-earth-observation-constellation/
