IQ Technologies for Earth and Space GmbH (IQ spacecom) and Addvalue Solutions Pte Ltd (Addvalue) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the development and marketing of the recently announced Inmarsat ELERA based InCommand service.

BERLIN, Germany, Aug. 10, 2022 (Addvalue/IQ Technologies PR) — Addvalue is a Singapore-based company with extensive experience in providing communications solutions for terrestrial and aerospace applications, including the state-of-the-art Inter-satellite Data Relay (IDRS™) service for LEO satellites based on Inmarsat’s ELERA network. With its “always-on” and “schedule-free” connectivity, IDRS™ has demonstrated multi-year in-space reliability providing LEO satellite operators the ability to securely manage and task their LEO satellites in real time.

The two companies from Munich’s thriving space industry are set for a flight together in 2023. DCUBED’s release actuator uD3PP will fly aboard the Spectrum, Isar Aerospace’s two-stage orbital launch vehicle on its first test flight.

LOGAN, Utah, Tuesday, August 9 (DCUBED PR) — Isar Aerospace is Europe’s most promising and most well-funded private European launch service provider for small and medium satellite deployment. The company develops the ‘Spectrum’, a two-stage launch vehicle that offers flexible and cost-efficient access to space and is specifically designed for satellite constellation deployment. With a vertically integrated value chain, Isar Aerospace designs, develops and tests the launch system in-house and builds on a highly automated production and state-of-the-art production technologies like 3D-printing. This way, the company achieves maximum flexibility, speed, and autonomy. The first test flight of the Spectrum is scheduled for 2023 from Andøya, Norway.

LOUISVILLE, Colo., Aug. 9, 2022 (Sierra Space PR) — Sierra Space, a leading commercial space company at the forefront of creating and building the future of space transportation and infrastructure for low-Earth orbit (LEO) commercialization, today announced the company has started the delivery of its proprietary, patented Surface Mount Technology (SMT) solar power systems.

LOGAN, Utah, Aug. 9, 2022 (Loft Orbital PR) — Ground-breaking ‘Space Infrastructure As a Service’ provider Loft Orbital is partnering with LEO communication specialist Addvalue to offer rapid, secure and simplified access to space, enhanced by always available end-user access. As part of this partnership, Loft Orbital has procured multiple Inter-satellite Data Relay Systems (IDRS™).

The first Loft Orbital program to feature IDRS is YAM-6, which will launch in Q4 2023. IDRS provides Loft Orbital’s customers with constant connectivity to their missions, allowing them to benefit from real-time tasking, increased responsiveness, and highly secure data collection via Inmarsat’s exceptionally reliable ELERA L-band geostationary (GEO) satellite network, free from the limitations of earth station scheduling.

Loft Orbital makes space simple by flying customer missions as a service onboard its own standardized satellite platforms. By combining mass-manufactured commodity satellite buses from active production lines with its Hub, a universal interface for payload accommodation and operations, Loft Orbital provides customers with rapid and turnkey mission deployments.

Modular platform designed to offer smart, sustainable, fast HTP-based traffic management solution to missions running electric propulsion or free-flying satellites in busy revenue-generating orbits  

BURLINGTON, Vt., August 9, 2022 (Benchmark Space Systems PR) – With the most popular, revenue-generating orbits increasingly congested, Benchmark Space Systems today unveiled a breakthrough Collision Avoidance (ColA) Kit, featuring its heritage propulsion technology in a condensed package, that is easily and affordably deployed aboard electric propulsion (EP) and non-propulsive microsatellites and OTVs to help them quickly steer clear of approaching spacecraft and orbital debris.

Benchmark’s COLA Kit will leverage innovations in space domain awareness and traffic management data technologies through strategic partnerships and collaborations driven by a passion for a more cooperative and sustainable space economy.

CHANDLER, Ariz., Aug. 8, 2022 (Northrop Grumman PR) – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) and Firefly Aerospace have joined forces to provide an American-built first-stage upgrade for the Antares rocket and a new medium launch vehicle to serve commercial, civil and national security space launch markets. 

The Space Economy Gets Major Tech Advancement with Hybrid Mobility Packages

BURLINGTON, Vt., August 8, 2022 (Benchmark Space Systems PR) – With hybrid vehicle sales at an all-time high on Earth, Benchmark Space Systems today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Alameda Applied Sciences Corporation (AASC)’s electric propulsion technologies to help power hybrid spacecraft designed to ultimately run on in-space resources and repurposed space debris.   

Benchmark’s turn-key hybrid chemical + electric propulsion systems will leverage the high thrust capabilities of its non-toxic chemical Halcyon HTP propulsion systems and the precision maneuverability of its Xantus metal plasma thrusters (MPTs), a core part of the newly named electric propulsion technology acquired from AASC.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

I had the occasion to visit the booths of two German startups, Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg, that are eyeing maiden flights of their small satellite launch vehicles next year.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

I’ve been making the rounds in the Utah State University Fieldhouse here in Logan talking with the various companies with booths at Small Satellite 2022 conference. Here is the first of several updates.

The window for Firefly Aerospace’s second attempt to launch its Alpha booster opens on Sept. 11. That flight will be out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket is already on the launch pad at Vandenberg undergoing pre-flight tests.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

The countdown is on for NASA’s first attempt to deflect an asteroid — a test that could prove vital in the future should one pose a major threat to the Earth.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Mission (DART) mission is 48 days away from its collision with asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26. Edward Reynolds, DART program manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, gave a preview of the mission and the role a Cubesat will play in it during the Small Satellite 2022 conference in Logan, Utah.

by Douglas MessierManaging Editor NASA is looking for a new way to launch the four remaining CubeSats in its Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) constellation in the wake of Astra’s decision to abandon its failure plagued Rocket 3.3. The first pair of TROPICS satellites were destroyed on June 12 when the second stage of a Rocket 3.3 failed. Astra announced last […]

By Katherine Schauer and Danny BairdNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NASA’s water-scouting CubeSat is now poised to hitch a ride to lunar orbit. Not much bigger than a shoe box, Lunar IceCube’s data will have an outsized impact on lunar science. The satellite is integrated into the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and ready to journey to the Moon as part of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, launching this year. Orbiting the Moon, Lunar IceCube will use a spectrometer to investigate […]