Sail away (6/15/22)

Happy Wednesday. 282 of you have referred at least one bestie, coworker, or space-curious family member to Payload.

Together, these 282 Payload power readers have referred 672 people—and we’re sending them a secret monthly newsletter as a token of our gratitude. Taking it a step further, 33 Payload readers have cleared the elite five-referral tier and earned Payload stickers.

If you’d like to join the club, and earn exclusive content and Payload swag in the process, get sharing using your personalized referral hub at the bottom of the newsletter.

In today's newsletter:🚨 Laser comms demo⛵ Drag sailing🌎 $PL earnings💸 The term sheet

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Space Lasers...So Hot Right Now

Northrop Grumman ($NOC) has completed a ground demonstration of a laser communication system that will be used in its constellation for the Space Development Agency’s mesh, space-based security network.

The defense prime also revealed that Mynaric ($MYNA) and Innoflight are providing the optical inter-satellite links and security systems, respectively, to support the satellite network’s secure communications.

The contract: In February, Northrop Grumman won a $692M SDA contract to supply 42 satellites for the Tranche 1 Transport Layer of the agency’s planned National Defense Space Architecture. This network of satellites will consist of several “layers”: transport, tracking, custody, deterrence, navigation, battle management, and support.

Up first is the transport layer, which will consist of ~300-500 communications satellites in LEO to provide military data. Security is a key consideration for these satellites, as they’ll be relaying sensitive military data quickly around the globe. Laser comms, some might say, were built for this.

Up for the challenge: Mynaric won a $36M contract through Northrop Grumman in March to provide its commercial CONDOR Mk3 laser communications terminals for this project. The company is using its standard, commercially available products for this demonstration, a company representative told Payload.

• The tech demo showed that the commercial optical terminals were compatible with the US military’s encryption hardware.

• Innoflight provided an additional layer of security to the demonstration to meet the SDA’s communication requirements.

Laser communications are not only tougher to intercept than traditional radio broadcasts, but can also stand up to attacks when they do occur. “Laser communications utilized for inter-satellite links provides constellations with unmatched resiliency,” said a Mynaric company spokesperson. “Individual system degradations (be it by anti-satellite weapons, electronic warfare, malfunctions or others) can typically be compensated for by the network.”

The companies are planning for product delivery mostly in 2023 and 2024 as the SDA prepares to deploy Tranche 1.

Share this story with someone who needs a no-nonsense explanation of defense satellite architectures:

Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away

Yesterday, the Toronto-based Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) announced that it has achieved a major milestone in debris removal: successfully deorbiting a spacecraft without the use of propulsion. The 24-year-old laboratory used a drag sail to deorbit a nanosatellite within five years from a ~688km altitude, ~178 years more quickly than it would have without the sail.

Mission specs: SFL launched the CanX-7 mission in 2016. The 3.5kg nanosatellite completed a communications demonstration for providing aircraft situational awareness, then in May 2017 deployed the drag sails, beginning the passive deorbiting experiment.

“The mission verified that SFL’s lightweight drag sail technology is a more cost-effective and less complex method for deorbiting smaller satellites than traditional propulsion techniques,” mission manager Brad Cotten said in a press release.

Passive deorbiting: FCC regulations stipulate that satellites in LEO need to deorbit within 25 years after they finish service. Satellites below ~500km will re-enter within that time frame naturally due to atmospheric drag, but satellites in higher orbits, depending on their altitude, size, and shape, will take longer. Drag sails could be a cheaper, more lightweight solution to this problem than onboard propulsion systems.

+ ICYMI: If you’re in search of more information on orbital debris and what’s being done about it, look no further. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of our in-depth series on space junk.

Share this story with Styx lovers:

Planet ($PL) Q1 Earnings

Yesterday, Planet released its Q1 2023 earnings for the period ending April 30th 2022. Planet’s stock traded down 10% after hours despite record Q1 revenue, likely due to a spike in net loss and a downward adjustment on full-year revenue guidance.

The numbers: Planet booked $40M in revenue in the first quarter of their fiscal year, up ~26% YoY, due the acceleration of its data subscription service, the company said yesterday. Planet also expects the revenue growth rate to more than double YoY for FY ’23.

• Adj. EBITDA: -$16.3M, up 340% YoY from -$3.7M

• Cash on hand: $484.5M

• Net Loss: $44.3M vs. $3.7M YoY

• Customer base: 43% commercial, 30% defense and intelligence, 27% civil government

• Adjusted FY revenue guidance to $177M - $187M from $170M - $190M

✨New✨…Over half of Planet’s customers are now based in North America. The company also split out RoW (rest of world) for the first time: APAC (22%), EMEA (17%), and LATAM (4%)

Lots of updates since Q4. Since the last earnings release, Planet received a landmark EOCL Award from the NRO, the company’s largest contract to date. It surpassed 800 customers and announced Pelican, its new generation of satellites intended to upgrade the 21 SkySats currently in orbit. Planet also launched its Planetary Variables product.

EO changes conflict. Planet imagery, along with other EO providers, has played a vital role in increasing transparency around the war in Ukraine, showing active damage of critical infrastructure, real-time insight into the battle for Snake Island, evidence of mass graves, and more.

Looking ahead: Growth-stage EO players may take solace in the relative stability afforded by public sector contracts. While that may help them weather the current storm better than their terrestrial tech peers, satellite operators have pitched themselves as software companies. That can cut both ways: software valuations were high when the going was good, but multiples have now compressed significantly and fallen back down to Earth.

Send this story to software investors:

In Other News

• Aerospacelab is building a European satellite “megafactory” that will eventually be capable of producing 500 birds a year. The Belgian startup is targeting initial operations for Q1 2025.

• Slovakia became an associate member of ESA.

• Iran appears to be preparing for another rocket launch, per Maxar ($MAXR) imagery shared with the press.

• NASA and ESA formed a new research group for the Mars sample return mission.

• Starship will be ready to fly in July, according to Elon. Subsequent Starship stacks will be ready in August “and then monthly thereafter,” he tweeted Tuesday.

• OneWeb and SpaceX have reached a spectrum coordination and deconfliction plan, SpaceNews reports.

• SpaceX, in an FCC filing, protested Viasat’s ($VSAT) planned merger with Inmarsat.

• Dish ($DISH), meanwhile, in its own FCC letter, urged the commission to crack down on mobile usage of Starlink.

• BlackSky ($BKSY) reaffirmed 2022 revenue guidance of $58M–$62M.

The View from KSC

A rainbow stretched over Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on June 12. The Artemis 1 rocket was rolled out to that pad earlier this month in preparation for its wet dress rehearsal.