Signed, sealed, delivered (6/13/23)

Good morning. A quick programming note that we won’t be sending on Monday for Juneteenth. We’ll be back in your inbox bright and early on Tuesday.

In today's edition...
🚉 Transporter-8 lifts off
🎙️ Pathfinder #0051
🔁 On the move

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Transporter-8 Launches a Full Manifest

Last night, SpaceX launched its eighth Transporter rideshare mission aboard a Falcon 9, deploying 39 spacecraft that hosted 72 payloads from a slew of startups and established companies into orbit.

Transporter launch days always spur a lot of enthusiasm for spaceflight, as many crafts from smaller companies that rely on the lower price tag board the train to space. Now a few years into this program—SpaceX launched Transporter-1 in Jan. 2021—the company is striking a regular launch cadence, providing reliable and comparatively inexpensive rides to orbit.

First-timers

It was a big night for the companies flying satellites for the very first time.

Otter Pup goes up: Starfish Space, a Seattle-based startup developing spacecraft to dock with, refuel, and otherwise service satellites in orbit, deployed its Otter Pup craft. Otter Pup is the demo version of the planned full-size Otter servicer, and on this mission, it will perform a series of docking maneuvers.

• Otter Pup is manifested aboard Launcher’s Orbiter, which will also play host to the docking tests.

• If successful, the demonstration will represent the first docking between two commercial spacecraft in orbit.

Flying factories: Varda Space Industries’ first demonstration mission also went up on Transporter-8. The El Segundo, CA-based startup is designing microgravity factories to manufacture certain pharmaceuticals and bioprinted products that can’t be built in Earth’s gravity. This first mission will deploy the reentry capsule, and the company will count a success if it can successfully recover the craft when it returns to Earth.

Earth observation

The space industry is keeping a close eye on the Earth’s surface from space, and the passengers on this flight were no exception.

Laser links: Spire deployed three satellites on Transporter-8. Two are RF-sensing sats that came equipped with optical inter-satellite links, which will use lasers to communicate data more quickly and with more accuracy than traditional radio comms. The third satellite is carrying the FOREST-2 thermal imaging payload for OroraTech.

A host of new cameras…also on the imaging front:

• ICEYE expanded its SAR constellation by four satellites

• Orbital Sidekick added the third member of its GHOSt hyperspectral constellation

• Satellogic launched four more NewSat Mark V spacecraft, which collect multispectral and hyperspectral observations

• Satellite Vu deployed its first thermal imaging satellite

The Internet of Things

Several companies are getting in on IoT communications from space via payloads launched last night. Swarm, a SpaceX-owned company, deployed a handful of its Spacebee nanosatellites. OQ Technology, a Luxembourg-based 5G IoT company, launched its Tiger-4 craft to join its constellation. Hello Space, FOSSA, and Innova Space also deployed craft with IoT communications capabilities.

+ Looking for more details? SpaceX posted the full launch, landing, and deployment schedule on its website.

Sponsored

Kepler supports out-of-this-world communications

Kepler is delivering on-orbit data at lightspeed with a constellation of optical satellites designed to act as Internet exchange points for space-to-space data relay.

The Internet-ready constellation will deliver data to and from spacecraft in real time, helping customers to get more from their data. The hybrid network will modernize on-orbit communications with a combination of SDA-standard optical technology, RF inter-satellite links, and a high-speed backhaul link to move space-generated data efficiently back to Earth.

Kepler’s services are solving the downlink bottleneck by providing real-time access to satellite data, optimized latency, and high-speed downlinking capabilities. Kepler offers customers a service-level agreement and turnkey solution to satisfy the complete communications requirements of a mission, including:

• Communications payloads for both optical and RF

• Spectrum licenses

• Security

• Ground infrastructure

• Edge computing

Kepler’s services will expand customer mission potential, solving the current and future gaps in global space communications.

A New EO Architecture and Pathfinder #0051 with Topher Haddad

VLEO is a term that you don’t hear everyday in the space industry. It refers to “Very Low Earth Orbit,” a region of space that’s roughly twice as close to Earth’s surface as the commonly-used LEO, or “Low Earth Orbit,” where most companies are building their satellite constellations.

But not Albedo.

The Austin, TX- and Denver, CO-based startup is changing the architecture of Earth Observation (EO) by operating satellites at an orbital regime in which no other commercial provider is successfully operating.

Today’s Pathfinder episode features Albedo cofounder and CEO Topher Haddad. Haddad spent the initial years of his career at Lockheed Martin, where he developed passive and active remote sensing systems before jumping into the famed startup accelerator Y Combinator to start Albedo.

Why VLEO? Albedo is pushing the boundaries of EO by offering aerial-quality imagery (optical and thermal to start) from space. In Dec. 2021, the company obtained the first commercial NOAA license to sell 10-cm satellite imagery—much higher-res than the 30-cm imagery that was allowed previously. Operating in VLEO enables 10-cm resolution at substantially lower cost than existing government satellites as long as you can solve the propulsion and positioning problem (more on that in the pod!).

Albedo is targeting early 2025 for its first satellite launch with a second launch later that year and several more in 2026. The initial constellation of six satellites is expected to achieve daily revisit, and the full constellation of 24 is intended to eventually reach five revisits per day.

A sneak peek…

Mo and Topher chat about the early days of Albedo, learnings from Lockheed, and building across Austin and Denver. In addition:

• VLEO: why, what, how?

• A satellite resolution primer

• Albedo product roadmap

• Artificial intelligence in EO

• Market for high-resolution imagery

• And much more…

Pathfinder #0051 is live now…

…check it out on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or desktop. And reply to this email to let us know what you think!

In Other News

• Apollo 11’s post-mission quarantine to account for any lunar microbes that hitched a ride to Earth was mostly for show.

• The HASC Strategic Forces Subcommittee released its portion of the NDAA, which asks Defense officials for a report on commercial SSA tools and also requires a plan to share space threat info with companies.

• Japan is working on legislation to allow JAXA to invest in private businesses.

• Melissa Quinn, former Cornwall chief and current GM at Slingshot, addresses sexism she has faced in the space industry.

The View from Space

The Copernicus-2 mission snapped this pic of the Cook Strait between New Zealand’s north and south islands, which ESA shared on Friday.