1U and 3U satellite piggybacking to SSO in December 2022

Precious Payload Weekly Smallsat News: March 21 – 28

It’s nice to have you here. Welcome to the new edition of the smallsat weekly newsletter from Precious Payload! Let us know if you have any feedback on anything we do and enjoy the news summary.

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Launch Updates

1U and 3U satellite piggybacking to SSO in December 2022! This is your chance to pay a super-low price for this launch. If you’re interested, please contact our sales at info@preciouspayload.com. 

Highlights

Due to inflation, SpaceX increases rideshare prices by 8%. The cost of a Falcon 9 launch has gone up from $62M to $67M. To launch a 200 kg rideshare payload to SSO aboard Falcon 9 will cost $1.1M compared to the previous $1M.

Minus one. SpaceX broke up its partnership with Spaceflight. It can be related to an incident when SpaceX removed a Sherpa tug from the Transporter 3 mission after the tug’s propulsion system developed a leak. Then SpaceX declined another flight for the tug because of environmental concerns.

Researchers from Teal Group counted 34,196 space payloads to be launched in the next ten years. Most of them will be developed for mega-constellations such as SpaceX, OneWeb, Kuiper Systems, and China Satellite Network Group.

With the combined effects of Covid-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the cost increments, many satellite operators face delays. 

MicroGEO satellites can be more cost-effective at delivering broadband services than LEO systems making them competitive with LEO mega-constellations.

Headlines

Spaceflight extends its multi-launch agreement with Swiss-based Astrocast adding two missions to the latter’s IoT constellation for launch with Spaceflight. [Source] 

Italy’s D-Orbit plans its fifth mission, SPACELUST, using the company’s orbital transfer vehicle ION with four satellites—from Luxembourg-based company Kleos Space and three other missions, namely, PlantSat, SUCHAI 2, and SUCHAI 3—for launch aboard Falcon 9 Transporter-4 mission in April 2022. [Source]

France-based satellite company E-Space will launch three demonstration satellites aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron from New Zealand by Q2 of 2022. [Source]

Rocket Lab announces the launch window of the BlackSky mission from the 1st of April aboard an Electron rocket (launch provider Spaceflight). [Source] 

Firefly aims to make its second attempt to reach orbit with its Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in May. [Source]

Arianespace and SpaceX work on accommodating and re-manifesting scheduled launches following the suspension of Soyuz launches from French Guiana and the Baikonur Cosmodrome. [Source]

Indonesia-based Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN) contracts with Boeing Satellite Systems to build Nusantara Lima Satellite and launch it aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 in 2023. [Source]

Australian company Skykraft opens a new manufacturing facility in Canberra to develop and deploy a space-based air traffic management constellation for launch this year with SpaceX from Florida. [Source]

Toronto’s Space Flight Laboratory adds three new microsatellites namely, GHGSat-C6, C7, and C8, for Canadian company GHGSat’s greenhouse gas monitoring constellation for launch in 2023 as a part of SpaceX’s rideshare program. [Source] 

Paris-based startup Gama raised $2.2M to work on solar sails for deep space missions and develop a 6U cubesat Gama Alpha. They’re going to use a bus provided by NanoAvionics, and aim to launch in October 2022 on a SpaceX rideshare. [Source]

Rivada Space Networks wants to launch a LEO constellation of 600 satellites for secure global data network delivery and internet access to remote and underserved areas. [Source] 

CNES chooses French-based Exotrail for a study focussing on MEO and LEO to determine the best operational procedures to implement mega-constellations [Source]

Portugal-based Neuraspace raised €2.5M from Armilar Venture Partners for the development of its AI-powered space debris monitoring & satellite collision avoidance platform. [Source] 

US-based Millennium Space Systems plans to launch its 3D printed satellite structure tech demo. [Source] 

Spain and Portugal will launch an EO constellation of 16 satellites to monitor coasts and forests. [Source] 

French satellite operator Eutelsat, US satcom company Kymeta Corporation, and Australian company Speedcast signed agreements with OneWeb to become distribution partners for its LEO connectivity. [Source]

Australian satellite operator Optus will be the first customer for the Mission Extension Pods propulsion jet packs developed by SpaceLogistics, owned by Northrop Grumman. [Source]

Luxembourg-based Intelsat plans to integrate its 52 GEO satellites with the Starlink service and cellular broadband, including GEO satcom and LTE connectivity. [Source]

Check out Precious Payload Weekly Smallsat Market Update: March 14 – 20.