The launch of a NASA mission to the asteroid Psyche has been delayed at least a month and a half because of a problem with the spacecraft’s software, the agency confirmed May 23. In a brief statement to SpaceNews, NASA said it has delayed the launch of the Psyche spacecraft, previously scheduled for Aug. 1, until no earlier than Sept. 20 to address the problem. The delay was first reported by Spaceflight Now. “An issue is preventing confirmation that the software controlling the spacecraft is functioning as planned. The team is working to identify and correct the issue,” the agency said in a statement, but did not elaborate on the specific issue or how it is being corrected. NASA did not immediately respond to follow-up questions, including the duration of the launch window. NASA has not yet formally announced the slip in the launch. The website for the mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory still lists an Aug. 1 launch for the mission as of early May 24. The last agency update on the mission, published May 2, discussed the spacecraft’s shipment from JPL to the Kennedy Space Center to begin preparations for its launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. “Not yet public, we’re working on it,” tweeted Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for the mission at Arizona State University, in response to a question May 23 about the delay and the mission’s launch window.
NASA's Psyche spacecraft, which recently arrived at the Kennedy Space Center to begin launch preparations, will now launch no earlier than Sept. 20, a delay of more than a month and a half. Credit: NASA/Isaac Watson
NASA selected Psyche in January 2017 as one of two Discovery-class planetary science missions, along with the Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. At the time of selection, Psyche was scheduled to launch in 2023 and arrive at the main belt asteroid Psyche in 2030. However, NASA and the project agreed to move up the launch one year, revising its trajectory to allow it to arrive at Psyche in 2026 after a Mars flyby in 2023.
Psyche the spacecraft will orbit Psyche the asteroid for at least 21 months, studying the large, metallic asteroid that may be the remnant of a protoplanetary core. The spacecraft will also test a payload called Deep Space Optical Communication that uses lasers to provide high-bandwidth communications with Earth.
At the mission’s Key Decision Point C review in 2019, NASA estimated a total lifecycle cost of $996.4 million for Psyche. A Government Accountability Office report a year ago on cost and schedule performance of NASA programs stated that the mission’s estimated cost had since declined slightly, to $957.6 million, reflecting the cost of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle NASA selected for the mission in 2020.
JPL is responsible for overall management of Psyche, including engineering, integration and testing. Maxar built the spacecraft bus.
Spire Global said May 10 it is installing Ku-band antennas from fellow smallsat operator Kepler Communications on at least three satellites to offer higher capacity data services beginning next year. Their deal enables Spire to add high-speed Ku-band capabilities to its fleet in low Earth orbit under Kepler’s existing regulatory licenses, and includes an option to scale up to 50 satellites. U.S.-based Spire currently provides weather and tracking services with more than 100 satellites in LEO that transmit data in UHF, S and X-bands. The company also provides a service that offers its technology, ground station network and automated operations systems to others for deploying their own applications and sensors to orbit relatively quickly. With a Ku-band software-defined radio from Canada-based Kepler, a Spire satellite would be able to send larger amounts of data back to Earth for more data-intensive operations. Spire head of communications Hillary Yaffe said the Ku-band payload will benefit customers that include Canadian startup NorthStar Earth & Space, which March 16 said Spire will deliver and operate satellites focused on space situational awareness and debris monitoring. Spire’s deal with NorthStar is for an initial three 12-unit cubesats for launch in 2023, with an option to expand to a full constellation of dozens of satellites.
Spire satellites track maritime, weather, and and aviation data from space. Credit: Spire Global
Service expansion
Kepler said its 19 satellites each have a variant of the Ku-band payload for a constellation that generates most of its revenues from providing connectivity to devices beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.
The Canadian company has been seeking to expand into new markets after raising $60 million in June, including plans for data-relay services with an S-band terminal that successfully tested inter-satellite links earlier this year.
In a separate deal announced Dec. 16, Kepler said it plans to test its data relay terminal on a Spire nanosatellite slated to launch late in 2022.
Flown as a hosted payload, Kepler’s new Ku-band service includes the ground infrastructure needed to provide an end-to-end data transmission service.
Mina Mitry, Kepler’s CEO, said undisclosed customers are already using the Ku-band terminals on its satellites to “transmit large quantities of data point-to-point across the globe quickly.”
These customers are using a new service Kepler calls Global Data Services (GDS), he said, which is designed to be compatible with third-party fixed, maritime and next-generation flat panel antennas.
According to Kepler, GDS has achieved more than 300 megabits per second (Mbps) of data speeds from LEO to a 3.4-meter dish on the ground with its Ku-band technology — and 240 Mbps on a Kymeta flat panel antenna.
“GDS has helped our customers move data and given us valuable flight heritage for our next generation Ku-Band service – testing and validating the technology on the 19 satellites on-orbit,” Mitry said via email.
He declined to disclose a dollar value for its Ku-band antenna contract with Spire, which went public in August by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
The first Spire satellites with Ku-band service are slated to launch in early 2023.
While the standard version of Kepler’s Ku-band software-defined radio is designed for satellites in LEO, Mitry said its in-house manufacturing capabilities enable the company to adapt the technology for other orbits and customer needs.
Saudi Arabian fleet operator Arabsat has ordered its first fully software-defined geostationary satellite to provide flexible coverage across the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe. The company said April 29 it signed a contract for Arabsat 7A with Europe’s Thales Alenia Space, which will build the satellite based on its Space Inspire platform. Although launch plans were not disclosed, the companies said Arabsat-7A will replace the bulk of the existing C and Ku-band capacity at 30.5 East on Arabsat 5A, which was launched in 2010 with 15-years of expected operational life. Arabsat 7A will also have extra high-throughput Ku-band capacity to help the company expand services in markets including government and military, mobility, enterprise and oil and gas. Arabsat currently operates 10 satellites across four orbital positions. Its Arabsat 6A satellite is co-located with Arabsat 5A at 30.5 East, which Arabsat describes as its “data hotspot.” Unlike traditional “bent pipe” GEO satellites, software-defined communication payloads can be reprogrammed in orbit to adapt to different areas and markets as demand changes. They are increasingly being ordered by GEO operators in response to industry uncertainty as existing and planned megaconstellations in low Earth orbit (LEO) disrupt the market.
An artistic depiction of Arabsat 7A, Arabsat's first fully software-defined GEO satellite. Credit: Thales Alenia Space
Hadi Alhassani, Arabsat’s vice president and chief strategy officer, said March 21 during a Satellite 2022 panel that flexible GEO satellites are the answer to “the LEO constellation competition.”
“You’re going to see more and more ‘flex sat’ orders this year and the following years,” he said.
According to research from Euroconsult, software-defined satellites made up more than 80% of GEO high-throughput satellite orders in 2021.
Only one of the five GEO orders Thales Alenia Space announced in 2021 was for a fully software-defined satellite.
However, all four GEO orders the manufacturer has announced so far this year have been for software-defined satellites.
The latest was announced March 28 when SES ordered SES-26, which the operator expects will launch in 2024 or 2025 to extend content and connectivity services across Europe, Africa and Asia.
