Defense Innovation Unit solicits new round of proposals for space network project

The Defense Innovation Unit issued a new solicitation for proposals from private companies for a project known as the Hybrid Space Architecture, an initiative launched in 2021 to mesh commercial satellite broadband innovations with military networks. DIU is working with the U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory on efforts to connect satellite networks and ground communications systems so military users can get data faster and more securely than is currently possible. Based in Mountain View, California, DIU was established in 2015 to help DoD access and integrate commercial technologies from startup companies and other non-traditional defense contractors. The organization serves as a bridge between defense agencies and commercial tech companies. The Hybrid Space Architecture aims to take advantage of commercial satellite broadband services, in-space laser communication, cloud computing, quantum-secure encryption and other innovations.

Aalyria's Spacetime is a software platform for orchestrating networks of ground stations, aircraft, satellites, ships, and urban meshes. Credit: Aalyria

Eight vendors so far selected

DIU in 2022 selected eight companies to work on the project: Aalyria, Anduril, Atlas Space Operations, Enveil. SpiderOak Mission Systems, Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s Project Kuiper and Microsoft Azure Space. Companies get contracts to prototype concepts so their value can be evaluated.

The new solicitation released Nov. 29 focuses on four key areas: persistent sensing, data transport, high-performance edge computing and data fusion. Proposals are due Dec. 11.

Persistent sensing includes commercial solutions for space-based sensing, for routing and managing commercial collection requests, and for accessing commercial sensor data.

Data transport focuses on free space optical components that are scalable to enable low latency, persistent communications.

High performance edge computing includes commercial solutions necessary for the autonomous processing of advanced analytics and algorithms at the edge, for more timely delivery of information to users.

Data fusion focuses on secure ways to aggregate data to enable modeling, simulation and mission planning.

Space Force extends Kratos’ contract for satellite ground systems

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has received an eight-year extension to a contract it has held since 2002 for technical services in support of U.S. military communications satellites’ ground systems. The company, based in San Diego, California, was awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract worth up to $579 million, the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command said Nov. 22. The contract is for a program named C-SAR, short for Command-and-Control System-Consolidated Sustainment and Resiliency. The new agreement with Kratos runs through November 2031. The company will maintain and develop satellite ground systems for the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command. The satellites covered under the contract include the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) III, the Milstar Satellite Communications System, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF), and the Wideband Global Satellite Communications (WGS) systems. The Command-and-Control System-Consolidated system provides “planning, processing and information assurance measures,” the Space Systems Command said. It is designed to interface with existing constellations and also to support future satellites. As new constellations are deployed, Kratos will be responsible for information technology infrastructure upgrades.

Contract supports 26 satellites

Program director George Gonzales, of the Space Systems Command’s military communications satellite office, said the new contract with Kratos supports command-and-control operations of four constellations and 26 military communication satellites, “as well as the integration of new satellites and future constellations.”

According to a DoD contract announcement Nov. 6, the work will be performed at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado; Vandenberg Space Force Base, California; and Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. The C-SAR award was a competitive acquisition but only one offer was received.

China’s Landspace aims to build a stainless steel rocket

Chinese launch startup Landspace has unveiled plans to develop a reusable stainless steel rocket. The Zhuque-3 (Vermillion Bird 3) will use stainless propellant tanks and clusters of Tianque methane-liquid oxygen propellant rocket engines, according to a presentation by Landspace CEO Zhang Changwu at the Mingyue Lake Aerospace Information Industry International Ecosystem Event in Chongqing, China, Nov. 21. The two-stage launcher will have a payload capacity of 20 metric tons to low Earth orbit (LEO) when expendable. Recovery of the first stage downrange will allow 16.5 tons to LEO, while a landing back at the launch site will offer a capacity of 11 tons to LEO. A render of the rocket shows grid fins and deployable landing legs on the first stage. The announcement came just days after SpaceX performed its second Starship/Super Heavy launch test. Details such as a tentative test launch date and the dimensions of the rocket were not stated, suggesting the plan is at a very early stage. Developing the rocket will pose numerous challenges related to the weight and properties of steel, including manufacturing and fabricating complexities. The launcher, once operational, will also face competition domestically. Fellow startup Space Pioneer is planning to launch its Tianlong-3 rocket next year. That rocket will be capable of lifting 17 tons to LEO, or 14 tons to 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. The emergence of both rockets also illustrates that commercial launch plans in China are growing in terms of payload capabilities. The early days of commercial launch companies in China saw plans for light-lift, solid-fueled launchers targeting launches of small commercial or science satellites.

 

Now, further Chinese firms including iSpace, Galactic Energy, Space Pioneer and Deep Blue Aerospace are working on reusable liquid propellant rockets. A number of these have now stated that they are targeting contracts to launch batches of satellites for China’s national satellite internet megaconstellation project, named Guowang.

Landspace is one of China’s first commercial launch companies. It was established in 2015 after the Chinese government opened up parts of the space sector to private capital in late 2014. The development is seen to be a reaction to developments in the U.S.

Landspace is currently preparing to launch its third Zhuque-2 methane-liquid oxygen rocket on Dec. 4 Eastern. Its first Zhuque-2 launch failed in December 2022, before a second attempt successfully reached orbit in July.

That launch made the firm the first to reach orbit with a methalox launcher. It is also the second Chinese commercial firm to reach orbit with a liquid propellant launcher. This followed Space Pioneer’s kerolox Tianlong-2 in April.

The company has set up an intelligent manufacturing base in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province. It also established a $1.5 billion medium and large-scale liquid rocket assembly and test plant at Jiaxing, also in Zhejiang.

Landspace is not the only Chinese launch firm interested in stainless steel rockets. Another, much newer Chinese startup, Space Epoch, performed hot fire tests earlier this year as part of development of a planned reusable stainless-steel launcher.

The tests used a 4.2-meter-diameter stainless steel propellant tank combined with methalox engines developed by Jiuzhou Yunjian.

China’s main space contractor, the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), has also stated its plans for the super heavy-lift Long March 9 will eventually see it become fully reusable.

China launches new-gen Haiyang ocean monitoring satellite

China launched the first of a new series of Haiyang ocean observation satellites late Wednesday. A Long March 2C rocket lifted off into clear skies above Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 10:55 p.m. Eastern, Nov. 15 (0355 UTC, Nov. 16). The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced launch success within an hour of liftoff, also revealing the payload to be Haiyang-3 (01). Haiyang-3 (01) will operate in a dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbit. It will provide all-weather ocean observation using an X-band SAR payload over a planned mission lifetime of eight years. CASC says the new high-precision ocean water color observation satellite will target various water bodies around the world using multiple detection methods, providing insights into various environmental and biological processes. It will be able to provide continuous dynamic monitoring of water color, water temperature, sea ice and other variables, to deliver timely remote sensing information. The Haiyang-3 series will complement the Haiyang-2 satellites with SAR observations. The earlier series focus on variables including wind speed, sea level and sea surface temperature. The satellite was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). It will be operated by China’s National Satellite Ocean Application Service (NSOAS).

Ocean monitoring satellites are valuable for providing data for weather models for forecasting and monitoring climate change. They also deliver information helpful for tracking pollution and marine navigation and safety.

The Haiyang-3 (01 launch was China’s 53rd orbital launch of the year. CASC stated early in the year it would aim to launch more than 60 times, and has so far completed 39 launches.

Galactic Energy, a commercial launch service provider, announced Thursday that it would soon resume launches of its Ceres-1 solid rocket. The company had suffered its first failure in late September. Galactic Energy enjoyed a run of nine consecutive successful launches before the setback.

The company released results of its investigation into the failure in late October. The report stated that abnormal ablation of a first stage engine nozzle occurred, causing the rocket to lose attitude control just over a minute into the flight.

Virgin Galactic to halt Unity suborbital flights by mid-2024

Virgin Galactic will reduce the frequency of flights of its current suborbital vehicle and stop them entirely by mid-2024 as it concentrates resources on the next generation of vehicles. In a Nov. 8 earnings call, company executives said flights of VSS Unity, which completed its fifth commercial suborbital mission Nov. 2, would move to a quarterly frequency starting with its next mission, Galactic 06 in January. That would be followed by Galactic 07 early in the second quarter. There could be a third mission, Galactic 08, around the middle of the year, but Michael Colglazier, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive, said the company had not decided yet whether to fly that mission before moving personnel and other resources to work on its Delta-class of vehicles. Virgin Galactic announced Nov. 7 it would be laying off staff and reducing other expenses to concentrate resources on the Delta class, which Colglazier said was key to the company’s future. The company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it would be cutting 185 jobs, or about 18% of its current workforce. That announcement did not provide any indications about the future of Unity, but Colglazier suggested in the earnings call that the company had learned what it needed about spaceflight operations and the experience of its customers over the five commercial flights it carried out between June and November. “Unity’s flight objectives are to demonstrate our system, showcase our astronaut experience and provide learnings for our Delta program,” he said. “The total costs to support Unity’s flights surpass the relatively modest monthly revenues.”

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, VSS Unity, on the Unity 25 test flight May 25. Credit: Virgin Galactic

“The big move we’re making here is pivoting the resources that have been put into the Unity flights and redirecting them over to get the Delta ships done with the cash we have on hand,” he said later in the call.

Colglazier said that for the remaining flights, Virgin Galactic will concentrate on higher revenue opportunities. That includes research, which offers more revenue per seat than private astronauts. He said some seats might be sold to private astronauts who are willing to pay a “premium price” of up to $1 million each, versus the current price of $450,000.

Once Unity flights end, he said company staff who work on the vehicles at Spaceport America in New Mexico will go to a new factory near Phoenix the company expects to complete in the second quarter of 2024 to help with the assembly of the first Delta-class vehicles. Doing so, he said, will help with company resources and give personnel experience with the spaceplanes before test flights begin in 2025.

Those layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, along with a sale of stock in an “at-the-market” deal in the third quarter, should give the company enough funding to complete development of the first two Delta vehicles and begin commercial flights in 2026, the company concluded. Virgin Galactic ended the quarter with $1.1 billion of cash and equivalents on hand.

He said the company projected that the Delta-class vehicles will be able to fly twice a week, versus the monthly cadence of Unity flights. With the Delta vehicles able to carry six customers versus four on Unity, each Delta vehicle will be able to produce 12 times as much revenue per month as Unity.

That is key, executives said, in enabling the company to achieve a positive cash flow in 2026, with the increased revenues from Delta flights and a reduction in expenses from the end of the vehicles’ development.

“We project we have sufficient capital to build the revenue-generating assets necessary to achieve positive free cash flow,” said Doug Ahrens, the chief financial officer of Virgin Galactic. He added there is still $113 million available in its at-the-market stock offering it can sell for additional funding.

Virgin Galactic reported $1.7 million in revenue in the third quarter from its spaceflight as well as “membership fees” from customers, and projects $3 million in revenue in the fourth quarter. The company had a net loss of $105 million in the third quarter.

Astra, low on cash, defaults on loan

Dwindling cash reserves caused launch vehicle and spacecraft propulsion company Astra Space to default on a loan at the end of October, adding to doubts about the company’s future. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after the markets closed Nov. 3, Astra disclosed that it had triggered a default on a $12.5 million loan it secured in August from an unnamed institutional investor when its cash on hand fell below minimums required by the loan agreement. According to the filing, that loan required the company to have at least $15 million of cash and cash equivalents or else be in default of the agreement, but fell below that threshold on Oct. 11. The investor agreed to waive the default provide the company kept at least $10.5 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand and made a $2.1 million payment. The interest rate on the loan also went from 9% to 15%. However, Astra said it fell below that lower cash threshold on Oct. 30, which led to a default. Astra paid the investor $3.1 million on Nov. 1. It did not disclose how much cash it had remaining but said $8 million remains on the loan with that investor. Astra had been working to raise additional funding. The company said in a separate Oct. 23 SEC filing that it had signed a non-binding term sheet with JMCM Holdings LLC to be the lead investor in a loan of up to $25 million. The funds, Astra said, would be used to pay off the August loan and for “general corporate purposes.”

In the new SEC filing, Astra said it is in “continued discussions” with other investors about financing, but could not guarantee it could close any deal, or that the terms of any funding would be the same as what it disclosed in October.

In an Aug. 14 earnings call, Astra executives said they were working to identify strategic investors for both its Astra Spacecraft Engines spacecraft propulsion business as well as its Rocket 4 launch vehicle in development. The company had laid off a quarter of its workforce between the beginning of July and early August and shifted others from rocket to satellite propulsion work, delaying work on Rocket 4.

In that call, the company projected having $15 million to $20 million of cash on hand by the end of the third quarter Sept. 30. Company executives said both the August loan and a planned “at-the-market” sale of stock would help buy the company time to secure a strategic investment.

Shares in Astra fell nearly 19% in aftermarket trading Nov. 3. The company performed a 1-for-15 reverse stock split in September to get the company’s shares above a $1 threshold required by Nasdaq, but those shares have since fallen back below $1.

Astra is scheduled to release its third quarter financial results and hold an earnings call after the markets close Nov. 13.