Tag Archives: smallsat

NASA is slated to launch two small-satellite missions valued at $140 million combined as part of the agency’s Heliophysics Solar Terrestrial Probes initiative in 2025. NASA also allocated funding for the Spectral Imaging of Heliospheric Lyman Alpha (SIHLA) mission of opportunity which will involve mapping the sky to study the boundary between the heliosphere and heliopause.

The U.S. Space Force is requesting $131 million to support continued efforts to deploy space-based sensor technologies to low-Earth orbit for combat-focused weather imaging operations in fiscal year 2021. 

Christopher Scolese, director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), said the NRO is becoming more dependent on small satellites to support research experiments. He said the agency is leveraging low-cost launch services and small satellites to bring more technology platforms in space to explore future mission capabilities.

Paul Thomas, project manager for the Blackjack effort at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), said the agency is moving forward with the program after evaluating commercial technologies and identifying potential risks. He noted that the agency is “tying up all the loose ends” of its phase one contract and studying its options after evaluating technical risks.

The White House's National Space Council is looking to pursue new policy on intellectual property across the U.S. space industry, Space News reported Monday. The potential directive would ask space companies to implement cybersecurity standards designed to protect IP data.

Christopher Scolese, director of the National Reconnaissance Office, has said the agency is prioritizing satellite and ground system modernization as well as efforts to accelerate on-board data processing, Space News reported Tuesday.

The National Security Agency is leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze telemetry data and identify anomalies in small satellites’ behavior to ensure that they are not under the control of adversaries, Defense One reported Friday.

Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Brookings Institute event that the efforts to miniaturize satellites are helping to reduce costs in constructing and deploying large constellations, C4ISRnet reported Thursday. Selva noted that this may result in broadband services hosted by low-Earth orbit satellites that are cheaper compared to fiber-optic networks.

The Department of Defense’s recently established Space Development Agency is slated to release a request for information on low Earth orbit small satellite capabilities by summer of this year, Space News reported Wednesday. Fred Kennedy, director of the SDA, told reporters that he intends to launch SDA satellites into orbit by 2022. 

NASA has awarded a total of $3.6 million in grants to 10 mission concept studies that will use small satellites to explore Venus, Earth’s moon, asteroids, Mars and outer planets. The agency said Thursday awardees on the Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies program will use satellites that weigh less than 400 pounds while CubeSats will …