PLD Space

Payload Aerospace S.L. (PLD Space) is a Spanish company developing two partially-reusable launch vehicles called Miura 1 and Miura 5.

Miura 1 is designed as a sounding rocket for sub-orbital flights to perform research or technology development in microgravity environment and/or in the upper atmosphere. Furthermore, Miura 1 is also serving as the technological demonstrator of the orbital launcher Miura 5. Miura 5 will provide orbital launch capabilities for small payloads such as CubeSats, that need a flexible and dedicated launch vehicle and therefore can not fly with traditional launch vehicles. It is being designed to deliver a total payload mass up to 900 kg (2,000 lb) into low Earth orbit.[1][2]

Recovery of the first stage would be by the use of parachutes and splashdown for re-use.

History

[edit]

PLD Space was founded in 2011 by Raúl Torres, Raúl Verdú and José E. Martínez in Elche, Spain, and as of 2019 it employs 70 people. In August 2017 the company headquarter moved to new facilities in the Elche Industrial Park, where the assembly facilities for Miura 1 are located.[3]

Since 2014, the company is operating an engine test stand located at the Airport in Teruel[4] where they performed the first test of its liquid fuel engine on July 1, 2015.[5] It was the first time a liquid rocket engine was tested in Spain, and the first time a private company in Europe tested a liquid rocket engine on its own facilities. PLD Space plans to expand their test facilities to include a vertical test stand to qualify the complete Miura 1 suborbital rocket.[6]

In early August 2018, PLD Space and the Teruel Airport Consortium signed the concession of a 13,337 m2 space at the airport for the PLD Space to test launcher technology. The agreement has a period of 25 years, with the option of an additional 10-year extension. PLD Space will invest euro €1M in infrastructure for the construction of a new control room, offices, access paths, a rocket engine maintenance hangar and a new test bench to test the complete Miura 1 rocket.[7]

In November 2018 PLD Reached an agreement with INTA (transl. 'National Institute for Aerospace Technology "Esteban Terradas"') to launch Miura 1 from El Arenosillo.[8] The agreement is not limited to using the INTA facilities for launching but rather establishing a lasting relationship that will allow them to develop scientific, aerospace and technical knowledge.

In July 2019, PLD Space reached an agreement with CNES to study the launch of Miura 5 from CSG, French Guiana.[9] As part of their agreement, INTA is also helping them procure a launch site, being El Hierro Launch Centre the best option from a technical point of view.[10]

The company plans to launch their first Miura 1 vehicle in the second quarter of 2023 from El Arenosillo Test Centre.[11] The launch successfully occurred on 7 October 2023 at 0:19 UTC.

Funding

[edit]

Rocket engine testing

The company has been funded through a series of investment rounds with institutional and private sources and up to now gathered investments worth around $10 million. In 2013 they closed a $1.6 million investment round,[12] including a seed contract with the Spanish Government through the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI).

PLD Space secured its first commercial contract as one of the partners in the Small Innovative Launcher for Europe (SMILE) program with the European Commission and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in December 2015. The company is responsible for testing liquid propulsion engines for the DLR at its propulsion test facilities in the Airport of Teruel.[13][14] In April 2016, PLD Space secured a further $1.56 million from Spain's TEPREL reusable launcher engine program. TEPREL (Acronym for Spanish Reusable Propulsion Technologies for Launchers) will help PLD Space to continue their liquid rocket engine program,[12][15]\ the first one in Spain dedicated to boost the small satellite industry in Europe. This project will help PLD Space to develop a 35 kN rocket engine qualified for flight.

In October 2016, The European Space Agency (ESA) selected PLD Space as the prime contractor for the "Liquid Propulsion Stage Recovery" project (LPSR) as part of the agency's Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP). The goal of this project is to study a strategy to recover the first stage of a launcher, making it partially reusable, with a prospected funding of $800,000.[16] In a second investment round, closed in January 2017, the company secured $7.1 million, $3.2 million of that contributed by GMV. GMV also took the role to develop the complete avionics of Miura 1 and Miura 5, including guidance, navigation and control (GNC), telemetry and onboard software for both launchers.[17] PLD Space received further $2.34 million in January 2018 through the European Commissions Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) Instrument Phase 2, as part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 program for research and innovation, a grant to support to the development of a pair of launchers designed for small satellites.[18] In February 2018 PLD Space was one of the five companies chosen by ESA to perform a feasibility study proposing an economically viable, commercially self-sustaining microlauncher. For this, the company received a funding of $368,000.[19][20] In September 2020, PLD Space secured €7 million Series B funding from Arcano partners.[21]

Vehicles

[edit]

Miura 1

[edit]

Main article: Miura 1

Miura 1 exhibited in Madrid in November 2021

Miura 1 is a one-stage suborbital recoverable launch vehicle capable of suborbital flight. It is slated to be the first recoverable launch vehicle in Europe.[6] It uses a TEPREL-B engine, also designed and produced by PLD Space.

Miura 5

[edit]

Main article: Miura 5

Miura 5 reuse testing in 2019

Miura 5 is a 25 m long two-stage launch vehicle capable of placing up to 300 kg of load in a 500 km heliosynchronous orbit. It uses 5 TEPREL-C engines.

Facilities

[edit]

PLD Space Propulsion Test Facilities

[edit]

This section is an excerpt from Teruel Airport § PLD Space Propulsion Test Facilities.[edit]

In August 2018, Spanish launch service provider PLD Space signed a concession with the Teruel Airport Consortium for 13,337 m2 of space at the airport to test launch vehicle technology. The agreement covered 25 years, with an optional 10-year extension. PLD Space was to invest €1M in infrastructure for the construction of a new control room, offices, access paths, a rocket engine maintenance hangar and a new test bench to test its Miura 1 rocket. Over the previous three years, testing had been conducted on a short-term contract basis.[22]

El Arenosillo Test Centre

[edit]

PLD Space has reached an agreement with the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial for the use of the facilities of the El Arenosillo Test Centre (CEDEA) for the launch of the Miura 1 vehicle and tests of the Miura 5.

[edit]

External links

[edit]

• Official website

Wikimedia Commons has media related to PLD Space.

Deimos-2 is a Spanish remote sensing Earth observation satellite built for Elecnor Deimos under an agreement with Satrec Initiative, a satellite manufacturing company in South Korea.

The Earth observation system was developed by Elecnor Deimos, who managed the engineering, ground segment, integration, tests, launch contract and LEOP, in collaboration with Satrec Initiative, who provided the platform and the payload.[2] The platform is based on DubaiSat-2 launched in 2013, with a larger battery pack intended to last for at least 7 years.[3] The satellite was purchased by Urthecast in 2015, together with Deimos-1 and Deimos Imaging, the division of Elecnor Deimos that was in charge of the operation of both satellites.[4]

Deimos-2 was owned by Deimos Imaging, who operated iand commercialises its data. In 2021, the company GEOSAT acquired Deimos-1 & 2, and renamed them to GEOSAT-1 & 2, respectively.[5]

See also[edit]

• 2014 in spaceflight

[edit]

External links[edit]

• GEOSAT-2/Deimos-2 Imagery User's Guide

This article is about the 1st gen O3b satellites. For 2nd gen satellites, see O3b mPOWER. For the defunct satellite operator, see O3b Networks.

O3b is a satellite constellation in Medium Earth orbit (MEO) owned and operated by SES, and designed to provide low-latency broadband connectivity to remote locations for mobile network operators and internet service providers, maritime, aviation, and government and defence. It is often referred to as O3b MEO to distinguish these satellites from SES's forthcoming O3b mPOWER constellation.[1]

O3b originally stood for "other three billion", or the other three billion people at the time that did not have stable internet access, and the constellation was initially built, owned and operated by O3b Networks, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of SES in 2016[2] and ownership and operation of the constellation passed to SES Networks, a division of SES. The O3b MEO constellation began offering service in March 2014.[3]

History[edit]

Initially planned to launch in 2010,[4] the first four O3b satellites reached orbit on a Soyuz-2 / Fregat-MT launch vehicle by Arianespace on 25 June 2013.[5][6] After discovering a hardware defect in the initial satellites, O3b postponed the planned September 2013 launch of four additional satellites so repairs could be made.[7] The second four satellites were launched by the same type of rocket from the Space Center in French Guiana, on 10 July 2014[8] and the O3b system started full commercial service on 1 September 2014.[9]

The third launch of four took place in December 2014, bringing the satellite constellation to 12 satellites.[10] Four years later, four additional satellites were launched on 9 March 2018 on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Centre Spatial Guyanais.[11] In December 2018, Thales Alenia Space said that tests on the final four O3b satellites would be completed by the end of January 2019[12] and the four satellites were successfully launched on 4 April 2019.[13]

In 2010, operators in the Cook Islands[14] Pakistan[15] and Nigeria[16] were among the first to prebook capacity on the O3b constellation to serve their respective markets.

In 2010, O3b announced the selection of Europe Media Port to be the first provider of Gateway Teleport services for O3b's global network[17] and a contract with Viasat for the production and installation of Ka-band infrastructure.[18]

In July 2014, SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense), a subsidiary of (then O3b investor, now owner) SES, received approval to offer O3b services on their General Services Administration (GSA) schedule allowing SES GS to be the first distribution partner to offer O3b capability directly to the U.S. Government.[19]

In November 2014, MS Quantum of the Seas became the first cruise ship to provide fast internet to guests through O3b Networks. The service is branded "Voom" by its cruise line, Royal Caribbean International and it was subsequently rolled out to every ship in their fleet.[20][21]

In August 2015, SES subsidiary, SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense) agreed on a one-year contract with US government scientific agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to supply O3b services and ground equipment to the National Weather Service Office in American Samoa, expanding NOAA's broadband connectivity outside the continental United States to provide weather, water, and climate data, and forecasts and warnings to American Samoa.[22]

In August 2016, SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense) announced a contract to provide O3b's high throughput, low latency satellite communications for a US Department of Defense end-user. The agreement is for a 365 days-per-year service consisting of a full-duplex symmetric 155 Mbit/s link, gateway access, a transportable 2.4 metre terminal, terrestrial backhaul, and maintenance and installation services, with a latency of under 200 milliseconds per round trip. The contract also provides for additional capacity to meet surge requirements.[23]

In September 2017, SES announced O3b mPOWER, the next generation of MEO satellites to expand the capacity of the existing O3b constellation of (then) 12 satellites. Initially seven O3b mPOWER satellites were ordered from Boeing for launch in 2021 to provide flexible and scalable, low-latency satellite-based networks with terabits of throughput.[24][25]

In June 2018, the US Department of Defense signed a single-award blanket purchase agreement with SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense) for MEO high throughput, low latency satellite services including managed broadband services, gateway services, and monitoring and control services, to a maximum of US$516.7 million over a five-year period.[26]

In September 2019, SES became a Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute services partner to provide dedicated, private network connectivity from sea vessels, aircraft, and industrial or government sites anywhere in the world to the Azure cloud computing service, via both its geostationary satellites and O3b MEO satellites.[27]

In August 2020 SES contracted Boeing to build four O3b mPOWER satellites in addition to the seven ordered in 2017. SpaceX was contracted for additional launches, to make four launches for the whole O3b mPOWER constellation, expected in 2021–2024.[28][29]

In September 2020, SES and Microsoft announced that SES was the medium Earth orbit connectivity partner for the Microsoft Azure Orbital ground station service that enables network operators to control their satellite operations and capacity from within the Azure cloud computing service. Under their agreement, SES and Microsoft will jointly invest in Azure Orbital ground stations for the MEO and Earth Observation segments, initially in the United States, which will be installed and managed by SES. Also, satellite telemetry, tracking and control systems and data ground stations for the forthcoming O3b mPOWER satellites will be located with Microsoft's Azure edge sites to provide O3b mPOWER customers with "one-hop" access to Azure cloud services.[30][31]

In October 2020, international charity hospital ships provider, Mercy Ships announced it will be using SES's Signature Maritime connectivity services via O3b satellites to provide remote viewing and diagnosis, and remote training on board the Global Mercy, the world's largest civilian hospital ship.[32]

In February 2021, SES announced two contracts with the US Department of Defense as part of the June 2018 blanket purchase agreement. One is for a portable O3b service to support forward-deployed military personnel[33] and the second to provide O3b mission-critical communications without using a commercial gateway in remote locations in Southwest Asia, managed and controlled from an SES Network Operations Center.[34]

Also in February 2021, SES announced that its Signature Cruise broadband connectivity via O3b will be used on Virgin Voyages' latest ships Scarlet Lady and Valiant Lady to provide passengers with free fast onboard wi-fi internet access.[35]

In June 2021, SES joined the Amazon Web Services Direct Connect Delivery Partner programme, using the O3b constellation (and SES' fleet of geostationary satellites) to provide customers access to AWS cloud-based applications and services from locations around the world with limited or no terrestrial communications, and to provide the cloud provider a backup network if their infrastructure fails.[36]

In August 2021, Microsoft became the first cloud provider customer for O3b, with Microsoft buying managed satellite connectivity services from SES for the Microsoft Azure cloud computing service. Microsoft is initially using the existing first generation O3b satellites, before upgrading to the faster broadband speeds from the forthcoming O3b mPOWER satellites when they come into operation in 2022.[37] (In November 2022, SES announced that the start of the O3b mPOWERservice was delayed until Q3 2023).[38]

In December 2021, SES's wholly owned subsidiary SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense) announced that the US Army has conducted trials of commercial satellite constellations in multiple orbits, including the O3b satellite system, as part of the effort to establish Multi-Domain Operations.[39]

In December 2021, Honeywell, Hughes Network Systems and SES demonstrated multi-orbit high-speed airborne connectivity for military customers using Honeywell's JetWave MCX terminal and a Hughes HM-series modem, and SES satellites in both medium Earth orbit (MEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO). The tests achieved full duplex data rates of more than 40 megabits per second via a number of SES' (GEO) satellites including GovSat-1, and the O3b satellite constellation, with connections moving between GEO/MEO links in under 30 sec.[40]

In May 2022, in conjunction with Kazakhstani mobile network operator, Kcell, SES used the O3b satellite constellation to demonstrate that MEO satellites could be used to provide high-speed 3G and 4G connectivity to remote regions of Kazakhstan for reliable video calling, conferencing and streaming, and web browsing, with a latency five times lower than on the existing platform based on geostationary orbit satellites.[41][42]

On 16 December 2022, the first two of SES's next generation MEO satellite constellation, O3b mPOWER were successfully launched. The satellites will take approximately six months to reach their designated medium Earth orbit and for commissioning, and the O3b mPower service is expected to begin operations alongside the existing O3b constellation in Q3 2023.[43] The second pair of O3b mPOWER satellites were successfully launched on 28 April 2023, by which time the first pair of satellites had reached medium Earth orbit and were undergoing in-orbit testing.[44]

Satellites[edit]

The satellites are deployed in a circular orbit along the equator at an altitude of 8,063 km (5,010 mi) (medium Earth orbit) at a velocity of approximately 11,755 mph (18,918 km/h), each making 5 orbits a day.[45] Due to problems with a component of the first four satellites launched, three of those four have been placed on standby.[46]

Each satellite is equipped with twelve fully steerable Ka-band antennas (two beams for gateways, ten beams for remotes) that use 4.3 GHz of spectrum (2 × 216 MHz per beam) with a proposed throughput of 1.6 Gbit/s per beam (800 Mbit/s per direction),[47] resulting in a total capacity of 16 Gbit/s per satellite. Each beam's footprint measures 700 km (430 mi) in diameter.[48] O3b claims a mouth-to-ear one-way latency of 179 milliseconds for voice communication, and an end-to-end round-trip latency of 140 ms for data services. The maximum throughput per TCP connection is 2.1 Mbit/s.[49] For maritime applications, O3b claims a round-trip latency of 140 ms, and connectivity speeds of over 500 Mbit/s.[50]

The satellites are powered by gallium arsenide solar arrays and lithium-ion batteries[51] and weigh approximately 700 kg (1,500 lb) each.[5]

The satellites were constructed by Thales Alenia Space, a division of Thales Group.[52] The first satellite (PFM) was built in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center, while the rest of the constellation was assembled, integrated and tested in Thales Alenia Space Italy's Roman facilities.

In September 2017, SES announced the next generation of O3b satellites and placed an order for an initial seven from Boeing Satellite Systems using a new satellite platform based on Boeing's 702 line of scalable buses. Expected to launch in 2021, the O3b mPOWER constellation of medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites for broadband internet services will "be able to deliver anywhere from hundreds of megabits to 10 gigabits to any ship at sea" through 30,000 spot beams. Software-defined routing will direct traffic between the mPOWER MEO satellites and SES' geostationary fleet.[53] In August 2020, SES contracted Boeing to build four additional O3b mPOWER satellites and SpaceX was contracted for an additional two launches, to make four launches for the whole O3b mPOWER constellation in 2022–2024.[54][55][56][57]

List of satellites[edit]

[58]

Use of medium Earth orbit[edit]

O3b MEO is currently the only high-throughput satellite (HTS) system for internet services to use the medium Earth orbit; most other existing and proposed systems use satellites in either geosynchronous orbit (GEO) or low Earth orbit (LEO). Although previous satellite internet services primarily used geosynchronous satellites (SES has four geostationary HTS in orbit – Astra 2E, SES-12, SES-14 and SES-15), demand for increased bandwidth and for lower latency has shifted the focus for HTS to lower orbits.[59] The lower the altitude of the orbit, the closer the satellite is to the Earth and the lower the latency and path losses (enabling lower ground station and satellite power, and costs for the same throughput)[60] The propagation delay for a round-trip internet protocol transmission via a geosynchronous satellite can be over 550 ms, and such latency is the bane of digital connectivity, in particular for automated stock trades, hardcore gaming and Skype video chats.[61][62] So, many proposed non-geosynchronous satellite internet services have adopted a low Earth orbit of under 2000 km altitude[62] where latency can be as little 40ms,[63] and by 2018 more than 18,000 new LEO satellites had been proposed to launch by 2025.[64]

However, a lower orbit also has drawbacks; satellites move faster relative to the ground and can "see" a smaller area of the Earth, and so for continuous widespread access require a constellation of many satellites, with complex constellation management and tracking by the ground stations.[59][62] Medium Earth orbit, although higher in altitude than LEO is nevertheless much lower than geosynchronous orbit and so shares many of the advantages of LEO while reducing its drawbacks:[65][60][66][61]

• Latency as low as 125ms – longer than LEO but substantial improvement over GEO satellites
• Longer orbital period than LEO – a smaller constellation needed for continuous "visibility"
• Cheaper and simpler telemetry, tracking and control systems than LEO
• Higher "look angle" from the ground than LEOs
• Longer service life expectancy than LEO satellites
• Reduced Doppler shift problem than LEO
• Less orbital overcrowding and space debris than LEO

See also[edit]

• SES
• O3b Networks
• O3b mPOWER

[edit]

Spire Global, Inc. is a space-to-cloud data and analytics company that specializes in the tracking of global data sets powered by a large constellation of nanosatellites, such as the tracking of maritime, aviation and weather patterns.[5]

The company currently operates a fleet of more than 110 CubeSats, the second largest commercial constellation by number of satellites,[6] and the largest by number of sensors. The satellites are integrally designed and built in-house. It has launched more than 140 satellites to orbit since its creation.[7]

The company has offices in San Francisco, Boulder, Washington, D.C., Glasgow, Luxembourg, Munich, Singapore, and Cambridge (Ontario).[2]

History[edit]

Early years[edit]

Spire was originally known as NanoSatisfi Inc.[8] NanoSatisfi was founded in June 2012 in San Francisco by International Space University graduates Peter Platzer, Jeroen Cappaert and Joel Spark as part of ArduSat, a project aiming to “democratize access to space”.[9] Tests for early prototypes were conducted over the summer and the fall through a high-altitude balloon.[10] This effort was partly financed through crowdfunding, with a KickStarter that raised Spire $106,330.[11] In November the company signed an agreement with NanoRacks for the deployment of two satellites in what was to become “the first U.S. Commercial Satellite Deployment from the International Space Station”.[12]

In order to raise the capital required for the manufacturing of those satellites, the company incubated with Lemnos Labs. It raised investments totaling $1.5M in a seed round by Shasta Ventures, Lemnos Labs, E-merge, Grishin Robotics, and Beamonte Investments in February 2013.[13] A year after signing with NanoRacks, on November 19, 2013, both ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X (1U CubeSats) were successfully released from the Kibo Experiment Module of the International Space Station and quickly started transmitting data to Spire servers.[14]

Following this experimentation, Spire engineers opted to focus on 3U nanosatellites to start porting more complex payloads, launching the first iteration of its standard satellite format, Lemur-1, with the Dnepr rocket in June 2014, transiting from 1U to 3U in only seven months, and launching its first prototype just two years after incorporation.[15][16]

On the basis of this early success, Spire announced in July a follow-up $25M Series A funding round led by RRE Ventures and backed by Emerge, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment, and Mousse Partners.[17][18] The following month, the company announced that ArduSat would be spun-off of the company and would focus exclusively on educational technology in partnership with U.S. high schools.[3] Shortly after, Spire opened its Singapore office in late 2014 and started steadily increasing its network of ground stations.[19]

Growth[edit]

On June 30, 2015, the company announced a $40 Million Series B led by Promus Ventures with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and Jump Capital.[20] in order to help finance the first batches of Lemur satellites. The first Lemur-2 were launched in September 2015 through the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL, making Spire the first US-based operator to launch from India.[21] This launch inaugurated the Spire tradition to leave the naming of each satellite to employees, with the first 3 Lemurs christened respectively Joel, Peter and Jeroen after the company's co-founders.

A visualization of Spire Global's Weather Model

Facing increasing pressure to mass-produce satellites and constrained by the limited space in its San Francisco office, Spire opened an office in Glasgow in February 2015, initially leveraging Clyde Space's facilities, before opening its own full-fledged cleanroom for satellite manufacturing in December 2015.[22] The city was chosen to leverage the local know-how of what is widely considered the leading European ecosystem in small satellite production and establish a first foothold in Europe.[23] These facilities enabled Spire to quickly produce a first batch of four nanosatellites (launched in September) before manufacturing a full eight Lemur satellites ahead of an Atlas V launch in March 2016. This launch saw Spire cross the line of 10 simultaneously operating satellites in June of that year, following deployment from the ISS. Two additional launches were conducted that year, putting the total satellites sent to space by the company that year at sixteen, confirming its ability to industrialize the manufacturing process of its nanosatellites.[24]

Concomitantly, Spire opened a second U.S. campus in Boulder, Colorado, in January 2016. The company hired Dave Ector[25] – the former program manager for NASA’s COSMIC satellites – and Alexander MacDonald[26] – former director of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory – and started drawing on the resources of the local weather ecosystem (powered by the University of Colorado Boulder) to kickstart its weather program in the city. To this effect, the team started working on Spire's own Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) payload, enabling the company to constantly collect highly accurate data on local atmospheric properties which greatly enhance the forecasting abilities of weather models.[25][27] This program quickly enabled Spire to participate in the inaugural Commercial Weather Data Pilot program of the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in September 2016.[28] Spire's participation was confirmed and broadened in September 2018 for the second round of the CWDP program.[29] This program aims to enable weather-focused administrations to procure data (largely obtained from Radio Occultation profiles) created by private entities in order to improve the precision of the publicly available weather models.

A visualization of Spire Maritime's AIS archive over the Persian Gulf

Over 2017, the company launched 6 missions, yielding an additional 36 operated satellites despite the critical failure of a Soyuz vehicle carrying 10 Lemurs in November.[30] Spire closed the year by completing a $70m Series C led by the Government of Luxembourg (through its national Luxembourg Future Fund), and opened its second European campus in the city, enabling the company's access to regional talent and facilities.[31] This round put the total amount of capital raised by Spire at $140.5m.

In early 2018, Spire participated in the second flight of Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket, and was selected for Arianespace’s Vega Proof of Concept,[32] further broadening its launch portfolio. It participated in a total of 7 launch missions – yielding 28 new operated satellites – and developed its own ADS-B payload able to track the movement of equipped airplanes across areas that conventional ground radars can not cover, and that is quickly becoming a standard following the MH370 disappearance.[33]

In 2019, the company formalized its first business unit as Spire Maritime, based in Luxembourg,[34] and launched its 100th Lemur satellite on April 1st.[35]

On March 1, 2021, the company announced an agreement to go public via a merger with the SPAC (special-purpose acquisition company) Navsight. The merger, completed in the third quarter of 2021, valued the company at $1.6 billion.[36]

Spire's stock began trading in New York stock exchange on August 17, 2021. Spire had a market value of $1.6 billion and about $265 million in cash on its books after the close of the SPAC merger. In the year before, 2020, Spire had booked $36 million in revenue. Also at the time of stock market debut, the company had more than 110 satellites in orbit and ground stations in 16 countries, with more than 70 antennas on its ground stations. At the time, Spire did not expect to grow its constellation of Lemur satellites, as the company did not see “any customer demand” that would require a larger constellation of satellites. Despite not growing its constellation, Spire would continue to build and launch satellites as the Lemur satellites are refreshed on a three-year hardware replacement cycle. When listing in the stock exchange Spire had offices in four countries: the U.S., the U.K., Luxembourg and Singapore and customers in nearly 30 countries.[37]

Due to missing projected revenue targets and rising losses, Spire's market value started falling after the first quarterly report. As of April 30, 2022, the company had a market cap of $231 million, less than half of the $557 million in capital invested in the company, and less than the cash on its books after the close of the SPAC merger.[38]

Satellite[edit]

Spire engineers assemble a batch of Lemur satellites

Spire's Lemur satellites are flexible platforms built to operate a variety of in-house or hosted payloads. It currently commercializes its platform on a “Space-as-a-Service” offering with aerospace and defence customers.[39]

Spire designs, builds, tests, and operates all its satellites in-house at its Glasgow offices. The company uses minimally adapted COTS electronics to reduce cost.[40] The satellites are placed in low Earth orbit and are scheduled to be retired and replaced every two to three years.[41][42]

Spire adheres to internationally recognized guidelines for disposal of old satellites.[43]

The company's satellites are multi-sensor. Data types such as Automatic Identification System (AIS) service are used for tracking sea vessels. This data is valuable for use in illegal fishing, trade monitoring, maritime domain awareness, insurance, asset tracking, search and rescue, and prevention of piracy, among others.[33] Spire's Sense product leveraging the company's AIS data set was officially launched in February 2019.[34]

The GNSS-RO weather payload measure temperature, pressure, among other key characteristics across a “slice” of the atmosphere, or "profile". These characteristics are highly valuable for public and private weather forecasters across the world as they strongly increase the forecasting capabilities of weather models.[25][27]

ADS-B sensors were launched in 2018 to permanently track aircraft across all skies. This data is getting increasingly regarded as the new standard for modern aviation as it enables air controllers and companies to constantly monitor aircraft across isolated areas and oceans which ground-based radars are not able to cover.[44]

In 2020, Spire announced its intention to add intersatellite links to its satellites, allowing for lower latency between data collection and delivery to a gateway site.[45]

See also[edit]

• Planet Labs
• Kepler Communications

[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website