Space communications node offers DARPA model for rapid acquisition

On the same subject

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  June 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Astroscale leaps into the satellite servicing fray

  Nathan Strout The American unit of Astroscale Holdings is entering the satellite life-extension market with the purchase of an Israeli company that specializes in developing on-orbit servicing solutions. Astroscale U.S. has acquired Effective Space Solutions, which develops life-extension solutions for satellites in geostationary orbit, or GEO. In addition to adding ESS' intellectual property to its portfolio, Astroscale is hiring all of the company's staff to form Astroscale Israel Ltd., which will remain in that country and serve as Astroscale's research and development group for geostationary satellite life-extension services. Astroscale, a global company based in Japan, is best known for its efforts to remove space debris from orbit. The company expects to demonstrate its end-of-life service later this year, which will see an Astroscale space vehicle capture debris and de-orbit it. But with this purchase the company is scaling up its understanding of — and ambitions for — on-orbit servicing. “Really, we've started thinking about the debris remediation part of the market as a subset of on-orbit services. It's one thing you can do once you have a satellite up there that can rendezvous and dock with other satellites,” said Ron Lopez, president and managing director of Astroscale U.S. “We're bringing all of those resources to bear to move into the GEO life-extension business, to complement what we're doing in [low Earth orbit] LEO on the debris and the situational space awareness side.” Astroscale claims that with its debris removal efforts in LEO and its new GEO life-extension effort, the company is now the only business solely dedicated to on-orbit servicing across all orbital regimes. Eventually, Astroscale could add satellite refueling, repair, upgrading, towing, salvage, situational space awareness and on-orbit manufacturing to its future portfolio for logistics services. But for now, the company is focused on providing life-extension services — supplanting the exhausted fuel reserves of a client satellite with the propulsion provided by an attached space vehicle. ESS' Space Drone platform will be used as the base for Astroscale's first life-extension vehicle. Lopez couldn't give a timeline for when the first life-extension mission would begin, stating that the timeline would be driven by customer demand. He added that he is in talks with potential customers. Astroscale will face some stiff competition as it enters the still nascent satellite-servicing market. SpaceLogistics, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, successfully docked its own space vehicle with a commercial GEO satellite in February, marking the beginning of the first-ever commercial satellite life-extension mission. SpaceLogistics has also made important inroads with the Department of Defense. The company is working with the DoD to study the feasibility of providing life-extension services to four military satellites. And shortly after the firm's successful docking with a commercial satellite in February, the company announced it will partner with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to field a pair of government-built robotic arms for on-orbit repairs. Astroscale also sees the DoD as an important customer for any GEO servicing efforts. “U.S. strategy right now is very heavily focused on space, specifically on building resiliency and achieving greater operational flexibility, which this kind of capability will allow U.S. government customers to do,” Lopez said. The company does not have any DoD contracts to date, but Lopez said it's in communication with key U.S. government stakeholders and has presented its solution to DoD representatives. Lopez also sees strong commercial interest in on-orbit servicing, which underpins the company's business plan and would allow the government to leverage commercial prices. Ultimately, Lopez believes Astroscale is well-positioned to compete. “Even though we're small, we're nimble and we have a real, meaningful global footprint,” he said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/06/03/astroscale-leaps-into-the-satellite-servicing-fray

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  August 4, 2020 | International, Land

  Pandemic lengthens delay in US Army’s M113 vehicle replacement program

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The coronavirus pandemic has caused another delay for the U.S. Army's plagued M113 replacement program, which has struggled with manufacturing problems as the BAE Systems-made Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle entered low-rate initial production, according to the company's second quarter fiscal 2020 earnings briefing released last week. The company had to delay delivery of the first LRIP vehicles by roughly four to six months, moving delivery from March to July. But as BAE prepared to move ahead on delivery, the pandemic hit, bringing with it another delay of roughly a month, which pushed the vehicles' delivery date to August. The AMPV program entered LRIP in January 2019, but the program office indicated last year that delivery of the first vehicles would be delayed by two months and the completion of production qualification testing would be delayed by seven months due to tooling and assembly line challenges at BAE's facility in York, Pennsylvania. Because of the issues, the Army's AMPV budget request in FY21 showed the program took a hit. The service indicated it would buy 32 vehicles instead of the 143 planned for the fiscal year, and the program's budget was cut from $445 million to $193 million. The Army and BAE developed “a production approach that would allow us to incorporate efficiencies during LRIP that modernize manufacturing and increase the overall throughput of the program,” Amanda Niswonger, a BAE spokeswoman, told Defense News in an Aug. 3 statement. “This included installing new technology and processes such as robotic welding, digital X-ray, and advanced machining. And we worked closely with the Army to update and refine manufacturing processes to incorporate the most modern weld and inspection technology,” she said. “These changes had an impact on our delivery timeline which was not reflected in the original delivery schedule, but continues to meet the Army's fielding schedule.” The service and BAE had formalized the schedule change just as COVID-19 hit the U.S., which affected a large number of manufacturing facilities and supply chains globally. “We have worked tirelessly to mitigate the impacts from COVID-19 with our employees, supply network, and customer base to keep our manufacturing sites operational and continue to receive parts as needed,” Niswonger said. “Unfortunately we could not overcome all the challenges and our first delivery has slipped one month.” https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/08/03/pandemic-causes-latest-delay-in-us-armys-m113-replacement-program/

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  April 24, 2024 | International, Aerospace

  Here are the two companies creating drone wingmen for the US Air Force

  The decision marks the service’s most significant step yet as it aims to create a series of drones using autonomous software to fly alongside piloted jets.