The host satellite, SES-14, moved to its final destination in Geostationary orbit (GEO) in October of that year, where it became operational, sending important imagery of the Earth’s upper atmosphere to researchers at NASA and the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) courtesy of the GOLD payload.

In the six year’s that the GOLD mission has been operational, it has witnessed impressive geomagnetic storms caused by solar storms, and sent back imagery to Earth that was previously unobtainable for researchers. This has led to multiple published studies and the potential for better prediction of space weather, which can impact satellites and other systems on Earth.

To learn more about the GOLD mission and what it has accomplished in its first six years in operation, we sat down with Dr. Richard Eastes, a Research Scientist at LASP, and one of the driving forces behind the GOLD mission.

Government Satellite Report (GSR): What is the NASA GOLD mission? Why is it important?

Dr. Richard Eastes: The GOLD mission is a NASA mission of opportunity. GOLD stands for Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk. The limb is just the horizon. The disk is the view of the Earth that you get when viewing it from GEO. I would assume your readers have all seen NOAA satellite images from GEO, that’s the disk.

The existing views that we get of the disk essentially cover one hemisphere. More accurately, they probably cover about a third of the disk. Including the limb – the horizon – as well, about half of the Earth is covered by GOLD’s observations.

For this particular mission, we’re looking at the upper atmosphere, above 75 miles or 120 km. Traditionally, we have studied these areas and the effects of space weather using imagery from satellites in low earth orbit (LEO). But that’s a very restricted view that limits how often you can image any one particular area or anomaly.

If we identify a point of interest and image it from LEO, it could take upwards of 12 to 24 hours until we can image it again. Atmospheric changes can happen quickly, in only an hour. For us to understand what is happening and see any changes as they occur, we need the ability to take a sequence of images. This allows us to track changes more effectively.

We’ve studied the upper atmosphere’s climate extensively. But when we try to go beyond the climatology, that’s the seasonal changes, there’s difficulty in understanding the short-term changes. That’s especially important for space weather, and that’s the type of data you need to really make progress beyond the climatology we have now.

GSR: How does GOLD get that information? What is the payload comprised of, and what does it do?

Dr. Richard Eastes: The GOLD mission essentially involves launching an instrument into orbit. That instrument includes two cameras that are capable of what we would call spectral imaging. That means we can separate the different wavelengths of light in the images, and we can look at different emissions, or light, from oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere.

With the GOLD instrument, we can see where light from the Earth’s atmosphere is coming from and how that light is stimulated by the short wavelength radiation in the Sun, and also by the aurora.

These types of emissions are what we’re looking at. We’re looking at that light and those emissions to help us understand how the upper atmosphere is changing. So, by looking at the different colors – essentially our wavelengths of light – we can understand what the composition of the atmosphere is and how that’s changing.

In comparison to previous missions, GOLD is unique in its ability to image the disk and see the temperature. By combining the data coming from GOLD, we can get a much better idea of what is occurring in the upper atmosphere.

Since the GOLD instrument is in GEO, we can continue to look at the same locations and see how these measurements and data change over time. We can image rapidly, in less than half an hour, and see those changes in real time versus having to come back the next day. That’s massively important for gaining a better understanding of space weather and its impact on our Earth.

“The more we observe with missions like GOLD, the more we can build models that enable us to predict the frequency and severity of solar storms and geomagnetic storm events…these models will enable us to identify when a geomagnetic storm is coming, and how serious it will be, so we can prepare accordingly.” – Dr. Eastes

For example, there was a massive geomagnetic storm this past May. That was an incredible opportunity for GOLD to shine, and for its findings to stand out. We were able to sit there and watch how things change in the space environment, or how the space weather changed as it was happening. That’s something we haven’t been able to do before for the upper atmosphere.

GSR: How was the NASA GOLD payload placed in orbit? Did NASA launch its own purpose-built satellite for the GOLD mission?

Dr. Richard Eastes: I mentioned that GOLD is a mission of opportunity for NASA. That effectively means that the instrument is being flown on a satellite that serves another primary purpose. In the past, that usually meant the satellite is being flown for other scientific missions and purposes. In fact, missions of opportunity usually have some connection to the other scientific missions of that satellite.

However, GOLD is somewhat different in that it’s being flown as a hosted payload onboard a commercial communication satellite operated by SES.

GSR: Why was a hosted payload chosen for this mission?

Dr. Richard Eastes: Ultimately, pursuing GOLD as a hosted payload made financial sense. It was significantly less expensive to launch GOLD as a hosted payload than it would have been to launch it into orbit ourselves. Even launching satellites into LEO is expensive, and GEO can cost three or four times what a LEO launch can cost, so it would not have been financially viable to launch GOLD if we had to launch it ourselves.

Working with SES on GOLD has been an excellent experience. They have decades of experience flying satellites in GEO, and their satellites are highly reliable. Their knowledge of operating satellites enables us to simply give them a set of commands, which they upload to the spacecraft, and we can be confident that everything is done correctly. They then reliably deliver all data from GOLD to us at LASP.

I think the science community is impressed with what we’ve what we’ve been able to do, and how much we’ve been able to do by working with a commercial company and launching a hosted payload.

GSR: Was the process of launching a hosted payload difficult or challenging in any way?

Dr. Richard Eastes: The relationship wasn’t always without its challenges. There were certainly speedbumps and roadblocks that needed to be navigated – especially when it came to schedule. Candidly, commercial companies are used to operating much more quickly than science missions.

Thankfully, SES was able to get us involved very early in the process. This gave us an excellent picture of what was happening. They also took the time to meet with us and discuss the details. They brought in the people that could answer our important questions – including questions about interfaces and ensuring that our payload would interoperate with the satellite.

In fact, when we told them about challenges that we were working through with the payload, they often would give us suggestions and provide even better solutions than our team could identify. One example involved the power supply. There was some discussion about how we could adapt to the voltage of a commercial satellite. SES simply offered to provide us with the 28 volts that were needed to power the payload, and solved the problem for us.

Even during integration, we had someone there with the spacecraft vendor fulltime to help with monitoring the spacecraft and monitoring our instrument. If the vendor needed to move the payload they wanted to ensure t it wasn’t mistakenly  damaged so they had someone from our team ensure their activities wouldn’t cause a problem for us.

GSR: How long has the GOLD payload been delivering data to NASA and its mission partners?

Dr. Richard Eastes: Following launch, it takes a while for the satellite to get to GEO and begin operating. So, GOLD came online about six years ago this month (October of 2018). That’s when we started making our first observations.

At that time, the sun was going through what we refer to as solar minimum. The sun goes through an 11-year cycle, and it was solar minimum when GOLD came online. We’re about at a solar maximum now. So, we’re really halfway through one solar cycle at this point.

We’ve been delivering data that entire time. Throughout these six years, we have been making daily observations – multiple scans on the day side and multiple scans on the night side of each day.

GSR: There were recently two studies published based on observations from the GOLD mission. The first looked at changes to the ionosphere due to a massive geomagnetic storm. What causes storms like this? What impact did this storm have, and why was it newsworthy or significant?

Dr. Richard Eastes: The sun sends out clouds of plasma that we call coronal mass ejections. And when one of those hits the earth, it can generate and deposit a lot of power in the  Earth’s upper atmosphere. That power gets transmitted into particles that start flowing, which generates currents and magnetic fields.

While this disturbs the Earth’s magnetic field it also produces the aurora, which was one of the results in this most recent May storm. People saw the aurora really far south, potentially as far south as Florida. I even heard some reports that it was seen as far south as Puerto Rico. Typically, you must go up north to places like Iceland to see it. This was a very rare occasion where people much further south could simply walk out in their backyard and see the aurora.

But these changes don’t just cause the aurora. They also can interrupt HF communications that are used for numerous applications, including airplane communications. It can also interfere with GPS systems. I heard reports that during the May storm, there were numerous farmers in the Midwest who rely on GPS for precision agriculture to ensure chemical and seed distribution is done properly that couldn’t plant their crops during the storm.

There are so many systems that rely on GPS today. All of these systems – even automated construction equipment that is navigated by GPS – experienced outages and other disturbances as a result of this May storm.

GSR: In the second study, GOLD identified how a wave of plasma from the sun impacted the Earth. What role did GOLD play in identifying this? What impact did this wave of plasma have?

Dr. Richard Eastes: We don’t really see the plasma directly from the sun. What we see is the effects of that plasma when it reaches Earth. During the May event, we began our observations on the night side and then continued into the day side. We saw some things that we’ve never seen before.

We were able to get a picture of the neutral atmosphere and the ionosphere. We learned about the temperatures in the atmosphere and how that varies. We witnessed electric fields causing some of the nightside atmosphere to move at rapid speeds – as high as 400 meters per second – towards the poles.

It’s important to identify these changes because changes in the upper atmosphere have widely distributed impacts. While Earth’s weather is more localized – a storm in the Atlantic Ocean might have no bearing or impact on the Pacific Ocean – space weather changes impact the entire planet.

GOLD was essential in identifying these changes because of its ability to take images of an area at 15-minute intervals. When we were relying on LEO satellites for observation of the upper atmosphere, we could only generate an image every 12 to 24 hours. A lot can change in that time, and you lose the ability to see it changing and identify what’s happening and why.

Because of GOLD, we were able to sit there and watch things develop and see how the upper atmosphere changed.

GSR: Why are these new reports and findings important for NASA? Will they enable us to better predict things that could impact daily life on Earth? Are there impacts of these events that could be felt by civilians?

Dr. Richard Eastes: The May geomagnetic storm event was significant and impactful. But it wasn’t the most significant storm that our Earth has experienced. Back in 1859, the Earth experienced the Carrington Event, the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history. It was 10 times the size of the May event.

The Carrington Event impacted the Internet of the day – the telegraph system. In fact, I even heard stories of telegraph stations catching fire as a result. Imagine what a solar storm like that could do to our modern, technology-reliant society.

We learned from the Carrington Event. We were able to more accurately predict the May solar storm event, and we were able to prepare for it. We were prepared enough that it didn’t cause a significant number of serious problems.

It’s important that we see the effects, how things are changing, and how the Earth’s upper atmosphere is responding, because that’s where a lot of the currents are flowing. Seeing what happens in the upper atmosphere in advance of an event like this, and during an event like this, allows us to more accurately predict future events. We’ll identify the precursors and be able to prepare for an event. We’ll also be able to more accurately predict the severity of an event.

The more we observe with missions like GOLD, the more we can build models that enable us to predict the frequency and severity of solar storms and geomagnetic storm events. Much like how predicting a hurricane and its path enables us to evacuate and prepare an area, these models will enable us to identify when a geomagnetic storm is coming, and how serious it will be, so we can prepare accordingly.

Feature image: Bands of colorful airglow are visible above the limb of the Earth in this artist’s depiction of GOLD on the SES-14 satellite. (Courtesy NASA GSFC)

The post NASA’s GOLD Mission – How a Hosted Payload is Increasing our Understanding of Earth’s Upper Atmosphere appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

These services would ultimately be mission-critical to the agency, which would rely on them to replace NASA’s purpose-built, dedicated Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). NASA and the US Congress have agreed to discontinue further TDRSS satellite builds and just let existing on-orbit assets fly out to their end of life.

But why is NASA relying on this new Communications Services Project (CSP) and industry partners for something so important as near-Earth space relay communication? And, after investing more than $275 million to seed this commercial market space, when will NASA – and other users – be able to leverage commercial relay services?

To get answers to these and other questions about CSP, we sat down with Eric Gunzelman of SES Space & Defense, a commercial satellite provider that was one of the six companies chosen by NASA for the CSP.

During our discussion, we asked Eric about why NASA is looking to the commercial satellite industry for this essential capability, how the agency will benefit from this arrangement, and the progress that SES Space & Defense is making with its partner, Planet Labs, on the LEO Relay System that is being developed in part with CSP funds.

Government Satellite Report (GSR): What is the TDRSS? What does it do, and why does NASA need it?

Eric Gunzelman: Since the first TDRSS launched 41 years ago, its main purpose has been to provide space relay capabilities for NASA. TDRSS has provided space relay capabilities for many notable programs, like Skylab, the Space Shuttle, Landsat, and the International Space Station—as well as the Hubble Space Telescope and even some firsts, like the first pole to pole phone call in April 1989.

Overall, 13 TDRSS satellites were built but TDRS-2 was lost with the 1986 Challenger accident. About six of those satellites remain operational and three are available for operational relay support at any time. By allowing NASA to relay data from lower orbits to satellites in higher orbits, NASA could effectively communicate with science satellites and space station crews and receive data at any time. They could even transmit data and communicate when no ground station was in view.

They’re incredibly important because NASA needs assured communications and connectivity in orbit. Even when the space shuttle or the International Space Station orbits the Earth over an ocean, and they cannot see a ground station, they still need connectivity. TDRSS delivers that assured, mission-critical connectivity.

GSR: Why transition to commercial satellites for this purpose?

Eric Gunzelman: Candidly, the TDRSS constellation is expensive to operate for NASA and government funding could be used for new endeavors, such as the Artemis program, which has NASA going back to the moon. Given technology advances and expanding market opportunities in the commercial sector, space relay could now be provided as a commercial service. This lowers the cost of service for NASA when costs are spread over a larger commercial market.

Commercial alternatives will drastically lower NASA’s initial capital expenditure. NASA will no longer have to pay to build and launch a new generation of TDRSS satellites and service them. They’ll also deliver some other benefits, including increased capabilities, innovation, and capacity.

“Think about what airlines, shipping companies, and farms can do with real-time weather data and imagery from space. It could bring great precision and decision speed to the commercial industry, as well as government agencies, helping to provide greater insights and lower operational costs.” – Eric Gunzelman

Commercial satellite providers have made incredible advancements in their technology and solutions in the 40-plus years since TDRSS was launched. Today, COMSATCOM providers operate incredibly high-throughput satellites across multiple orbits, including LEO and MEO. This makes it possible to transmit large amounts of data in near real-time with very low latency.

Also, large commercial satellite providers expanded their constellations, and new providers came online in that time. There is a massive ecosystem of commercial satellites across multiple orbits that have a tremendous amount of capacity for government missions.

Today, TDRSS’s capacity is limited and requests for service can take weeks to get approved. This means that some requests for service either can’t be filled or will be deprioritized for other, more important missions. That won’t be an issue for commercial satellite providers since there is so much capacity available.

GSR: Where are we in this process? How far off are we from having commercial services replacing TDRSS?

Eric Gunzelman: In the latter half of last decade, NASA developed the supporting analyses and presented the business case to Congress. Legislation evolved and eventually declared that the U.S. government would let the TDRSS program fly out and let NASA work with the commercial industry to develop a space relay commercial market with requisite capabilities that can effectively replace TDRSS functionality.

“The test that we conducted was effectively the first-ever multi-orbit, multi-band commercial space relay link to a LEO flight-representative terminal on the ground. The next step in our partnership with Planet involves an actual flight demonstration.” – Eric Gunzelman

NASA competed the Communications Services Project (CSP) in 2021 and selected six companies for the varied approaches to space relay – different orbits, bands, etc. CSP gave these companies seed money to begin finding ways to turn their solutions into a relay system.

The chosen companies are now in the process of maturing various solutions and conducting testing to ensure it will meet NASA’s needs and requirements by the 2026-2027 timeframe. Once they have various options across multiple bands and orbits, NASA will take those options and present them to NASA and U.S. government users so that they can design their relay requirements against what is available.

GSR: I understand that SES Space & Defense has partnered with Planet Labs for its CSP contract. What role does SES SD play in this? What role does Planet Labs play?

Eric Gunzelman: SES Space & Defense is providing the space and ground segment of our relay solution. Our MEO and GEO satellites, along with our ground segment, will provide multi-band, multi-orbit relay from LEO satellites.

Planet Labs will provide the NASA surrogate satellite, one of their Earth Observation satellites for the relay capability testing. They’re effectively using their LEO spacecraft and earth observation mission to approximate a NASA science mission.

While this sounds simple—relaying data from Planet’s LEO satellite to our MEO and GEO satellites—significant work needs to occur to enable this relay since it was not designed into our satellites originally. Nonetheless, SES prides itself in building open, agnostic architectures so incorporating relay as an additional function is highly doable.

“Given technology advances and expanding market opportunities in the commercial sector, space relay could now be provided as a commercial service. This lowers the cost of service for NASA when costs are spread over a larger commercial market.” – Eric Gunzelman

And for Planet, that work includes the design and development of space-rated LEO communications terminals needed to talk to our MEO and GEO satellites.  They have been an excellent partner for SES Space & Defense, shouldering much of the heavy lifting associated with developing and deploying the space-rated LEO terminals.

GSR: Is this something that only NASA and military users will benefit from? Or could these space relay solutions also benefit commercial users?

Eric Gunzelman: This new capability will be incredibly beneficial for commercial users as well as government users. Planet is a commercial satellite imagery provider, and we purposely teamed with them because they represent an excellent use case in which to demonstrate relay capability to NASA using a similar mission set but also do it from a commercially based platform in operation today.

As such, Planet as a representative of commercial satellite imagery services, shows how NASA could be one of many customers in this new market. And then, for almost any mission, relaying that data through MEO or GEO satellites provides a more responsive option for users verses waiting to overfly the next ground station before getting time-critical science data to the ground for NASA or others to analyze. This means the data can be delivered—including imagery—from space in almost real-time.

That can be huge for many industries. Think about what airlines, shipping companies, and farms can do with real-time weather data and imagery from space. It could bring great precision and decision speed to the commercial industry, as well as government agencies, helping to provide greater insights and lower operational costs.

GSR: Last month, SES Space & Defense and Planet Labs announced that the companies had successfully tested the service. What did this test involve? What’s next?

Eric Gunzelman: The test that we conducted was effectively the first-ever multi-orbit, multi-band commercial space relay link to a LEO flight-representative terminal on the ground. The next step in our partnership with Planet involves an actual flight demonstration. That is scheduled early 2025 and – if successful – sets the stage for the launch of our service offering.

The post Exploring the Benefits of CSP For NASA and Industry appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

In an effort to evaluate and begin tapping into the accelerated innovation coming out of the COMSATCOM industry, NASA has created the Communications Services Project (CSP), an agency initiative that seeks to harness commercial industry’s advances in order to, “…ensure NASA missions have the reliable, secure and continual space communications on which their long-term operations depend.”

NASA recently announced that SES Space and Defense, in partnership with Planet Labs (Planet), will be awarded a Funded Space Act Agreement to support the development and demonstration of near-Earth space relay communication services in support of the agency’s future mission needs.

To learn more about the CSP, why SES Space and Defense was chosen to support the project, as well as how the company’s O3b mPOWER satellite constellation will deliver near-Earth comms capabilities to NASA, the Government Satellite Report recently sat down with Eric Gunzelman, a Senior Director at SES Space and Defense.

Here is what he had to say:

Government Satellite Report (GSR): What is the NASA Communications Services Project? What are they looking to deliver communications and connectivity for?

Eric Gunzelman: NASA’s Communication Services Project (CSP) is primarily focused on pioneering the future of NASA’s near-Earth space communications and evaluating the feasibility of leveraging commercial SATCOM networks to reliably support future NASA missions, particularly through space relay, also known as satellite-to-satellite communications.

NASA has recognized the growth in commercial satellite technology and the maturation of that technology to now handle communications relay through space, as a more efficient, cost-effective alternative to the purpose-built TDRSS that NASA has operated for decades.

TDRSS is a highly capable satellite that sits in Geostationary Orbit (GEO) and provides relay services to NASA science missions at Low Earth Orbit (LEO), with the highest-profile one being the relay mission from the International Space Station (ISS).

Sometimes these LEO satellites are not always in view of the ground station, but NASA investigators still need immediate access to the scientific data collected. TDRSS functions to relay that scientific data to the ground immediately even when the LEO satellite is not in view of an earth station.

For example, Johnson Space Center can communicate to astronauts who may be on the other side of the Earth, via the 24/7 direct communication TDRSS enables.

GSR: Why is NASA looking to replace TDRSS? Why is commercial satellite a viable or preferred candidate to replace TDRSS?

Eric Gunzelman: The main reason is the expense. It costs a lot of money to build your own purpose-built constellation of satellites to cover the globe. NASA believes that the commercial technology marketplace has matured enough to enable reliable space relay capabilities. As a case in point, the commercial imagery industry has matured to the point of providing high-resolution photographs that we have all seen on the national news throughout the Ukraine conflict.

NASA is providing the funding to not only help demonstrate these emerging COMSATCOM relay services, but also the “seed” money to develop the market such that NASA is one of many customers. If they can get CSP off the ground in a cost-share agreement to help create the market – but not be the sole proprietor of the service – then that will be a big win that will save the agency money over continuing to develop and launch a purpose-built TDRSS satellite system.

“O3b and SES have been operating in a mature MEO system since 2014, providing services to the U.S. government since 2016. They have delivered more than 10 gigabytes per second on 41 contracts. That experience and legacy will ensure that NASA is receiving a low-risk, high-payoff capability for space relay.” – Eric Gunzelman

GSR: Will SES Space and Defense be delivering capacity on GEO satellites only, or will it also be leveraging its Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation to deliver service to the CSP?

Eric Gunzelman: We will begin primarily with the hybrid, GEO/MEO concept. The long-term plan is to offer most of our services through MEO, due to its lower latency and higher throughput. However, we can provide services through GEO as well.

GSR: Why is the CSP so important for NASA? How has the agency’s connectivity and communications requirements changed and shifted to make connectivity in LEO so essential?

Eric Gunzelman: Most of NASA’s Earth-observing missions are in LEO because of its closer proximity to the Earth. And a lot of those scientific missions are best served if we can get the data back to the NASA Principal Investigator as soon as the event happens. This helps NASA understand the science as it happens on our planet, and enables NASA to identify any correlation with other events around the globe.

Currently, NASA science missions that operate in polar orbits sometimes need to wait up to 30 minutes to downlink their data to an earth station if they don’t have enough priority to use TDRSS.

GSR: How will delivering MEO capacity via O3b mPOWER better enable NASA missions in LEO? What will this make possible for them? What capabilities will it enable?

Eric Gunzelman: NASA has a handful of mission sets that can be serviced by relay, including launch and early orbit, as well as your standard LEO science missions. With our 50+ GEO satellites and new O3b mPOWER MEO constellation, we can service them without the need of being in view of a NASA ground station. This reduces the long-term costs for NASA, saving budgets on TDRSS procurement and ongoing operations and maintenance, and on the ground infrastructure required to support TDRSS.

“If [NASA] can get CSP off the ground in a cost-share agreement to help create the market – but not be the sole proprietor of the service – then that will be a big win that will save the agency money over continuing to develop and launch a purpose-built TDRSS satellite system.” – Eric Gunzelman

As noted earlier, NASA missions don’t always have access to TDRSS because of other mission priorities (such as manned flights/the ISS). There’s a priority structure. In addition, a market implies many vendors to choose from. So, in theory, NASA could have access to multiple providers so buying a service when they need it and only when they need it should save billions of dollars, averting the cost to build and maintain TDRSS.

In fact, NASA has been working on this effort for nearly a decade now. The Phase One studies showed that COMSATCOM technologies had advanced and matured to consider the market space. In fact, NASA has committed to Congress, as a result of their Phase One studies that they can get off of TDRSS by the early to mid-2030s, with some new missions capable of transitioning much sooner. The final TDRSS will fly out, and they will make use of their services as they can. But the current plan is to transition to commercial for new NASA missions beginning in 2026.

GSR: Why were SES Space and Defense and Planet chosen for this program? What role will SES Space and Defense play? What role will Planet play?

Eric Gunzelman: We were one of six vendors chosen by NASA — we offer the only mature non-GEO satellite system today, that being O3b constellation operating at MEO (8,062 km). This gives us a unique vantage point because we see more of the Earth at any one time than our LEO counterparts but we don’t suffer the high latencies of GEO satellites.

“Most of NASA’s Earth observing missions are in LEO…a lot of those scientific missions are best served if we can get the data back to the NASA Principal Investigator as soon as the event happens.” – Eric Gunzelman

Planet is chosen because they know how to build and launch LEO demonstration satellites with an Earth observation payload — they know how to build small efficient satellites with an earth-based mission (imaging in this case). Planet has launched nearly 200 satellites.

GSR: What is the timeline for the CSP? Is it up and working today? If not, when will it be operational?

Eric Gunzelman: It is a four-year demonstration program that will conclude with an operational service in the late-2025/early-2026 timeframe. Ideally, NASA wants to immediately transition from this demonstration program into operational service.

O3b and SES have been operating in a mature MEO system since 2014, providing services to the U.S. government since 2016. They have delivered more than 10 gigabytes per second on 41 contracts. That experience and legacy will ensure that NASA is receiving a low-risk, high-payoff capability for space relay. We are just moving the terminal from the ground to space, and bringing the connectivity along with it.

To learn more about the agreement between NASA, SES Space and Defense, and Planet click HERE.

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SES Space and Defense will partner with Planet to develop a real-time always-on low-latency connectivity solution enabled by SES’s geostationary (GEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO) constellations, including O3b mPOWER, to further NASA missions. Planet brings over a decade of experience in designing and manufacturing cutting-edge low-cost Earth observation satellites and radio communication systems.

SES Space and Defense has been awarded nearly USD 29 Million through NASA’s Funded Space Act Agreement to demonstrate commercial radio frequency GEO C-band and MEO Ka-band relay networks for SATCOM services to spacecraft in low earth orbit. These services include routine missions, contingency operations, launch and ascent, and early operations phase communications.

The solution proposed by SES Space and Defense will deliver robust, reliable and cost-effective mission-oriented operations, enabling high-rate and high-capacity two-way communications. Under the agreement, the company will complete technology development and in-space demonstrations by 2025, with NASA intending to seek multiple long-term contracts to acquire services for near-Earth operations by 2030. The adoption of agile and innovative SATCOM service will support NASA in phasing out its proprietary systems, as well as other NASA-operated systems.

“Combining the multi-orbit capabilities of SES, the global leader in delivering content and connectivity solutions via satellite, with that of Planet Labs, one of the world’s leading commercial imaging companies, will create the world’s first high-throughput commercial space relay service, enabling timely and data-driven decisions.”

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In a recent Space Power Forum hosted by the Mitchell Institute, NASA Administrator, Jim Bridentsine, and Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force, General John “Jay” Raymond, discussed the intricacies of the space domain and the future of space exploration. The two agencies, despite having distinctly separate missions, collaborate and bolster the work of each other, requiring that both Administrator Bridenstine and Gen. Raymond interact and rely on the others’ ongoing work. Together, they have a complete picture of both the current situation in space and the path that the U.S. government and military look to forge in the areas of space domain defense and exploration.

“We share the same goal of having norms of behavior to drive safe and professional behavior in the space domain…one of the things that I’m most proud of in the first nine months of the existence of the U.S. Space Force is how far we have come on developing partnerships with our allied partners,” Gen. Raymond elaborated. “The Outer Space Treaty is a key component of these partnerships. It makes countries responsible for their actions in space and it prohibits national appropriation of areas of space.“

A good example of the necessity of partnerships and space-based diplomacy is the International Space Station (ISS). Fifteen different countries share responsibility for the ISS, and 103 countries have had experiments on the ISS. Shared responsibility like this requires agreements and understandings between the parties involved. As Administrator Bridenstine explained, “We have currently over 700 active agreements with nations all around the world.”

Treaties and agreements between countries operating in the space domain allow for research and development on the ISS, and is opening the door to further visitation and exploration on the moon. This will begin with NASA’s recently announced and upcoming Artemis program, which will send astronauts back to the moon within the next five years. Artemis, in Greek mythology, is the twin sister of Apollo. And this mission will ensure a woman sets foot on the moon by 2024 with the goal of making commercial partnership and sustainable exploration possible by 2030.

This research and development is important for the goals of NASA. Administrator Bridenstine explained, “We have found hundreds of tons of water ice. Water ice is life support. It’s air to breathe. It’s water to drink. It’s also hydrogen. Hydrogen, of course, is the same rocket fuel that powered space shuttles…It’s hundreds of millions of tons of hydrogen on the surface of the moon. Let’s use it.” One of the longer-term goals of the Artemis program is to send astronauts to Mars. In order to do this, research and development of propulsion need to continue. And, now it will be able to be explored from beyond the atmosphere of Earth.

But there is another concern that faces both NASA and the Space Force in the space domain – congestion and debris.

With many satellites orbiting in MEO, LEO, and GEO, and with objects randomly traveling through space from beyond, situational awareness is a key function of the Space Force. “You have to understand what’s going on in the domain around you. And, you have to be able to navigate the precision navigation and timing. And so, all of those things out beyond what we have traditionally operated in, which is geosynchronous orbit and below, now are expanded. Again, this is enabled by a close partnership with NASA,” said Gen. Raymond.

With better understanding of the hazards of space operations, and exploration of new propulsion and sustainability from the lunar surface and the ISS, new horizons may be possible. If threats can be diminished through treaties, and situational awareness can be maintained, and new technologies can be established, once unreachable ideas may now be grasped. “The goal here is to be able to travel to Mars in a matter of months, maybe two or three months, not nine months…” Administrator Bridenstine confirmed.

From the moon, new technologies, and mined resources may give NASA the means to reach Mars and do something once unthinkable. And, it’s through diplomacy, exploration, and partnerships that this may be possible.

For more information about the Artemis Program and the U.S. Space Force, click HERE to watch the Space Power Forum in its entirety.

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NASA pioneered communications satellite technology and supported its commercialization in the 1960s, but continues to operate the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system. The geostationary-orbiting TDRS satellites enable the agency to stay in continuous touch with its scientific and crewed spacecraft, including the International Space Station.

The latest such satellite, TDRS-M launched in 2017. If all goes according to plan, TDRS-M will be the last of its kind, said Phil McAlister, NASA director of commercial spaceflight development.

Beginning in the mid- to late 2020s, NASA will begin offloading its mission data relay requirements to commercial systems, McAlister said Dec. 11 at a Washington Space Business Roundtable Luncheon. The transition is expected to be complete in the 2030s, as the aging TDRS system loses global coverage.

“Today, it doesn’t make sense for the government to own our own satellite communications system,” McAlister said. U.S. national space policy calls for government agencies to rely on commercial capabilities to the maximum practical extent, and satellite communications, as a relatively mature industry, is ripe for outsourcing, he added.

Through the Communications Services Program (CSP), NASA aims to foster private-sector development of TDRS replacement capabilities, McAlister said. The agency has budgeted some $300 million for the effort over the next five years, beginning in 2020.

NASA will dictate top-level CSP requirements only, leaving the technological and operational approach to the private sector, McAlister said.  “We just want commercial services that are reliable and cost effective,” he said. “If you can do the mission we need to talk.”

The CSP will be carried out in three phases, the first of which entails identifying agency requirements and communicating those to industry, McAlister said. That phase, which also includes program planning, is already underway.

The second phase, which under the notional schedule laid out by McAlister begins around 2021, features demonstrations of relevant commercial capabilities and is open ended to accommodate new systems and technologies. NASA will begin acquiring TDRS replacement capabilities in the final phase, which would start around 2023.

McAlister said the CSP continues a NASA outsourcing trend that began in the mid-2000s, when the agency launched efforts to nurture commercial cargo and crew transportation services to the space station. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has been moving in a similar direction with some of its satellite communications requirements.

Any company currently providing satellite communications services to the DoD is presumed eligible to compete for CSP work, McAlister said.

Among the Pentagon’s go-to providers is SES Space and Defense, a subsidiary of global satellite operator SES that was created to serve government markets. SES owns satellite fleets in both geostationary and medium Earth orbit.

NASA does not intend to furnish equipment to its commercial CSP vendors, McAlister said, adding that the agency wants end-to-end services. The program will include on-ramps to accommodate emerging capabilities as the industry continues to innovate.

With the CSP budget slated to ramp up in the next few years, NASA intends to fund multiple demonstrations, to be followed by the selection of multiple companies to provide services on a competitive basis. McAlister laid out an operational scenario in which NASA mission managers would competitively award task orders among the prequalified vendors.

NASA’s desire is to be one of many users of CSP capabilities, but will only take responsibility for meeting its own specific needs, McAlister said. TDRS satellites have long provided data relay services to other U.S. government agencies, and he invited these agencies to participate in the CSP and bring their own money and requirements to the table.

The CSP will cover NASA’s data relay needs for satellites operating in geostationary orbit and below, McAlister said. Missions with NASA-unique requirements, such as planetary probes, will continue to use government-operated systems including the agency’s ground-based Deep Space Network, he said.

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Partnerships between agencies, allies and, importantly, with the industry are a key element of the emerging U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) strategy to preserve access to critical space capabilities in the face of growing threats posed by potential U.S. adversaries, senior national security leaders said.

“In a contested space environment, partnerships strengthen our advantage and complicate potential adversary decision-making,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, commander of U.S. Air Force Space Command, which delivers space capabilities to the warfighters. He noted, for example, the Air Force’s strong relationship with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which buys and operates the nation’s reconnaissance satellites.

“We’ve also got several partnership opportunities we’re working with the commercial world,” Raymond said. “Those range from launch to re-entry and everything in between.”

Bookended by launch and re-entry are commercial satellite-delivered services including imagery and communications, upon which the military and intelligence community have come to depend.

DoD Looks to Determine Next-Generation Architecture
“In the old days, the processing power of the [communications] throughput that was available out there in industry was not what we needed—we had to develop our own,” NRO Director Betty Sapp said in a Space Symposium keynote address. “Those days are long gone—commercial has more than what we need.”

The Defense Department in recent years has spent $1 billion or more on commercial satellite capacity, according to space industry officials. Commercial satellites continue to carry a significant portion of U.S. military communications traffic, and demand is expected to increase in the coming years.

The Air Force, an operator of the Wideband Global Satcom system that the service characterizes as the backbone of its satellite communications fleet, is in the midst of an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) to determine the content of its next-generation architecture. A key question is what is the best mix of mix of government and commercially owned assets to help the DoD do its job in the years ahead.

DoD Underserved by Terrestrial Links
The DoD could realize an exponential leap in communications capability by pulling together multiple commercial and military constellations into a single network where users are able to move seamlessly between constellations.  Gen John Hyten, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, has stated that, “SATCOM systems are key to our continued strategic posture in space…”

Among those systems, SES’ O3b MEO fleet is unique in that it operates in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at about 8,000 kilometers in altitude, whereas the others are geostationary systems located 36,000 kilometers above the equator. The lower altitude of the O3b’s MEO satellites allow them to relay signals with significantly less lag time, or latency, than geostationary systems. U.S. military officials have touted the benefits of low-latency systems as forces increasingly rely on satellites to support so-called enterprise applications that often are intolerant of signal delays.

SES’ O3b MEO constellation currently consists of 16 satellites, with four more slated to launch next year and seven next-generation O3b mPower spacecraft slated to begin launching in 2021.

“SES continues to enhance our O3b MEO constellation to provide fiber-like services to multiple U.S. government customers at its 17 sites worldwide,” said Peter Hoene, President and Chief Executive Officer of Reston, Va.-based SES Space and Defense, that exclusively serves US government customers. “In combination with SES’ geostationary satellites, O3b MEO provides connectivity that is flexible, reliable and resilient.”

Air Force Devoted to Industry Partnerships
Air Force Lt. Gen. John F. Thompson, commander of the service’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), which oversees the acquisition of most U.S. military space systems, said a just-announced SMC reorganization will help ensure that commercial capabilities are appropriately integrated into the overall military space architecture. As part of the reorganization, unveiled by Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson in a keynote speech here April 17, the service is creating a “chief architect” position to consider the space enterprise as a whole, rather than its individual component parts.

“Our portfolio architect that Secretary Wilson also mentioned will have an office completely devoted to partnerships to ensure that we keep those connections and put together the best space systems that we possibly can,” Thompson told reporters at a Symposium press conference April 19.

The SMC reorganization comes amid continued debate over whether the Air Force is properly structured to address its current and future challenges in space.

In a speech to a government affairs breakfast at the Symposium co-sponsored by the Space Foundation and SES Space and Defense, Doug Loverro, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, said that during the 1960s and 1970s, the service did a great job of cultivating internal expertise on the subject. This was accomplished not through a formal structure but by allowing Air Force officers to build on their space knowledge as they moved to different and progressively higher positions, both within the service and at other agencies like the NRO and NASA.

That wholistic space cadre development was lost via what Loverro called “a long and disconnected series of unfortunate events,” in which the Air Force unwittingly created bureaucratic barriers between space operations and acquisition personnel and hindered the career advancement of space professionals. While he stopped short of advocating a quasi-independent Space Corps, as some stakeholders have advocated, he said the space enterprise might benefit through formal structures designed to enhance the development of career space professionals.

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During the first part of our conversation with Dr. Roesler, we talked about the current state of on-orbit servicing, differentiated Gen One from Gen Two servicing, and spoke about what future generations of this technology will enable and why on-orbit servicing is in such high demand.

In the second part of our discussion, Dr. Roesler provided some additional details about the exciting and innovative capabilities that robotics can enable in space in the future, and how Gen One and Gen Two servicing may be just opening the door for some truly revolutionary services in space.

Here is what Gordon had to say:

Government Satellite Report (GSR): We’ve covered Gen One and Gen Two on-orbit servicing, but what does the future after those two generations look like?

Dr. Roesler: With the introduction of Gen Two capabilities, we’ll have access to dexterous robotics that can make something like changing out a reflector to address a new service area something that’s relatively easy to do. For example, the Dragonfly Project, a NASA-funded program, is intending to take reflectors and put them in place with a robotic arm on a commercial communication satellite.

So if you can put that in place with a robotic arm, you can also take it off again and put a different reflector on. That will give operators the ability to change the property of the satellite payload on-orbit. To better enable that, there are some easy things we could start doing to our new satellites that would allow us to take more advantage of robotic capabilities.

For example, NASA Goddard has developed a refueling quick disconnect. Today there are still many steps required to refuel a satellite, but this quick disconnect greatly cuts down that number of steps. That quick disconnect would have to be integrated into the satellite design before launch, but it’s not a painful installation and it could greatly facilitate the ability to transfer fuel.

Another new addition we should be considering adding to satellites during design and construction is the equivalent of a USB port on your laptop. It’s something DARPA has developed for the servicer, but it can also be installed on satellites before launch.  With a USB port, you can plug in to a thumb drive or hard drive and it recognizes what the component is and it provides new services. DARPA’s port will be used to hold the robotic tools on the servicer, but it also has power and data feeds just like a USB port. So you could bring up a new payload, plug it in, and take advantage of the power and communications of the host satellite.

That’s when you’re starting to get into Generation Three, which we haven’t discussed yet – modular satellites.

There is a tremendous amount of research and development that still needs to be done to create a truly modular satellite. But that research and development is extremely valuable because, if you have a modular satellite, you can take advantage of lower cost, more prolific launch systems that are being developed. Modular satellites would be assembled on orbit from components sent up on low-cost launches, or modules could be replaced in the future on a satellite that you already built and launched. That said, there would be a lot of testing that would need to be done on the ground and a lot of progress needs to be made.

The other revolutionary Gen Three capability is the assembly of large structures, such as antennas and telescopes, in orbit. NASA is working on in-orbit assembly for future astrophysics missions, on the premise that something large, like a 20-meter telescope, must be assembled in-orbit, due to the massive size of the hardware. In those instances, there is no way you could fold it into a single launch fairing – so [the hardware] would need to be assembled robotically in space.

In the same way, being able to assemble the largest reflector or antenna possible would give communication service providers significantly more flexibility.

GSR: Looking back at Gen Two capabilities and the addition of payloads to existing satellites, what types of payloads and capabilities could be added to a satellite in space with this technology? Why is this an attractive option for the military? For commercial operators?

Dr. Roesler: There would be many different possibilities. For example, one simple thing operators could do is to add cameras that provide the satellite the ability to see around it. In geosynchronous orbit, these satellites are 22,000 miles away and it’s difficult to see small objects. So if these cameras could see small objects close to the satellite, it would give operators the ability to react appropriately.

One other capability that could be added is space weather sensors. I mentioned earlier the consequences of not knowing what caused an outage. If you built a space weather sensor and attached it on-orbit, you’d have an indication of whether or not an outage was related to a solar event. There are also other ways of detecting nearby satellites that could be integrated into a small payload and attached.

The advantage of an attachable payload is that you don’t have to integrate it with a propulsion system and attitude control system. The cost is lower, it’s available for use faster, and the opportunities to get it on-orbit are more numerous.

For example, DARPA has developed a capability called PODS – which stands for Payload Orbiting Delivery Systems – that could carry a wide variety of separable mass elements to orbit – including attachable payloads – aboard commercial communications satellites. With 15 commercial launches to GEO a year, we can take advantage of such methods to get small payloads up there without having to buy entire launch vehicles.

In terms of commercial offerings for attachable payloads, many have told me that they are excited about the opportunity to host some of these payloads. It will produce a revenue stream for them for sure, but it also allows them to start thinking about other approaches for fleet flexibility. It’s also an entrepreneurial opportunity. There are people out there who want sensors for applications like agricultural use or environmental data collection, and some of these things can be done from GEO.

GSR: We often hear that concerns over timing – not having payloads built in time for launch – are a main reason why some agencies shy away from hosting payloads on commercial spacecraft. Could you see a reality where we put military or government payloads on commercial spacecraft on-orbit? Could this help alleviate some of those concerns and drive up adoption of hosted payloads?

Dr. Roesler: You really hit the nail on the head. Sometimes, secondary payloads, hosted payloads – or even the payloads for the primary mission – aren’t ready in time. The ability to add them after launch should be extremely freeing for the whole space enterprise and adds a tremendous amount of flexibility.

GSR: During the panel discussion, the panelists touched on the possibility of constructing satellites in space. Why would it be attractive to literally build or construct a satellite in space? What would that enable us to do that we can’t do with our current system of building satellites on Earth and launching them already constructed?

Dr. Roesler: One of the huge advantages is the reduction in testing and design requirements. If I’m going to launch something in pieces, I don’t have to worry about whether the entire assembly survives during launch – I only have to worry about whether the individual pieces survive. By testing at a lower level of integration, I’m saving costs and I’m saving time when I put them together on-orbit.

Another thing that approach lets you do is change your mind. Say you’re building numerous satellites and you have a choice of payloads and maybe you have a choice of power systems. If you have a modular architecture, you can change your mind about what a particular satellite is going to be in real-time. That’s basically unheard of now.

And, as I mentioned earlier, there’s this idea of taking advantage of smaller launch vehicles. There’s a group of investors today that are developing launch vehicles of much lower capacity than available medium-lift ones.  Similarly, DARPA is working on a launch system called XSP, which stands for Experimental Spaceplane, which is going to put 3,000-5,000 pounds into low Earth orbit. That mass range fills a gap between the very small launch vehicles and the larger ones. So by taking advantage of that emerging launch infrastructure that has a lot more variety to it, we get another reason to consider building satellites in orbit.

GSR: When it comes to all of these technologies and capabilities – on-orbit refueling, on-orbit servicing, adding payloads to existing satellites, building satellites in space – who is taking the lead in the development of these solutions?

Dr. Roesler: In the case of Gen One –life extension– it’s primarily industry. In the case of Gen Two– on-orbit refueling and on-orbit servicing– it’s definitely DARPA.

RSGS is a very large program dedicated to building a GEO robotic servicing vehicles and getting it on-orbit quickly. When I say that, I should also mention our commercial partner, SSL, who is building the bus and the ground segment and will eventually operate the satellite. And I should also mention the Naval Research Laboratory, which is responsible for all the advanced robotic work that’s leading to this capability. The technology is government-initiated, but we know that commercial players are eager to participate.

Then looking at Gen Three, I would say it’s a combination of DARPA, NASA, and industry. DARPA has some small projects centered around on-orbit assembly and also the idea of putting a persistent platform into GEO. One where payloads can come and go.

The analogy I like to use for such a platform is the antenna tower that you see along the highways. When you look at one of those towers, you’ll see a number of devices – cellphone antennas, point-to-point microwave, public safety radio antennas – all hanging on it. That’s because it’s cheaper to pay rent to the tower owner than it is to buy land and build a tower.

Obviously that makes sense in GEO as well. If you can just send up a payload to a persistent platform, you don’t have to worry about propulsion and attitude control. You have all that provided by the platform and you pay a fee to the platform operator for hosting your payload.

That’s really a win-win.

It could also provide flexibility, being able to swap the payloads more frequently and not have to worry about what the market is going to be like a few years from now.

If you missed part one of our two part conversation with Dr. Gordon Roesler, click HERE to read it in its entirety. For additional information on DARPA’s on-orbit servicing programs, click HERE.

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Following that discussion, we reached out to Dr. Gordon Roesler, a Program Manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, who has been at the forefront of many of DARPA’s on-orbit servicing initiatives and programs. During our conversation with Dr. Roesler, we sought to learn more about how far on-orbit servicing technologies and capabilities have progressed, and to get a better picture of what on-orbit servicing can enable into the future.

In part one of our two-part conversation with Dr. Roesler, we talked about the current state of on-orbit servicing, what future generations of this technology will enable and why on-orbit servicing is in such high demand. Here is what Gordon had to say:

Government Satellite Report (GSR): Where does on-orbit servicing currently stand? Is this science fiction, or are we rapidly approaching a reality where satellites can be refueled and repaired in space? How long until we get there?

Dr. Roesler: As we move forward, there are going to be generations of servicing that offer increasingly sophisticated capabilities.

Generation One is what I call simple life extension, and there are already a couple of established players in that field. Effective Space is a UK organization that is building satellites that go up and dock with operating commercial communication satellites and help them maintain their positions and conserve their fuel, so that’s life extension through fuel conservation. Orbital ATK is doing something similar.

Generation Two is what DARPA is working on. We’re looking to use very sophisticated robotics to do things beyond just life extension. Using robotics, we’re looking to perform ultra close inspections, use robotic arms to repair satellites that aren’t functioning properly, or even perform upgrades – such as adding a new module to an operating spacecraft.

In terms of timing, Gen One is slated to launch in the 2018-2020 time frame and DARPA’s Gen Two servicer is going to launch in 2021.

I should also mention the NASA Restore-L effort, which blends Gen One and Gen Two technologies and capabilities. It’s a spacecraft that uses a DARPA robotic arm in order to refuel a NASA satellite. That’s effectively providing a Gen One service with a Gen Two technology.

GSR: What are the commercial benefits of on-orbit servicing? Why are commercial satellite operators interested in this capability?

Dr. Roesler: Let’s look at this in terms of the same Gen One and Gen Two breakout. When it comes to Gen One, life extension is a big reason for commercial interest. Life extension will provide an operator with fleet flexibility. Take, for example, SES, which has around 50 [satellites] in operation; if they can keep one of those on longer than was expected, they can shuffle the fleet around and provide services in a much more flexible way.

At the same time, this offers the benefit of minimizing capital expenditures by filling any gaps that might occur in the fleet without having to build an entirely new satellite. So the Gen One services are very valuable to commercial satellite operators.

Gen Two [on-orbit servicing] provides even more opportunity. Think about being able to bring up a new payload and attaching it to an existing satellite. Rather than having [to build] a new satellite to provide that capability, the operator only has to build a new payload. Not only does it defer capital expenditure, it actually reduces it.

This kind of idea of replacing payloads in-orbit also allows the operators to keep up with the needs of the terrestrial customer base. A satellite’s estimated life is around 15 years. That’s a long time to predict and understand what your customer base is going to look like or need. The ability to easily adjust the payloads in sync with customers can help keep the business case for that satellite alive.

Then there’s this idea of being able to perform repairs. About once every two years, a commercial satellite goes up and has some sort of deployment anomaly. If that could be repaired, not only does that allow you to recover the satellite capability faster than by building and launching a new spacecraft, but it also reduces insurance claims payouts. It’s really a win-win. So there’s a host of benefits from the development and introduction of Gen Two capabilities.

GSR: How do those benefits compare with the federal government and military? Are the benefits for them the same? Are there other reasons why they’re interested in this?

Dr. Roesler: Every one of those benefits that I mentioned also pertains to the U.S. government. The fleet flexibility, the reduced capital expenditures. We don’t have insurance companies, our insurance is from the taxpayers, so if we can save them the cost of a new satellite by repairing an anomaly, that’s a benefit as well.

There is also the ability to protect and provide resilience to our government satellites. An ultra close inspection with a robotic arm can help operators differentiate between an engineering flaw and a hostile act. So it could help to maintain rational behavior. When things fail and we don’t understand why they fail, we tend to be suspicious, that’s just the nature of it. This could alleviate that suspicion.

So there is a strategic benefit to this ultra close inspection. Also, there’s the benefit of being able to include new capabilities for protection of our existing satellites, as well as all the other benefits in terms of longevity and flexibility and repair.

Be sure to check back for part two of our conversation with Dr. Roesler, when we discuss the advanced capabilities that will be introduced via Gen Two on-orbit servicing, and what Gen Three could hold for the industry.

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The future space environment will need to be more resilient and capable of responding to an evolving set of threats, challenges and U.S. Government requirements. Industry experts, political and military leaders as well as pundits have been saying this for years – and with good reason. The ability to sustain operations, especially in the face of capable adversaries, is critically important to our national security.  The commercial satellite communications industry has been, and will be, an important partner in that effort.

As we review our third year of The Government Satellite Report, these themes resonate through some of our top stories.

Bold steps
2017 ushered in another wave of innovative and paradigm-challenging efforts.  With commercial capabilities quickly outpacing dated programs of record, the government began to take steps towards laying plans for a more secure and resilient satellite communications infrastructure.  U.S. Strategic Command’s General Hyten and U.S. Air Force Space Command’s General Raymond established and evolved a Space Enterprise Vision that includes COMSATCOM as a key component of U.S. national security in space.

A key component of this vision is the  Wideband Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) to satisfy the military’s future wideband communications requirements. The AoA is leveraging the intent of the Space Enterprise Vision to determine how to develop an integrated satellite architecture that combines both military satellites and COMSATCOM services. This architecture will undoubtedly deliver advanced applications by making next-generation Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary Orbit (GEO) High Throughput Satellite (HTS) commercial technologies readily available for government and military operations.

Along with the AoA effort, leaders in Congress and the Pentagon debated the potential benefits of a separate branch of the military dedicated to space. Congress concluded 2017 by providing sweeping new guidance and authorities to the Department of Defense regarding the oversight of the wider space enterprise and more specifically, the procurement of commercial satellite communications.  Implementing those authorities will be another exciting activity  we’ll track closely in 2018.

2017 ushered in another evolution in how and what type of commercial satellite services the U.S. Government will pursue. 2017 also saw the rise of other government trends that I believe will continue and grow in 2018, and beyond.

High Throughput and Low Latency Applications
MEO and GEO HTS satellites played an increasingly essential role for the U.S. Government in 2017. SES Space and Defense delivered nearly 5 Gigabits per second of managed MEO services supporting over 13 sites globally to government customers ranging from the Department of Defense (DoD) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). We see an ever-increasing demand from the U.S. Government for expanded high throughput, low latency capabilities and the mission applications enabled by those services.

Continued Use of Hosted Payloads
Last year we also saw the continued, successful use of hosted payloads by the federal government. In 2017, SES satellites were chosen to host a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) payload for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Global-Scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) payload for NASA. The continued success of these hosted payload programs has provided validation for hosted payloads as an economical and efficient alternative to launching an entire dedicated satellite for the same mission. I believe that we will see more innovation in how the U.S. Government pursues hosted payload opportunities on commercial satellites in 2018 and beyond.

CS3 and Beyond
As of October 2017, the COMSATCOM industry will be able to expand its services through the General Services Administration (GSA) Complex Commercial SATCOM Solutions (CS3) contract award.  Awardees, including SES Space and Defense will be able to provide capabilities through this indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle with a $2.5 Billion ceiling. CS3 will allow federal agencies to bid large, complex, custom satellite solutions for the next ten years exclusively among its 22 industry teams. We expect a lot more COMSATCOM opportunities to be released under CS3 than its predecessor, CS2 – including services that will provide high throughput and low latency to the government end-user.

2017 was an exciting year in SATCOM and it set the stage for a significant evolution in how the federal government and the United States military address their satellite communications requirements. The COMSATCOM industry,and SES Space and Defense in particular ,is excited by what lies ahead in space.  We are prepared and committed to helping the government overcome the challenges it faces, to include providing a more resilient, disaggregated and distributed satellite communications architecture.

The Government Satellite Report remains committed to bringing you the latest satellite trends, breaking news and insightful interviews with government and satellite industry leaders in 2018.  But first, here is a look at some of the articles that our readers found most compelling in 2017. Thank you for being a loyal reader.

To learn more about the satellite trends and issues that dominated headlines in 2017, download the Government Satellite Year in Review by clicking HERE.

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