SSTL’s owner Astrium and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) have announced a contract which will see an Earth observation satellite designed by Astrium or SSTL launched by Falcon 1e, a SpaceX launch vehicle.

The Falcon 1e is an ‘enhanced’ version of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle. Falcon 1e has been designed completely by SpaceX and benefits from upgraded propulsion, structures and avionics systems, allowing for more reliability. The original Falcon 1 was launched almost a year ago on September 28th 2008.

SSTL and Astrium provide a range of innovative, cutting edge Earth Observation satellite products. Through this partnership, they can offer customers a turnkey solution, with in-orbit delivery of a low Earth orbit satellite system.

Both parties have told of their joy at the partnership:

SpaceX's Falcon 1e launch vehicle was designed to provide the highest level of reliability as well as the lowest dedicated mission price of any orbital launch system

said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX.

SpaceX is pleased to be the launch services provider for this mission.

Evert Dudok, the CEO of Astrium Satellites stated

This Falcon 1e contract allows Astrium to provide a competitive solution for in-orbit delivery of an Earth observation satellite in low Earth orbit. This deal will ultimately benefit customers seeking innovative and low-cost solutions for valuable Earth observation programs.

You can watch the first successful Falcon-1 launch in October on Space Blog.

SSTL is currently a hive of activity as the two new DMC constellation satellites UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 are prepared for launch on 25th July.

The Earth observation missions, UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1, will be launched onboard a Dnepr rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Saturday, 25th July 2009 at 18:46 UTC, 19:46 BST.

The spacecraft, which are both based on the 100kg class SSTL-100 micro satellite platform, will join the international Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC), expanding the constellation to six operational satellites. The new satellites will enhance DMC satellite daily imaging capacity for applications such as deforestation mapping, urban planning, natural resource management, security, agriculture and disaster relief operations.

To find out more about the UK-DMC2 satellite, earth observation applications that it will participate in and its role in international disaster relief efforts visit the UK-DMC2 pages on the SSTL website.

Continue reading "UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 launch buzz"

All five RapidEye satellites were successfully launched this morning by Dnepr from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Following this morning’s launch, the spacecraft separated from the launch vehicle in slightly different orbits to allow constellation phasing and will eventually be positioned equally spaced within the same orbit about 19 minutes apart. SSTL will control the constellation throughout the two week Launch and Early Operation Phase (LEOP) in a coordinated effort between their mission control facilities in the UK and the ground station supplied to RapidEye in Brandenburg, Germany. A team of three SSTL operators and three support staff will work with the MDA and RapidEye teams in Brandenburg, with the UK team analysing data as it is received and on standby to react to any technical challenges.

Project manager Ben Stocker commented: “The simultaneous launch of five satellites is not without its challenges. Commissioning will be performed from both the RapidEye ground station in Brandenburg and the SSTL mission control centre in Guildford. The five satellites will gradually disperse from each other following separation from the launch vehicle, allowing three satellites to be tracked and operated from Brandenburg with the remainder under the control of the Guildford operators. This method of operation offers the most efficient route to achieving the maximum amount of contact time per satellite during the early days of commissioning following launch. As the satellites are gradually manoeuvred into position around the orbit during the commissioning phase, the Brandenburg ground station will assume full control over the constellation.”

Following separation from the launch vehicle, the spacecraft activate three GaAs solar panels, generating up to 105W in sunlight. The power system will then assume active control of the battery charge management system, enabling operators to initiate communication with the five RapidEye satellites via the S-band system. Within hours the team plan to upload programs to the on-board computers that will enable early operations and checkout to commence.

The attitude control system on each spacecraft will use magnetometers, magnetorquers, sun sensors and reaction wheels to achieve 3-axis stabilization, whilst using high accuracy attitude information from a star camera to finalise accurate nadir (towards Earth) pointing before proceeding with more advanced roll manoeuvres.

Following LEOP, the full functionality of the satellites, including the imaging payloads built by German company Jena-Optronik GmbH, will be tested by collecting imagery over a 10-week period. During this time MDA will demonstrate the performance of the constellation before RapidEye AG takes delivery of the system and commences commercial imaging operations.

RapidEye plans to operate the mission to deliver agricultural land information products and services such as crop monitoring and mapping, yield prediction and natural disaster assessment.

SSTL’s Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting, commented: “SSTL long ago established the benefits of small satellite constellations and launched the Disaster Monitoring Constellation in 2002, paving the way for a new paradigm in remote sensing. The launch of RapidEye will fully realise the business potential of constellations.

The simultaneous build of five satellites is the largest mission so far in terms of maximising and managing production at SSTL’s Guildford facilities. Expert in-house engineering and project management teams worked closely with MDA, streamlining the design, build and test of all five satellite platforms.”