Fleet Space Technologies launched their sixth smallsat — Centauri 4— aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 “Transporter-2” mission that launched on June 30, EST.
In a world first, according to the company, C4 – which is only the size of a shoebox – has been integrated with digital beamforming technology, making this Fleet Space’s, and the world’s, most advanced smallsat payload yet delivered to orbit.
The payload includes a highly innovative, lightweight ,beam-steering antenna, AI-driven computer server and satellite modem, all designed in-house by the Fleet team. These features will help transform the ability of worldwide industry to manage and control in real time their emote assets, through the IoT communications payload onboard as well as connect thousands of sensors monitoring critical infrastructure across the world in real time, 24 hours a day.
Centauri 4 was one of 88 government, military and commercial satellites released at 525 km into LEO on the “Transporter-2” mission, pushed toward an SSO, pole-to-pole, Earth orbit.
With the ability to shape and steer multiple beams in their smallsats, and therefore reduce interference, Fleet Space can perform more work, transfer more data and do it in flexible and secure ways that have never before been possible at this scale. This sovereign capability in communication from space in smallsats has already attracted the attention of key world players including the defense community, with this launch positioning Fleet Space and Australia at the forefront of providing innovative communications technologies from space.
The Fleet Space smallsats are servicing IoT customers who will reap the rewards of collecting and organizing vast amounts of data from every remote corner of the Earth. Critical infrastructure customer use cases include tracking power outages, receiving alerts of unwanted encroachments along easements and bushfire risks, through to applications in defence, mining and logistics.
This launch is the second successful one this year for Fleet Space, as the firm plans on a further 16 smallsast being launched during 2022 and 2023. With a planned constellation of 140 smallsats to be established by 2027, about 50 will need replacement every year as their LEO decay, and this could generate a lifetime revenue of $1.82 billion.
CEO Flavia Tata Nardini said, “in only a few hours we have managed to launch our nanosatellite, catch our nanosatellite in its first pass and then switch on its payload. This usually takes weeks if not up to a month, so to achieve this in only a few hours, I am blown away. This act demonstrates how efficient the team is here at Fleet Space and working with our avionics partner Tyvak International, to enable this switching on only hours after launch. The agility of our product is incredible, and we are ‘business as usual’ this afternoon as we continue to service our global customers.”
Original report…
Fleet Space Technologies will launch their sixth smallsat, Centauri 4 (C4), aboard SpaceX Falcon9 on Saturday morning , June 26, at 4:26 a.m., Adelaide, Australia, time, with the US launch occurring at Cape Canaveral.
To be delivered into orbit at 450 km above the Earth, Centauri 4 is the size of a shoebox and has been integrated with digital beamforming technology, making this Fleet Space’s most advanced payload. This is a major achievement for the company to incorporate this tech in a smallsat payload, due to the small craft’s power and volume constraints, and this will allow for substantial increases in throughput of customer data, service a higher number of customer portals at once as well as increase data reliability and security by reducing the impact of interference. C4 will implement Fleet Space’s first 3D printed antenna system, completely designed in-house.
Fleet Space has released a video explaining the achievements of their beamforming team at this direct vlink…
“Space is no longer the sole domain of governments and multi-billion dollar satellites. Space is open for business, and we’re only just starting to tap into what is possible,” said Fleet Space CEO Flavia Tata Nardini. “With our digital beamforming technology, we are changing space and making it accessible. With a crowded radio spectrum containing all of the world’s wireless communications, bandwidth efficiency is everything. Our engineers have managed to fit this incredible technology in the vacuum of space on a tiny nanosat. This is where Fleet Space’s technology makes it world first. I have been working and launching nanosatellites for more than 10 years now and I have never been so excited by a technological breakthrough such as this latest generation of the payload. This and the new 3D printed antennas that my amazing team have built at Fleet Space. We can finally demonstrate how powerful nanosatellites can be in the comms world. We call this payload the Knight. Look at it, you can understand why!”
Additionally, there is a 2nd experimental payload which will have an even greater increase in data capacity — this new generation payload is a huge milestone in the company’s planned constellation of 140 smallsats.
Now with the ability to shape and steer multiple beams in their nanosatellites and, therefore, reduce interference, Fleet Space can perform more work, transfer more data and do it in flexible and secure ways never before possible at this scale. The firm’s smallsats are servicing IoT customers who will reap the rewards of collecting and organizing vast amounts of data from every remote corner of the Earth. Critical infrastructure customer use cases include tracking power outages, receiving alerts of unwanted encroachments along easements and bushfire risks, through to applications in defence, mining and logistics.
Fleet Space already has five smallsats on-orbit in their LEO constellation. With significant growth in the company’s development of cutting-edge technologies, the company’s capabilities of their agnostic hybrid satellite, low-powered, wide area network (LPWAN) are being used for the development of remote, massive, IoT applications, on the Earth, the Moon and Mars, through the firm’s Seven Sisters Lunar Mission.
Watch the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch at this direct link on June 26…
