On March 24, 2026, during the Satellite 2026 conference in Washington, D.C., SFL Missions Inc. (formerly Space Flight Laboratory) announced it has been awarded a competitive-bid contract to develop eight small satellites for NASA’s HelioSwarm science mission.
The satellites, designated as “Nodes,” will form a transformative swarm observatory designed to capture the first simultaneous, multiscale measurements of plasma turbulence in the solar wind.
The HelioSwarm mission, a part of NASA’s Medium-Class Explorers (MIDEX) program, utilizes a hub-and-spoke architecture. SFL Missions will manufacture the eight 150-kg Node satellites, which will be carried into a high-Earth orbit aboard a larger “Hub” spacecraft before being deployed in a series of complex formations.
Mission Architecture and “DAUNTLESS” Platform
The Node satellites will be built on SFL’s DAUNTLESS platform, a high-performance bus designed for missions requiring significant power generation and precise propulsion. Because the swarm will operate in a lunar resonant orbit—reaching apogees near the Moon—the Nodes will utilize onboard ranging transponders rather than GPS for positioning.
The Hub spacecraft, an adaptation of Northrop Grumman’s ESPAStar bus, will act as the central communications relay, managing data flow between the eight Nodes and NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). This distributed system allows the observatory to measure magnetic field fluctuations across scales ranging from 10 to 1,000 kilometers.
Technical Specifications
- Quantity: 8 Node Spacecraft.
- Mass: 150 kg per Node.
- Platform: SFL DAUNTLESS (SmallSat class).
- Propulsion: Integrated cold-gas or green propellant for formation flying.
- Instrument Suite: Faraday cup, fluxgate magnetometer, and search coil magnetometer (provided by UNH and international partners).
- Navigation: Onboard ranging transponders (non-GPS).
Executive Perspective
“HelioSwarm is an important science mission that will provide critical insights into how turbulent energy moves through our protective magnetic bubble and impacts technological assets out to the Moon,” said Dr. Robert E. Zee, Director and CEO of SFL Missions. “We are leveraging our 27-year legacy of successful small satellite missions and our DAUNTLESS platform to achieve the demanding performance required for this first-of-its-kind multiscale observatory.”
Timeline to 2029 Launch
The HelioSwarm mission is currently in Phase B (Design & Technology Completion). SFL Missions will conduct the development, integration, and testing of all eight Nodes at its Toronto facility, with support from its Flex Production program for scalable manufacturing.
- Project Management: NASA Ames Research Center.
- Principal Investigator: University of New Hampshire (UNH).
- Launch Date: Currently scheduled for 2029.
- Mission Duration: One-year primary science phase in a 2-week resonant orbit.
