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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched on 29th June, 2021, carried a total of 88 satellites into the orbit, including at least 5 latest GenerationOne deployments. We were privileged to provide the spacecraft software to Kleos Space’s Polar Vigilance Mission (KSF1) and the Faraday Phoenix satellite, built as part of In-Space Missions’ Faraday CubeSat programme to become a Service Mission Provider.

Kleos Space’s satellites detect and geolocate radio frequency transmissions to deliver a global picture of hidden maritime activity for enhanced intelligence capability. The KSF1 mission is a cluster of 4 satellites designed to enhance the company’s RF geolocation data delivered by the Kleos Scouting Mission, which was successfully launched in November 2020.  The KSF1 spacecraft were built by Innovative Solutions In Space B.V. (ISISPACE) with the software system designed by Bright Ascension, using our innovative space software products to help keep development time short within tight project timelines. 

The Faraday Phoenix mission, a re-flight of the original Faraday-1 satellite lost at launch, is part of In-Space Missions’ Faraday programme. Co-funded by ESA (European Space Agency), it enables multiple third-party payloads to ‘rideshare’ on a single satellite platform, providing low-cost access to space. Similar to its predecessor, the Faraday Phoenix satellite carries our FSDK flight software onboard, tying together the spacecraft’s subsystems and seamlessly interfacing with a large number of third-party payloads, including a host of software-defined radios of various types.

As they progress through their lives in orbit, both Faraday CubeSat and KSF1 satellites will make full use of our Mission Control Software and its tight integration with the flight software. This will help to significantly simplify, improve, and automate their mission operations.

“We are extremely proud of the hard work we have put in to help make these missions a success. ”

Peter Mendham, CEO at Bright Ascension

“Both Faraday Phoenix CubeSat and Polar Vigilance Mission had very tight project timescales, giving us less than six months for software development. But our unique modular approach allows for the complex flight software to be built quickly and effectively, which means we were able to support the lead times and deliver our cutting-edge spacecraft technology promptly and efficiently,” said Peter Mendham, CEO.

The Faraday Phoenix and KSF1 missions add to the list of successfully launched spacecraft with our software onboard, taking the current total to 24 satellites, with many more in development.

The IOD-1 GEMS spacecraft has begun operations after a successful deployment from the ISS on Wednesday morning. Bright Ascension’s GenerationOne onboard software executed a successful separation procedure, commanding deployment of antennae and solar panels while monitoring critical platform telemetry.

Wednesday’s deployment is the result of a fruitful collaboration between Bright Ascension, Clyde Space, the Satellite Applications Catapult (SAC) and Orbital Microsystems (OMS). IOD-1 GEMS was launched 2 months ago aboard a routine ISS resupply mission, and since then has been stowed awaiting deployment. The spacecraft is to demonstrate OMS’s new weather observation technology.

SAC are using Bright Ascension’s Mission Control Software (MCS) to operate the mission. The MCS is integrated closely with the GenerationOne FSDK, providing powerful and intuitive features for management of a spacecraft through its life on orbit. Among the features SAC will be making use of when operating IOD-1 GEMS are:

• Flexible access to key spacecraft parameters, telemetry and logs. During platform checkout, the MCS allows operators to respond to changes or anomalies quickly, by providing customised UI layouts and integrated decoding and viewing of downlinked logs. Data is archived and can be inspected, graphed and exported later to support off-line analysis and planning.
• Powerful features to allow lights-out operations. By providing automation of both flight-side and ground-side behaviour, the MCS allows routine operations to become genuinely routine. For the IOD-1 GEMS mission SAC will initially reduce operations burden by automating schedule and data management, before moving towards full lights-out automation as the mission progresses.
• Critical spacecraft documentation at the operators’ fingertips. The MCS integrates documentation generated during development of the onboard software in the operator’s interface. This allows key documentation to be accessed efficiently, both during planning and when operating passes.

Bright Ascension are now excited to be supporting the checkout and commissioning of the IOD-1 GEMS spacecraft, and we look forward to beginning routine operations soon.

Further information:

• Clyde Space
• Satellite Applications Catapult
• Orbital Micro Systems

Bright Ascension’s latest GenerationOne flight software deployment launched on yesterday’s resupply launch to the International Space Station.

Along with thousands of kilograms of supplies for the space station was IOD-1 GEMS, the first spacecraft in the Satellite Applications Catapult’s (SAC) In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) programme. Integrated by Clyde Space in Glasgow, Scotland, IOD-1 GEMS is to demonstrate Orbital Micro System’s (OMS) new weather observation payload.

IOD-1 GEMS is running a flight software suite developed by Bright Ascension using our GenerationOne Flight Software Development Kit (FSDK), and will communicate with the Bright Ascension Mission Control Software (MCS) running at the SAC ground station in Harwell, England.

The GenerationOne FSDK has enabled the complex flight software to be developed quickly and effectively, making use of the heritage of Bright Ascension’s component library. We added new components for fulfilling the unique payload handling, data storage and data downlink requirements of the IOD-1 GEMS mission.

Besides the advantages conferred during the mission’s development phase, using Gen1 and the MCS also provide flexibility in planning and operations as IOD-1 GEMS progresses through its life on orbit. OMS and SAC can have confidence that the integrated space system can deliver against many different operational requirements, using the substantial automation features built in to both the ground and flight software.

IOD-1 GEMS is to be deployed from the ISS in the coming months, and Bright Ascension look forward to assisting the SAC and OMS teams with a smooth commissioning process, and to hearing of the precision weather data OMS’s payload promises to deliver!

Further information:

• Orbital Micro Systems
• Clyde Space

SeaHawk-1, the innovative ocean colour monitoring CubeSat, has captured and downlinked its first multi-spectral image from orbit. This satellite is a proof of concept of a system which has the potential to greatly increase the availability and resolution of scientifically important ocean colour data through a network of satellites that are much smaller and cheaper than those currently used for this purpose.

This excerpt from the first SeaHawk image data highlights the improved spatial resolution achieved by the instrument compared to the previous state-of-the art, a satellite with a mass of nearly 3 tons to SeaHawk’s mass of around 4 kg. Please see this article from the NASA OceanColor website for more information about this image.

Bright Ascension wrote Seahawk-1’s Flight Software and Mission Control Software so this milestone, demonstrating the end-to-end capability of the system, has been a real cause for celebration for us.

We’ve been involved in the mission from the early stages, helping to define the payload interface and concept of operations for the mission, and are providing ongoing technical assistance during the on-orbit operations. It’s gratifying to see the work of the whole SeaHawk team start to pay off and we are looking forward to support the move towards routine operation.

The recent SSO-A launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg in California saw the deployment of three further spacecraft using Bright Ascension technology. Three teams used the GenerationOne Flight Software Development Kit to accelerate their mission development, with two of those also using the Mission Control Software to take the advantage of the seamless integration offered by the GenerationOne suite.

Within days of the launch, on the 3rd December, teams had begun tracking their satellites. The three spacecraft service very different applications. Fleet Space Technologies’ Centauri-2, is an industry-leading IoT communications satellite. The Audacy Zero CubeSat is a pilot for Audacy’s space relay communications service, and will be the first Ka-Band nano-satellite. SeaHawk-1, lead by the University of North Carolina Wilmington, hosts a multi-spectral imaging payload.

The SeaHawk-1 spacecraft, built and operated by Clyde Space in Glasgow, Scotland, is a pilot for a potential ocean colour monitoring constellation, collecting biological data from space and downlinking that via NASA’s Near Earth Network. Bright Ascension is directly supporting the SeaHawk operations team and look forward to seeing the first images from the HawkEye imager in the coming months.

This morning’s successful launch carried 29 CubeSats to orbit, including two more satellites using Bright Ascension’s GenerationOne Flight Software Development Kit. These satellites, Kepler Communications’ CASE, and Fleet Space Technologies’ Centauri-1, represent important milestones for both organisations. The launch of the PSLV from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India carries the third and fourth satellites to use the company’s GenerationOne technology.

Bright Ascension has been privileged to support both the Kepler and Fleet teams in the development of their world-leading CubeSats. For both missions, Bright Ascension’s industry-leading CubeSat flight software product has helped them keep development time short, getting them to market faster. Use of the GenerationOne Mission Control Software will likewise help both organisations to manage their missions effectively, integrating seamlessly with the flight software.