LeoStella<\/b> is debuting a new, larger small satellite bus platform that CEO Tim Kienberger, says is part of the move to more capable small satellite missions. <\/p>\n
The new LS-300, announced during the Small Satellite conference, can accommodate heavier and larger payloads, up to 250 kilograms.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a much larger satellite, much more capable satellite that allows you to bring more power to your payloads, and more payload on to orbit,\u201d Kienberger tells Via Satellite<\/i>. \u201cWith the ability to go up to 500 kilograms now on rideshares, we decided to exploit the maximum amount of that opportunity. That\u2019s why we jumped up to the LS-300, larger-class satellite that allows us to do a lot more mission capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kienberger said there has been a jump in demand for the LS-300 from both commercial and government customers. LeoStella has signed an unnamed customer for the LS-300 which Kienberger said it is expected to launch next year. The customer is starting with two satellites, with plans to expand to a larger constellation. <\/p>\n
He said the bus is also suited to the Space Development Agency (SDA) opportunities and the company has been \u201cstrongly encouraged\u201d to pursue SDA opportunities. <\/p>\n
The LS-300 will be able to host crosslinks, both radio frequency (RF) and optical. LeoStella purchases most of its sub-assemblies, and would procure crosslinks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re designing our platform to provide a crossing capability \u2014 whether that\u2019s RF or optical to ourselves in a constellation so we can get the fastest route down. Or maybe interoperability through either an SDA [Space Development Agency] network or another commercial backbone network. The goal is to get the data up and down to the vehicle much faster,\u201d Kienberger says. <\/p>\n
LeoStella is a joint venture between Thales Alenia Space and BlackSky, and builds satellites for BlackSky and other customers like Loft Orbital. It currently has 19 satellites in orbit of its original, LS-100 platform. The company is currently in production for the next-generation of BlackSky satellites, based on the LS-200 platform. Both the LS-100 and LS-200 will still be available. <\/p>\n
Kienberger joined the company earlier this year and was tasked with looking at the company\u2019s products and roadmap. His goal is to evolve the company into a total space systems provider, including building the bus and integrating the payload, to facilitate launch and ground system access through partnerships. <\/p>\n
He says the company is not focused on megaconstellations, but sees its target customer with a constellation plan in the range of 10- to 50-satellites.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the megaconstellations saturated people\u2019s perceived appetite for constellations. But there is a wide open market for all sorts of data services, whether it\u2019s imagery, tracking ships in the ocean, weather services, global warming detection \u2014 there\u2019s a lot that can be done yet with constellations,\u201d Kienberger says. \u201cThere are a lot of people out there thinking about not just Earth-based constellations, but space-based constellations for satellite servicing for helping move satellites into different orbits.\u201d<\/p>\n
In particular, he sees opportunity in cislunar orbit. The company plans to have an offering for cislunar orbit in the next three to five years. <\/p>\n
\u201cPushing that size constellation into cislunar is ideal for things like traffic management and communication,\u201d he says. \u201cAs cislunar space becomes the gateway, That\u2019s a lot of space to cover. We want to capitalize our ability to build constellations in LEO, and push that into cislunar space in the future.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LeoStella is debuting a new, larger small satellite bus platform that CEO Tim Kienberger, says is part of the move to more capable small satellite missions. The new LS-300, announced during the Small Satellite conference, can accommodate heavier and larger payloads, up to 250 kilograms. \u201cIt\u2019s a much larger satellite, much more capable satellite that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52972"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}