Adelaide nanosatellite manufacturer Fleet Space Technologies launched their sixth nanosatellite, Centauri 4, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 “Transporter-2” Thursday last week.
In a world first, 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 nanosatellite payload yet.
The payload includes a highly innovative, lightweight beam-steering antenna, Artificial Intelligence-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 remote assets, through the IoT communications payload onboard, and connect thousands of sensors monitoring critical infrastructure across the world in real time, 24 hours a day.
Launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida US at 5:01 AEST Thursday 1st July (15:31 EDT Wednesday 30th June) in an incredible show of confidence, 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”.
Centauri 4 was one of 88 government, military and commercial satellites released at 525km into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on the “Transporter-2” mission, pushed toward a sun-synchronous, pole-to-pole Earth orbit.
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.
This sovereign capability in communication from space in small satellites has already attracted the attention of key world players including the defense community, since bringing digital beamforming to LEO. This has positioned both Fleet Space and Australia at the front of providing incredible innovative communications technologies from space.
The Fleet Space nanosatellites are servicing IoT customers who will reap the rewards of collecting and organising 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 they plan on a further 16 nanosatellites being launched during 2022 and 2023. With a planned constellation of 140 nanosatellites to be established by 2027, of which about 50 will need replacement every year as their Low Earth Orbits decay, could generate a lifetime revenue of $1.82 billion.
