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RADARSAT is a Canadian remote sensing Earth observation satellite program overseen by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The program has consisted of:
Sentinel-1 is the first of the Copernicus Programme satellite constellations conducted by the European Space Agency. The mission was originally composed of a constellation of two satellites, Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B, which shared the same orbital plane. Two more satellites, Sentinel-1C and Sentinel-1D are in development. Sentinel-1B was retired following a power supply issue on December 23, 2021, leaving Sentinel-1A the only satellite of the constellation currently operating. Sentinel-1C is currently planned to launch in the final quarter of 2024.
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. is a publicly traded aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider that operates and launches lightweight Electron orbital rockets used to provide dedicated launch services for small satellites as well as a suborbital variant of Electron called HASTE. The company plans to build a larger Neutron rocket as early as 2025. Electron rockets have launched to orbit 49 times from either Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand or at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia, United States. Rocket Lab has launched one sub-orbital HASTE rocket to date from Wallops Island, Virginia. In addition to the Electron, Neutron, and HASTE launch vehicles, Rocket Lab manufactures and operates spacecraft and is a supplier of satellite components including star trackers, reaction wheels, solar cells and arrays, satellite radios, separation systems, as well as flight and ground software.
Spaceflight Industries, Inc. is an American private aerospace company based out of Herndon, Virginia, that specializes in geospatial intelligence services. It sold its satellite rideshare business, Spaceflight, Inc., in June 2020.
Planet Labs PBC is a publicly trading American Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. Their goal is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint trends.
Electron is a two-stage, partially reusable orbital launch vehicle developed by Rocket Lab, an American aerospace company with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary. Electron services the commercial small satellite launch market. It's the third most launched small-lift launch vehicle in history. Its Rutherford engines are the first electric-pump-fed engine to power an orbital-class rocket. Electron is often flown with a kickstage or Rocket Lab's Photon spacecraft. Although the rocket was designed to be expendable, Rocket Lab has recovered the first stage twice and is working towards the capability of reusing the booster. The Flight 26 (F26) booster has featured the first helicopter catch recovery attempt. Rocket Lab has, however, abandoned the idea of catching Electron.
The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission is a joint project between NASA and ISRO to co-develop and launch a dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar on an Earth observation satellite. The satellite will be the first radar imaging satellite to use dual frequencies. It will be used for remote sensing, to observe and understand natural processes on Earth. For example, its left-facing instruments will study the Antarctic cryosphere. With a total cost estimated at US$1.5 billion, NISAR is likely to be the world's most expensive Earth-imaging satellite.
Firefly Alpha is a two-stage orbital expendable small lift launch vehicle developed by the American company Firefly Aerospace to compete in the commercial small satellite launch market. Alpha is intended to provide launch options for both full vehicle and rideshare customers.
Capella Space is an American space company with satellite and declassified SAR data solutions for government and commercial use. It offers space-based radar Earth observation satellites equipped with synthetic-aperture radar that can collect imagery through clouds and at night. The company is based in San Francisco, California with offices in Washington, D.C., and Louisville, Colorado. It was founded by Payam Banazadeh, a former engineer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, and William Walter Woods.
ICEYE Ltd. is a Finnish microsatellite manufacturer. ICEYE was founded in 2014 as a spin-off of Aalto University's University Radio Technology Department, and is based in Espoo.
TROPICS(Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats) is a NASA constellation of six small satellites, 3U CubeSats, that will measure temperature and moisture profiles and precipitation in tropical systems with unprecedented temporal frequency. This data will enable scientists to study the dynamic processes that occur in the inner core of the storm resulting in rapid genesis and intensification. William Blackwell of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts is the principal investigator. The constellation was initially planned to be delivered to orbit on three launches between June and July 2022. Due to the loss of the first two satellites after a launch failure in June 2022, the first satellites were delivered to orbit aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket on 7 May 2023.
Orbital Express Launch Ltd., or Orbex, is a United Kingdom-based aerospace company that is developing a small commercial orbital rocket called Prime. Orbex is headquartered in Forres, Moray, in Scotland and has subsidiaries in Denmark and Germany. Its future launch complex, Sutherland spaceport, is being built on the A' Mhòine peninsula in the county of Sutherland, northern Scotland.
The Virginia Spaceport Authority, formally better known as Virginia Space, is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia focused on bringing commercial spaceflight to Virginia and providing education in aerospace technologies across the Commonwealth. Created in 1995 as the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA) in the name of states' rights by the Virginia General Assembly, Virginia Space owns and operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, located within the Wallops Flight Facility. The subdivision assumed its current name in April 2023.
Spaceflight in 2025 promises to follow the 2020s trend of record breaking orbital launches and increased developments in lunar, Mars and low-earth orbit exploration.
Swarm Technologies, Inc. is a company building a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for communications with Internet of things (IoT) devices using a store and forward design. Social Capital partners Jay Zaveri and Arjun Sethi incubated and seed funded Swarm, Craft Ventures was an early investor. On 16 July 2021 Swarm entered into an agreement to become a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX.
ABL Space Systems is an American aerospace and launch service provider, based in El Segundo, California, that manufactures deployable launch vehicles and infrastructure for sending commercial small satellites into orbit. The company manufactures its components in the United States.
Photon is a satellite bus based on Rocket Lab's kick stage.
iQPS is a Japanese satellite manufacturer and operator. The company was founded as a spin-off company of Kyushu University in 2005. As of November 2023, the company operated three Earth observation satellites, each equipped with a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR).
References
- ↑ "Synspective Succeeds in Test Observation of Daily InSAR Images | Geo Week News | Lidar, 3D, and more tools at the intersection of geospatial technology and the built world". www.geoweeknews.com. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
- ↑ Jewett, Rachel (2024-06-21). "Synspective Raises $44M in Series C Round". Via Satellite. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
- ↑ Foust, Jeff (2024-03-12). "Rocket Lab launches Synspective radar imaging satellite". SpaceNews. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
- ↑ Foust, Jeff (2024-06-18). "Synspective orders 10 Rocket Lab Electron launches". SpaceNews. Retrieved 2024-07-03.