AUSTIN, Texas – Cesium Astro, an El Segundo, Calif.-based company focused on active phased array communications technology for space and airborne systems, announced the successful initial tests of its CommPack cross-link payload on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) CubeSats mission. After completing these tests, the CommPack system reaches TRL 9 status – the highest technology readiness level – and the NASA Starling team is ready to go communications cross-radio experiments in the coming weeks.
Launched aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket in July 2023, the Starling mission flies with a joint “swarm” of spacecraft that will perform coordinated activities in a variety of areas, including network communications in space, relative navigation between spacecraft, planning and execution of autonomous maneuvers, and distributed spacecraft autonomy. The mission will demonstrate how the distributed autonomy of spacecraft increases resilience, allowing them to continue functioning even when ground communications are temporarily unavailable due to distance or location.
CesiumAstro’s CommPack payload includes two S-band antennas, an SDR-1001 software defined radio, and our Time Division Multiple Access/TDD (CSMA/TDD) waveform that enables a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) in space. The satellites will use the CommPack to establish and maintain a dynamic communications network between the spacecraft in the swarm.
Starling is funded by NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program, based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. CesiumAstro’s communications systems fly on civil, commercialand flying defense missions.
“We would like to congratulate NASA on the successful launch and continuation of the Starling mission,” said Shay Sabripour, founder and CEO of CesiumAstro. “Achieving TRL 9 status is an important milestone for our CommPack payload, and we are extremely proud to help NASA establish mobile ad hoc networking in space as a foundational technology for future flight and on-orbit servicing missions.”
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