We build reliable platforms for missions that host a variety of communication instruments and payloads.

Example:

Our SN-100 spacecraft platform provided the basis for the ORBCOMM Generation 2 (OG2) low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of asset-tracking, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication satellites, providing 12 times performance increase over the first generation. We built, tested and delivered 18 OG2 satellites, including the procurement and integration of a sophisticated software-defined radio communication payload.

We also developed a platform for specialized communications in geosynchronous orbit (GEO). This small GEO spacecraft can test new communications technologies or provide operators with an agile platform to ensure efficient orbital slot utilization. These satellites are fabricated in our dedicated, high-throughput spacecraft production environment at our Louisville, Colorado facility.

We build stable platforms suited for imaging missions, ranging from Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) instruments and applications, to Space Situational Awareness (SSA) applications, to multispectral and hyperspectral mission solutions. We tailor our bus platforms to support a broad spectrum of imaging mission requirements including high pointing performance and accuracy, minimized jitter, agile slewing and maneuvering, and overall platform stability.

Example:

Our TacSat-2 spacecraft, based on our SN-200 bus platform and launched in 2006, carries a modified commercial telescope and camera system as its primary imaging payload.

Able to host a variety of space science instruments and payloads, our platforms are ideally suited for science missions in LEO, MEO and GEO orbits.

Example:

Our Demonstration and Science Experiment (DSX) spacecraft for the Air Force Research Laboratory, based on our SN-200 bus platform and launched in 2019, carries a variety of instruments to characterize space environments in the medium-Earth orbit (MEO) flight regime. DSX uses an ESPA ring as a primary structure, with modules for bus and payload elements that optimize that platform’s flexibility and enable rideshare options.

We have performed extensive design development for bus platforms to host solar-observing instruments such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Total Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS), as well as terrestrial observation science instruments such as NOAA's Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy Systems (CERES). Further, we have developed bus designs and performed instrument accommodation studies for NASA Venture, Small Explorer (SMEX) and Explorer class missions, encompassing a number of deep space observation astrophysics missions.

We build flexible platforms suited for technology demonstration missions - able to host a variety of payloads that increase Technology Readiness Levels of critical technologies with operational applications.

Example:

SNC built STPSat-5 for the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test program. It was launched in 2019, hosting five GFE payloads to demonstrate technologies that benefit DoD in the areas of space weather and optical communications. Our modular payload deck and electrical interfaces accommodate requirements changes and late additions with minimal impact. Fully ESPA-compatible, including a modular green propulsion system with over 120 m/sec of delta-V, this spacecraft is based on our versatile SN-50 bus that also flies at GEO.

Our TacSat-2 spacecraft, based on our SN-200 bus platform, carried 14 on-board experiments and technology demonstration payloads, including a common data link, a thin-film solar array demonstration, an integrated GPS occultation receiver and a Hall Effect Thruster (HET) demonstration.

Additionally, our CHIPSat spacecraft was the first in-space demonstration using transmission control protocol and internet protocols for satellite command and control.

Every successful space mission begins with a foundation of mission analysis and engineering that defines the most effective and cost-efficient architecture within a risk profile that suits each customer’s needs and price point. We provide a full analysis of mission requirements and alternatives, orbit selection, launch and deployment options, command and control infrastructure, data latency assessment and delivery, lifetime analysis and performance modeling – all focused to result in the best-value mission solution.

As a systems integrator, we do not try to force fit your challenge into a pre-determined solution. Beginning with the customer’s most important needs first, we develop and allocate those requirements across all elements of the system and conduct trades to determine the most cost-effective approaches. We use a global system of partnerships to integrate the right combination of capabilities in the space segment, ground segment and launch to design and achieve your optimum mission.

Global space capability and resilience is achieved by deploying in numbers and reconstituting rapidly. We use a manufacturing mindset and experience to ensure production considerations are designed into our spacecraft from the beginning. First units see full design verification testing (DVT) while subsequent production units go through highly-streamlined integration and testing processes tailored to the customer’s risk posture and budget.

Lessons learned during integration then close the loop in a process of continuous improvement, using extensive automation to achieve consistent, repeatable results in the manufacturing environment.

We design satellites with a line replaceable unit (LRU) mentality, with easy access to key components and separation of payload and bus integration efforts into parallel work flows. This greatly reduces the schedule required for system integration and gives payload developers maximum flexibility prior to space vehicle assembly and test.

Small satellites, by their very nature, create opportunities for cost sharing. This is achieved either in a hosted payload situation or by freeing up launch capacity to share with other satellites and payloads, reducing the total mission cost to our customers. We have multi-program experience with the industry-standard Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) in both the Standard and Grande configurations, and have launched satellites as secondary payloads using a variety of accommodations.

We can integrate hosted payloads onto a variety of missions, providing additional cost-share or revenue-enhancing opportunities for our customers. We have a variety of contractual mechanisms that enable implementation of hosted payloads.

Example:

OG2 satellites launched on Falcon 9’s over a three-year period on three separate launches: a single prototype in 2012 as a rideshare on a SpaceX commercial resupply launch, and on two additional launches in 2014 and 2015 using stacks of ESPA Grande rings to launch six and eleven satellites respectively. We have more experience launching identical ESPA-class spacecraft than any other provider.

STPSat-5 is scheduled for launch in 2017 aboard a Spaceflight Inc. integrated Falcon 9 stack along with over 30 other vehicles. The approximate 100kg mass of STPSat-5 and ESPA compatibility have enabled a low-cost commercial launch option for the US Air Force.

Launch cost optimization pressures have traditionally forced space system designers to opt for large, complex spacecraft that tried to satisfy many missions and requirements. That approach leads to a downward spiral of stretched schedules and runaway costs, meaning only a small number of units are affordable.

Today, the threats posed by both natural and hostile events make large monolithic spacecraft, and even small fleets, more vulnerable. Our mission and satellite production experience, coupled with advances in software and avionics plus signal and data processing, allows for impressive performance to be packaged into small satellites which can then be built in increased numbers, disaggregating capability and making critical missions more resilient to all types of failures.

Our cost-efficient approach to mission engineering, satellite design, production and launch optimization, including incorporation of up-screened cubesat components where appropriate, supports disaggregated and lower cost approaches that are not only mission effective, but also affordable.