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VESTA CubeSat Mission

Jan 18, 2019

EO

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UKSA

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Operational (nominal)

Quick facts

Overview

Mission typeEO
AgencyUKSA
Mission statusOperational (nominal)
Launch date03 Dec 2018
CEOS EO HandbookSee VESTA CubeSat Mission summary

VESTA-1 CubeSat Mission

Spacecraft    Sensor Complement    Launch    Mission Status   References

VESTA-1 is a flagship project of the National Space Technology Program, funded by the UK Space Agency and managed by the Center for EO Instrumentation and Space Technology (CEOI-ST).

As part of Honeywell's commitment to "The Power of Connected", a consortium of British technology companies led by the Honeywell Aerospace office in the UK has been working on a low-cost space mission to demonstrate a new technology standard to improve critical two-way communication to ships at sea in-line with the United Nations' Safety of Life at Sea Conventions. The goal is to develop a new messaging service aimed at providing vessels with up-to-date traffic services, such delivering the latest route-specific weather information, severe weather warning and ice maps to ships in polar regions. 1)

This new two-way, point-to-point service – meaning satellite to ship and ship to satellite – will be aimed at supporting commercial fleet monitoring services such as real-time delivery of meteorological data as well as ship engine, emissions, fuel-level and other data to ship owners and operators. It will also enable security alerts around piracy to be sent to crew members.

To do this, the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) e-NAV committee is developing a new communications standard called VDES (VHF Data Exchange System), a bi-directional ship communications concept, which consists of both a dedicated terrestrial and a satellite component.

Honeywell UK has been responsible for manifesting the VESTA mission. This has entailed the mission engineering, ground segment commissioning and procuring launch service for launch of a 3U CubeSat. Engineers with Honeywell have also provided overall project management, end-to-end system testing, validation of launch requirements and ensuring the adherence to regulatory requirements.

 

Spacecraft

SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd) developed the 3U CubeSat with grant funding from the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and matching funds from Honeywell and the participating technology partners, which include exactEarth Europe, Pole Star, TeamSurv, Satellite Applications Catapult, and the General Lighthouse Authority (GLA).

The 3U CubeSat is 3-axis stabilized using active magnetic alignment, a reaction wheel, and a fine sun sensor. It has deployable solar panels, a VHF antenna system, high-capacity Lithium ion batteries, on-board multi-channel GPS for orbital positioning and timing, and has S-band Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) transponders.

VESTA-1 is a 3U nanosatellite technology demonstration mission with the objective to test a new two-way VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) payload developed by Honeywell for the exactEarth advanced maritime satellite constellation. The 4 kg satellite has 3-axis pointing capability, an SEU tolerant on-board computer, VxWorks operating system and also flies a COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) VHF deployable antenna system developed by Innovative Solutions in Space for the VDES transceiver. 2)

Figure 1: Photo of the VESTA-1 3U CubeSat (image credit: SSTL)
Figure 1: Photo of the VESTA-1 3U CubeSat (image credit: SSTL)
Figure 2: The deployed VESTA 3U CubeSat carrying the new VDES payload to increase safety and security in commercial shipping through better data exchange and communication between ship and shore entities (image credit: Honeywell)
Figure 2: The deployed VESTA 3U CubeSat carrying the new VDES payload to increase safety and security in commercial shipping through better data exchange and communication between ship and shore entities (image credit: Honeywell)

 

Sensor Complement (VDES)

VDES (VHF Data Exchange System)

The VDES instrument will be described when the information becomes available.

 

Launch

The VESTA-1 3U CubeSat (4 kg) was launched on 3 December 2018 (18:34 GMT) on the SSO-A "dedicated rideshare" mission of Spaceflight Industries with a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 vehicle from VAFB, CA. 3) 4)

SpaceX statement: On Monday, December 3rd at 10:34 a.m. PST (18:34 GMT), SpaceX successfully launched Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express to a low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Carrying 64 payloads, this mission represented the largest single rideshare mission from a U.S.-based launch vehicle to date. A series of six deployments occurred approximately 13 to 43 minutes after liftoff, after which Spaceflight began to command its own deployment sequences. Spaceflight's deployments are expected to occur over a period of six hours. 5)

This mission also served as the first time SpaceX launched the same booster a third time. Falcon 9's first stage for the Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission previously supported the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 mission in May 2018 and the Merah Putih mission in August 2018. Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9's first stage on the "Just Read the Instructions" droneship, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

Orbit: Sun-synchronous circular orbit with an altitude of 575 km, LTDN (Local Time of Descending Node) of 10:30 hours.

Figure 3: Artist's illustration of the SSO-A mission's free flyers separating from the upper stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket (image credit: Spaceflight Industries)
Figure 3: Artist's illustration of the SSO-A mission's free flyers separating from the upper stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket (image credit: Spaceflight Industries)
Figure 4: SSO-A mission animation of the spacecraft deployments (image credit: Spaceflight Industries)

 


 

Payloads on the Spaceflight SSO-A Rideshare Mission

The layout of the list follows the alphabetical order of missions as presented on the Wikipedia page "2018 in spaceflight" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_in_spaceflight#November — as well as with the help of Gunter Krebs's short descriptions at https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/skysat-3.htm

This mission enabled 34 organizations from 17 different countries to place spacecraft on orbit. It's also special because it was completely dedicated to smallsats. Spaceflight launched 15 microsatellite and 49 CubeSats from government and commercial entities including universities, startups, and even a middle school. The payloads vary from technology demonstrations and imaging satellites to educational research endeavors.

• AISTechSat-2, a 6U CubeSat for Earth observation of AISTech (Access to Intelligent Space Technologies), Barcelona, Spain.

• Al Farabi-2, a 3U CubeSat technology demonstration mission of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan.

• Astrocast-0.1, a 3U CubeSat technology demonstration mission of Astrocast, Switzerland, dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT)

• Audacy-0, a 3U CubeSat technology demonstration mission of Audacy, Mountain View, CA, built by Clyde Space.

• BlackSky-2, a microsatellite (55 kg) of BlackSky Global (Seattle, WA) which will provide 1 m resolution imagery with improved geolocation accuracy.

• BRIO, a 3U CubeSat of SpaceQuest Ltd. of Fairfax, VA to test a novel communications protocol that uses SDR (Software Defined Radio).

• Capella-1, a microsatellite (37 kg) of Capella Space, San Francisco, CA featuring a X-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture) payload.

• Centauri-1, a 3U CubeSat of Fleet Space Technologies, Adelaide, South Australia. Demonstration of IoT technologies.

• CSIM-FD (Compact Spectral Irradiance Monitor-Flight Demonstration), a 6U CubeSat of LASP (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics) at the University of Boulder, CO, USA. The goal is to measure solar spectral irradiance to understand how solar variability impacts the Earth's climate and to validate climate model sensitivity to spectrally varying solar forcing.

• Eaglet-1, the first 3U CubeSat (5 kg) of OHB Italia SpA for Earth Observation.

• Elysium Star-2, a 1U CubeSat of Elysium Space providing space burial services.

• ESEO (European Student Earth Orbiter) sponsored by ESA, a microsatellite of ~40 kg with 6 instruments aboard.

• Eu:CROPIS (Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-Food Production in Space), a minisatellite (230 kg) of DLR, Germany. The objective is to study food production in space in support of future long-duration manned space missions (life sciences). The main payloads are two greenhouses, each maintained as a pressurized closed loop system, simulating the environmental conditions of the Moon or of Mars.

• eXCITe (eXperiment for Cellular Integration Technology), a DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) mission to demonstrate the 'satlets' technology. Satlets are a new low-cost, modular satellite architecture that can scale almost infinitely. Satlets are small modules that incorporate multiple essential satellite functions and share data, power and thermal management capabilities. Satlets physically aggregate in different combinations that would provide capabilities to accomplish diverse missions.Built by NovaWurks, eXCITE has a mass of 155 kg. eXCITE also carries the See Me (Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements), a prototype microsatellite (~22 kg) built by Raytheon for DARPA to obtain on-demand satellite imagery in a timely and persistent manner for pre-mission planning.

• ExseedSat-1, a 1U CubeSat mission by the Indian company Exseed Space. The goal is to provide a multifunction UHF/VHF NBFM (Narrow Band Frequency Modulation) amateur communication satellite.

• FalconSat-6, a minisatellite (181 kg) of the USAFA (U.S. Air Force Academy) and sponsored by AFRL. FalconSat-6 hosts a suite of five payloads to address key AFSPC (Air Force Space Command) needs: SSA (Space Situational Awareness) and the need to mature pervasive technologies such as propulsion, solar arrays, and low power communications.

• Flock-3, three 3U CubeSats (5 kg each) of Planet Labs to provide Earth observation.

• Fox-1C, a radio amateur and technology research 1U CubeSat developed by AMSAT and hosting several university developed payloads.

• HawkEye, a formation-flying cluster of three microsatellites (13.4 kg each) of HawkEye 360, Herndon, VA, USA. The goal is to demonstrate high-precision RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) geolocation technology monitoring.

• Hiber-1 and-2, these are 6U CubeSats, a pathfinder mission of Hiber Global, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, for Hiber Global's planned (IoT) communications CubeSat constellation.

• ICE-Cap (Integrated Communications Extension Capability), a 3U CubeSat of the US Navy. The objectives are to demonstrate a cross-link from LEO (Low Earth Orbit) to MUOS (Mobile User Objective System) WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) in GEO (Geosynchronous Orbit). The objective is to send to users on secure networks.

• ICEYE-X2, a X-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) microsatellite (~ 80 kg) of Iceye Ltd, a commercial satellite startup company of Espoo, Finland.

• Irvine 02, a 1U CubeSat educational mission by the Irvine Public School Foundation, Irvine, CA. The Irvine CubeSat STEM Program (ICSP) is a multi-year endeavor that directly impacts over a hundred students from six high schools and two school districts.

• ITASAT-1 (Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica Satellite), a Brazilian 6U Cubesat (~8kg) built by the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA). A former rescoped microsatellite mission.

• JY1-Sat, a 1U CubeSat of Jordan developed by students of various universities. The satellite will carry a UHF/VHF amateur radio.

• KazSTSAT (Kazakh Science and Technology Satellite), a microsatellite (<100 kg) of Ghalam LLP, Astana, Kazakhstan. Developed by SSTL on a SSTL-50 platform including an SSTL EarthMapper payload designed for global commercial wide-area imaging with a resolution of 17.5 m on a swath of 250 km.

• KNACKSAT (KMUTNB Academic Challenge of Knowledge SATellite) of Thailand, a 1U technology demonstration CubeSat, the first entirely Thai-built satellite, developed by students of King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB). Use of an amateur radio for communication.

• Landmapper-BC (Corvus BC 4), a 6U CubeSat (11 kg) of Astro Digital (formerly Aquila Space), Santa Clara, CA, USA. The satellite features a broad coverage multispectral (Red, Green, NIR) imaging system with a resolution of 22 m.

• MinXSS-2 (Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer-2), a 3U CubeSat(4 kg) of LASP (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics) at the University of Colorado at Boulder,CO, USA. The objective is to study the energy distribution of solar flare SXR (Soft X-ray) emissions and its impact on the Earth's ITM (Ionosphere, Thermosphere, and Mesosphere) layers.MinXSS-2 is a copy of the MinXSS-1 but with some improvements. — MinXSS-1 was launched on 06 December 2015 onboard of Cygnus CRS-4 to the ISS, were it was deployed into orbit on 16 May 2016. It reentered Earth's atmosphere on 6 May 2017.

• NEXTSat-1, a multi-purpose microsatellite (~100 kg) of Korea designed and developed at SaTReC (Satellite Technology Research Center) of KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). The goal is to conduct scientific missions such as star formation and space storm measurements and also technology demonstration in space. Instruments: ISSS (Instrument for the Study of Space Storms) developed at KAIST to detect plasma densities and particle fluxes of 10 MeV energy range near the Earth. NISS (NIR Imaging Spectrometer for Star formation history), developed at KASI (Korean Astronomy and Space Science Institute).

• Orbital Reflector, a 3U CubeSat project (4 kg) of the Nevada Museum of Art and artist Trevor Paylon. The Orbital Reflector is a 30 m sculpture constructed of a lightweight material similar to Mylar. On deployment, the sculpture self-inflates like a balloon. Sunlight reflects onto the sculpture making it visible from Earth with the naked eye — like a slowly moving artificial star as bright as a star in the Big Dipper.

• ORS-7 (Operationally Responsive Space 7), two 6U CubeSats (-7A and -7B) of the USCG (US Coast Guard) in cooperation with DHS (Department of Homeland Security), the ORS (Operationally Responsive Space Office) of DoD, and NOAA. The objective is to detect transmissions from EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons), which are carried on board vessels to broadcast their position if in distress.

• PW-Sat 2 (Politechnika Warszawska Satellite 2), a 2U CubeSat of the Institute of Radioelectronics at the Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland. The objective is to demonstrate a deorbitation system - a drag parachute opened behind the satellite - which allows faster removal of satellites from their orbit after it completes its mission.

• RAAF-M1 (Royal Australian Air Force-M1), an Australian 3U CubeSat (~4 kg) designed and built by UNSW (University of New South Wales) for the Australian Defence Force Academy, Royal Australian Air Force. RAAF-M1 is a technology demonstration featuring an AIS receiver, and ADS-B receiver, an SDR (Software Defined Radio).

• RANGE-A and -B (Ranging And Nanosatellite Guidance Experiment), two 1.5 CubeSats of Georgia Tech (Georgia Institute of Technology), Atlanta, GA, USA, flying in a leader-follower formation with the goal of improving the relative and absolute positioning capabilities of nanosatellites.

• ROSE-1, a 6U CubeSat of Phase Four Inc., El Segundo, CA, USA. ROSE-1 is an experimental spacecraft designed to provide an orbital test-bed for the Phase Four RFT (Radio Frequency Thruster), the first plasma propulsion system to fly on a nanosatellite.

• SeaHawk-1, a 3U CubeSats of UNCW (University of North Carolina, Wilmington), NC. The goal is to measure the ocean color in project SOCON (Sustained Ocean Observation from Nanosatellites). SeaHawk is considered a prototype for a larger constellation. The SOCON project is a collaboration between Clyde Space Ltd (spacecraft bus), the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Cloudland Instruments, and NASA/GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center).

• See Me (Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements), a prototype microsatellite (~22 kg) built by Raytheon for DARPA to obtain on-demand satellite imagery in a timely and persistent manner for pre-mission planning.

• SkySat-14 and -15. Planet Labs of San Francisco has 13 SkySats in orbit. The commercial EO satellites were built by Terra Bella of Mountain View, CA, which Planet Labs acquired from Google last year. At the time of the purchase, there were 7 SkySats in orbit. On 31 October 2017, Planet launched an additional six on a Minotaur-C rocket. The 100 kg SkySats are capable of sub-meter resolution – making them the most powerful in the constellation. Customers can request to have these high-resolution satellites target their locations of interest.

• SNUGLITE, a 2U CubeSat designed by the SNU (Seoul National University) for technology demonstrations and amateur radio communication.

• SpaceBEE, four picosatellites of Swarm Technologies (a US start-up), built to the 0.25U form factor to make up a 1U CubeSat.

• STPSat-5 is a science technology minisatellite of the US DoD STP (Space Test Program), managed by the SMC of the USAF. STPSat-5 will carry a total of five technological or scientific payloads to LEO (Low Earth Orbit) in order to further the DoD's understanding of the space environment. The satellite was built by SNC (Sierra Nevada Corporation) on the modular SN-50 bus with a payload capacity of 50-100 kg and compatible with ESPA-class secondary launch adaptors.

• THEA, a 3U CubeSat built by SpaceQuest, Ltd. of Fairfax, VA to demonstrate a spectrum survey payload developed by Aurora Insight, Washington DC. The objective is to qualify Aurora's payload, consisting of a proprietary spectrometer and components, and demonstrate the generation of relevant measurements of the spectral environment (UHF, VHF, S-band). The results of the experiment will inform future development of advanced instrumentation by Aurora and component development by SpaceQuest.

• VESTA-1 is a 3U CubeSat developed at SSTL in Guildford, UK. VESTA-1 is a technology demonstration mission that will test a new two-way VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) payload for the exactEarth advanced maritime satellite constellation. Honeywell Aerospace is providing the payload. VESTA is a flagship project of the National Space Technology Program, funded by the UK Space Agency and managed by the Center for EO Instrumentation and Space Technology (CEOI-ST).

• VisionCube-1, a 2U CubeSat designed by the Korea Aerospace University (KAU) to perform research on Transient Luminous Events in the upper atmosphere. The image processing payload consists of a multi-anode photon multiplier tube(MaPMT), a camera, and a real-time image processing engine built by using SoC (System-on-Chip) FPGA technologies.

 

Spaceflight has contracted with 64 spacecraft from 34 different organizations for the mission to a Sun-Synchronous Low Earth Orbit. It includes 15 microsatellites and 49 CubeSats from both commercial and government entities, of which more than 25 are from international organizations from 17 countries, including United States, Australia, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Germany, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Poland, Canada, Brazil, and India. 6)

 


 

Mission Status

• December 18, 2018: SSTL operators were faced with the problem of identifying VESTA-1 after 64 satellites, including 48 other CubeSats, were launched with Spaceflight's SSO-A SmallSat Express Mission on board Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 3 December 2018. After the launch, our spacecraft operators quickly discovered that the orbital predictions provided did not match the location of VESTA-1 and so had to be hand-tuned to establish reliable communications. 7)

- Fortunately VESTA-1 was carrying the SGR-Ligo, a new CubeSat-format GNSS receiver recently produced by SSTL. Although the cubesat was tumbling, the GNSS receiver was able to acquire and track GPS signals and recover the satellite's position and velocity. This enabled us to update the orbital predictions, and we gained an invaluable assurance that the satellite would never be lost again - a big relief!

- The SGR-Ligo is a GNSS receiver that uses signals from the 20,000 km altitude GPS satellite constellation to determine the CubeSat's position, velocity and time, in much the same way as a satnav in a car. The SGR-Ligo also has capability to use signals from the European Galileo and Russian Glonass satellite constellations. The receiver has been designed specifically for CubeSat compatibility, and is PC/104 bus compatible. It has a fault-tolerant processor, and supports two antennas, active or passive, for use on inertially pointing satellites. When operating continuously it consumes as little as 0.4 W, and can acquire position quickly, to support intermittent operation for even lower average powers.

Figure 5: Illustration of the miniaturized SGR-Ligo (Space GNSS Receiver-Ligo) with a size of 92 x 87 x 12 mm and a mass of 90 g (image credit: SSTL)
Figure 5: Illustration of the miniaturized SGR-Ligo (Space GNSS Receiver-Ligo) with a size of 92 x 87 x 12 mm and a mass of 90 g (image credit: SSTL)

 


1) "Honeywell Aerospace," URL: http://spaceflight.com/sp-customers/lorem-ipsum/

2) https://www.sstl.co.uk/space-portfolio/launched-missions

3) Stephen Clark, "Spaceflight's 64-satellite rideshare mission set to last five hours," Spaceflight Now, 3 December 2018, URL: https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/12/03/spaceflights-
64-satellite-rideshare-mission-set-to-last-five-hours/

4) Stephen Clark, "SpaceX launches swarm of satellites, flies rocket for third time," Spaceflight Now, 3 December 2019, URL: https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/12/03/spacex-launches-
swarm-of-satellites-re-flies-rocket-for-third-time/

5) "Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express Mission," SpaceX, 3 December 2018, URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20181204085402/https://www.spacex.com/news/2018/12/03/spaceflight-sso-smallsat-express-mission

6) "Spaceflight - Introducing SSO-A: The smallsat express," Spaceflight, 3 December 2018, URL: http://spaceflight.com/sso-a/

7) "VESTA-1 : Found in Space!," SSTL, 18 Decmber 2018, URL: https://www.sstl.co.uk/media-hub/latest-news/2018/vesta-1-found-in-space
 


The information compiled and edited in this article was provided by Herbert J. Kramer from his documentation of: "Observation of the Earth and Its Environment: Survey of Missions and Sensors" (Springer Verlag) as well as many other sources after the publication of the 4th edition in 2002. - Comments and corrections to this article are always welcome for further updates (eoportal@symbios.space)

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