MarketWatch releases its Small Satellite Market Report

The small satellite industry is consistently changing. There have been numerous organizations from nearly every sector taking advantage of the low cost, efficiency, and innovation that is provided by small satellites. We've covered stories in the past of small satellites providing opportunities for creating commercial opportunities as well as humanitarian efforts for solving the world's problems. The report is predicting that small satellites will have a market value that will exceed 1.42 billion in 2017.

Here is the link for further research.

Launch Providers Accomodate more Small Satellites!

Launch companies are shifting from sending large spacecraft into orbit to sending more small satellites into orbit. Experts at the Small Satellite Symposium confirmed this trend that has been sweeping the space industry. Small satellites have been adopted by many organizations ranging from the nonprofit to the commercial industries and are being deployed all over the world. One company with a focus on innovating small satellite launches is SpaceX.

Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX commercial sales vice president, detailed a new model that SpaceX is currently working on. “We are working on the model where we have multiple missions dedicated to flying secondary payloads,” Hofeller said. He further noted that getting the cost and routine schedule down, that this will be a much better opportunities for small satellites to get into orbit. SpaceX hopes to improve means of launching clusters of small satellites into low level orbit on its Falcon 9 rockets. 

Google will sell its Terra Bella Small Satellite!

Planet, an Earth-imaging firm will acquire Google's Terra Bella small satellite business. The two companies made the announcement last Friday. As part of the deal, Google also agreed to buy Earth-Imaging data from Planet. Terra Bella was founded in 2010 and it builds small satellites and constellations for Earth observation.

This acquisition and sale is a great example of the diversification of the industry that is happening. This diversification is becoming increasingly common in the small satellite industry especially when it comes to combining areas and data in order to provide better services for earth science related projects. We've seen it with humanitarian efforts from NASA and more commercial industries.

Small Satellites are used for Humanitarian Efforts!

In recent years, small satellites have been used by commercial industries to provide better quality location based services. These satellites have allowed many businesses as well as many government agencies to give us important information and reliable service for much of the technology that we use today.

While most of the work has been done to improve commercial interests, it has also been directed towards humanitarian efforts as well. NASA has been heavily pushing small satellites in this direction by emphasizing on Earth science for the year 2017. NASA intends to support the development of commercial satellites in order to use the data for addressing important issues such as disaster management, food security, weather forecasting and much more. Commercial companies are also aiming to address humanitarian issues. One company in particular, Descartes Labs, aims to use its technology to address the global food crisis.

Descartes Labs aims to address the global food crisis by utilizing a wide variety of tools that involve small satellites. Descartes Labs captures satellite images and, with the help of deep machine learning, makes accurate predictions of food production and availability that are more granular, frequent and precise than those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Predictions and forecasting of crop yields and conditions could be used to help mitigate the effects of a food shortage and ensuring that effective response systems are put into place to avoid disaster. 

Small Satellite Research Laboratory seeks Students Passionate about Space

Georgia - By 2019, the University of Georgia plans on having its very own small satellite in orbit. 28 students at UGA's small satellite research laboratory will have the chance to launch two satellites into low-earth orbit over the course of the next few years, and they're taking applications. This laboratory, which is entirely student run started in 2016 and is seeking to use the small satellites to monitor environmental conditions. The students selected for this program aren't necessarily strictly involved in aerodynamics but come from all majors and their goal is to help this program succeed and solve the problems that exist in the laboratory.

“The goal of the lab is to give UGA a continuous presence in space,” said Caleb Adams, chief manager and founder of the Small Satellite Research Laboratory. “We have our very own space agency at UGA because of this.”

For more information on this story check out the original article in The Red and Black.

Pegasus launches small satellites

The Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket had its first flight in almost three and a half years when it launched eight satellites for NASA. These small satellites are part of NASA's plan to collect data for hurricane forecasting. The satellites are meant to collect more efficient data about hurricanes in order to better understand their causes as well as track them. These eight satellites make up NASA's Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) NASA reported late Dec. 15 that it had established contact with all eight satellites as they made passes over ground stations. 

According to Space News, The L-1011 aircraft carrying the Pegasus XL took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 7:38 a.m. Eastern and released the rocket 59 minutes later, at an altitude of about 11,900 meters. The rocket ignited its solid-fuel motor and began its ascent, releasing its payload of eight satellites over a 90-second period about 13 minutes after launch.

The CYGNSS will detect signals from Global Positioning Systems that are reflected off the oceans in tropical regions, measuring the the amount of scattering of the signals to calculate the roughness of the oceans and the wind speeds on the surface. Scientists believe that the data collected will help improve accurate forecasts of their development. The CYGNSS is a tool that will provide the scientists with 24/7 coverage of the tropical cyclone zone and it will improve common knowledge about how hurricanes grow. 

SpaceX delays first crewed flight of its dragon capsule for NASA.

SpaceX has decided to postpone its first crewed flight of its dragon capsule for NASA. The launch was supposed to take place in late 2017 but it has been delayed in the wake of the SpaceX rocket explosion back on September 1st 2016. According to NASA, The Dragon capsule is expected to go with its original plans of a crewed flight come May 2018.

This delay was expected as many had speculated that there would be a delay after the September explosion when a Falcon rocket exploded while it was being fueled. SpaceX announced that this delay would happen as it continues to investigate the incident.  “As this investigation has been conducted, our Commercial Crew team has continued to work closely with NASA and is completing all planned milestones for this period,” SpaceX said in a statement to The Verge. “We are carefully assessing our designs, systems, and processes taking into account the lessons learned and corrective actions identified. Our schedule reflects the additional time needed for this assessment and implementation.”

SpaceX's decision to delay this launch marks yet another delay for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, the space agency's initiative to fly astronauts on American-made rockets again. Through the program, two private companies - SpaceX and Boeing - are building vehicles that are capable of carrying people into lower Earth orbit for NASA. 

With delays for SpaceX and Boeing causing longer delays for NASA's hope for a crewed spaceflight in lower orbit. Luckily, this is a sign that both companies are taking serious measures to ensure that there will be safe travels for those who are traveling onboard space crafts.