Hiltron’s latest SATCOM products and services

Hiltron Communications is promoting the latest additions to the firm’s range of SATCOM products, systems and supporting services at GovSatCom 2025—the event will be held at the European Convention Center in Luxembourg, from Thursday, February 27th, through Friday the 28th.

“A highlight of our GovSatCom 2025 presence will be the latest addition to our HMAM series of motorized antenna mounts,” said Antonio Monteverde, Sales Director at Hiltron Communications. “The new HMAM-XY is an advanced model designed to perform high precision tracking of LEO and MEO satellites, smallsat constellations and flying objects such as drones. It combines fast high tracking speed and fast acceleration with precise pointing and tracking accuracy, including low backlash and full hemispheric coverage with no zenith keyhole. Tracking velocity is up to 10 degrees per second with 6 degrees per second squared maximum acceleration and within 0.05% accuracy. TLE/NORAD tracking capabilities are included and Steptrack is available as an option.”

“Operation and supervision of the HMAM-XY are via Hiltron’s established HACU antenna control unit,” said Thomas Wurst, Pre-Sales Engineering Manager. “Browser-based control and monitoring can be performed from any desired location via an Ethernet link connection. The control unit can be mounted on the HMAM-XY support column with local operation additionally possible via a directly connected handheld unit.”

Also showing will be Hiltron’s new Field-Upgradable Motorization Kit for the CPI 2385 Satcom Antenna (photo in the second column). The kit is designed for broadcast applications, two-way satellite telecommunication links or receive-only downlinks. Based on the established HMAM, it offers an economical alternative to new installations.

Tracking capabilities include manual positioning to known satellites, automatic positioning and active step tracking. TLE/NORAD, inclined orbit tracking and Intelsat 11 tracking are also supported. An optional motorized feed changer allows the head to be moved quickly to a new position for switching between frequency bands.

About Hiltron Communications
The company is a globally active system integrator, manufacturer and distributor in the field of satellite and wireless communication. Founded in 1979, it has more than 45 years of experience in the development and production of tracking systems for fixed and mobile antennas and hundreds of installed bases around the world for tracking LEO, GEO, MEO and inclined-orbit satellites. Hiltron offers a comprehensive portfolio of services, from initial planning to the implementation of customized antenna systems, including factory acceptance tests, installation and commissioning, operator training and post-sale support. Antenna refurbishment, which is currently in strong market demand, is also offered based on the knowledge of Hiltron’s service personnel. Service-level agreements are also available.
hiltron.de

K2 Space’s double good news, $110M Series B and first successful in-space demonstration

K2 Space has announced the firm’s $110 million Series B success to ramp up mass production of their multi-orbit, high power satellite platform.

The funding round, co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Altimeter Capital, includes participation from existing investors Alpine Space Ventures, First Round Capital, and others. This milestone comes as K2 celebrates the opening of the new 180,000 square foot factory in Torrance, California, and the success of K2 Space’s first, in-space demo, flying a number of critical components developed in-house. Since its inception, K2 Space has raised $180 million in equity and won more than $50 million in government and commercial contracts.

K2 Space is changing the economics of satellite connectivity and functionality, having designed a resilient, high power, high payload mass satellite platform at a cost that enables proliferation across orbits. With increasing demand for proliferated space applications requiring high throughput and levels of compute, K2’s solution provides an answer for customers who, until now, have been forced to trade between performance and affordability.

The company plans to use the newly raised capital to scale production, hire talent, and bring additional components in-house.

K2 Space recently announced a government contract for its first mission, “Gravitas,” which is designed to demonstrate the platform’s ability to operate in the high radiation environment of MEO and perform the first of its kind LEO to MEO electric propulsion orbit raise.

Taking advantage of the platform’s high power generation and versatile payload deck, the Gravitas mission will carry a mix of National Security and commercial payloads, demonstrating the ability to execute against critical mission areas while enabling a wide variety of space applications.

K2 Space is entering 2025 on the heels of a blockbuster 2024 for the company. In addition to winning new government and commercial business, the company scaled from 25 to 90 full-time employees, and successfully completed full activation and operation of all hardware launched on its first in-space mission, including the flight computer, microcontroller core board, motor controller, and reaction wheel.

K2 Space is developing a high-powered, low-cost satellite bus platform that delivers the capability of satellites at the price point and speed of small satellites.

Redesigned from the reaction wheel up, the K2 bus multi-manifests up to 10 satellites per launch vehicle, is made to handle the harsh environment of MEO and GEO, and has the highest power electric propulsion system ever flown—making it the platform of choice for Proliferated LEO, Proliferated MEO, and Proliferated GEO.

K2 Space was started by a team of former SpaceX engineers.

“We are at the dawn of a Space Supercycle,” said Erik Kriessmann, Partner at Altimeter Capital, “where new launch vehicles and reduced-cost, reliable access to space are transforming the entire market. K2 Space is taking advantage of this paradigm shift by mass-manufacturing multi-mission satellites that deliver unprecedented capabilities and enable multi-orbit constellations.”

“Advanced space capabilities can’t be built on small, low- powered platforms,” said Karan Kunjur, CEO at K2 Space, “but higher capability satellites have been far too expensive for most proliferated applications. This is the gap K2 fills – making highly capable, powerful satellites available to a much broader market. And because our satellites are designed to proliferate in higher orbits, our constellations require fewer satellites and fewer launches to provide global coverage.”
www.k2space.com

MDA Space + Globalster

MDA Space Ltd. (TSX:MDA) has signed a definitive contract with Globalstar Inc. (NYSE American: GSAT) to be the prime contractor for the satellite operator’s next generation LEO constellation, with a total contract value of approximately $1.1 billion*.

As part of the definitive contract for the full LEO constellation, MDA Space will manufacture more than 50 MDA AURORA™ software-defined digital satellites for Globalstar.

The definitive contract announced today is a follow-on to an initial Authorization to Proceed (ATP) contract with an undisclosed customer (believed to be Apple Computer), that was previously announced on November 17, 2023.
A contract value of approximately $750 million will be added to the company’s backlog in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. 

This amount is in addition to the ATP value of approximately $350 million that was previously added to backlog, for a total value of $1.1 billion under the definitive contract.

“We are pleased to once again be working with Globalstar as they develop their next generation LEO constellation,” said Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA Space. “With the full contract now in place, we are moving full speed ahead on the program.”

*Contract value is stated in CAD. Management assumed US/CAD exchange rate of 1.43.

NASA’s 2024 State-of-the-Art Small Spacecraft Technology Report is Released

NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI) has released the 2024 State-of-the-Art Small Spacecraft Technology report. This significant accomplishment was made possible by the contributions of numerous dedicated people across NASA who graciously supported the preparation of the document as authors and reviewers. We also want to extend our gratitude to all the companies, universities, and organizations that provided content for this report.

This 2024 edition reflects updates in several chapters to include: the Formation Flying and Rendezvous and Proximity Operations section within the “Guidance, Navigation, and Control” chapter; the Additive Manufacturing section within the “Structures, Materials, and Mechanisms” chapter; the Free Space Optical Communications section within the “Communications” chapter; and the Hosted Orbital Services section within the “Complete Spacecraft Platforms” chapter.

As in previous editions, the report contains a general overview of current state-of-the-art SmallSat technologies and their development status as discussed in open literature. The report is not intended to be an exhaustive representation of all technologies currently available to the small spacecraft community, nor does the inclusion of technologies in the report serve as an endorsement by NASA. Sources of publicly available date commonly used as sources in the development of the report include manufacturer datasheets, press releases, conference papers, journal papers, public filings with government agencies, and news articles. Readers are highly encouraged to reach out to companies for further information regarding the performance and maturity of described technologies of interest. During the report’s development, companies were encouraged to release test information and flight data when possible so it may be appropriately captured. It should be noted that technology maturity designations may vary with change to payload, mission requirements, reliability considerations, and the associated test/flight environment in which performance was demonstrated.

Efforts are underway for the 2025 report and organizations are invited to submit technologies for consideration for inclusion by August 1, 2025.

NASA’s Aurora-studying satellites arrive in California ahead of their launch

On Jan. 27, the three spacecraft of NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California where they will undergo final preparations for launch. The EZIE mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than March as part of the Transporter-13 rideshare mission with SpaceX via launch integrator Maverick Space Systems.

After lifting off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg, EZIE’s three CubeSats will fly in formation around Earth to map the auroral electrojets, electric currents that flow in the upper atmosphere near Earth’s polar regions when auroras glow in the sky. The mission will help better understand the connection between the Sun and Earth, as well as improve predictions of hazardous space weather. The EZIE mission is funded by the Heliophysics Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, leads the mission for NASA. Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, built the CubeSats, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built the Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram, which will map the electrojets, for each of the three satellites. Author: Vanessa Thomas, NASA Blogs