For Canadian commercial space companies GHGSat and Kepler Communications, 2021 is off to a good start with nine satellites launched between them which equals the combined total of Canadian satellites launched in the past two years.
After consecutive days of weather delays, the towering SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:00 am EST Sunday morning.
On SpaceX’s first dedicated small satellite rideshare mission, dubbed Transporter-1, the largest rideshare mission to date, a total of 143 satellites were launched including 10 SpaceX Starlink satellites. Of note, these are the first Starlink satellites deployed in a polar orbit which will bring high speed satellite internet to Canada’s northern remote communities.
At the launch plus 59 minute mark, 8 Kepler Communication satellites, designated as Kepler-8 through Kepler-15 were deployed. Then at launch plus 1 hour, 8 minutes and 19 second mark, the GHGSat-C2 satellite, dubbed Hugo, was part of a group of nine satellites that were deployed as customers of Nanoracks.
GHGSat Hugo launched
GHGSat now has its second production greenhouse emission detection satellite in orbit. The emissions data GHGSat collects from their satellites, along with sensors deployed in aircraft, are aggregated for use by customers in the oil and gas sector, waste management, mining, power generation, governments and regulators and investor.
GHGSat’s Hugo satellite was built in Toronto by the UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory. It joins sister satellite Iris, launched in 2020, as the first two satellites of the 10 satellite emission detection constellation GHGSat is deploying. The satellites, comparable in size to a microwave over, weigh in at 15 kilograms and provide a 10 times performance increase than the demonstration satellite Claire (GHGSat-D1) which was launched in 2016. Iris and Hugo have a detection threshold of 100 kg/hr in moderate wind conditions.
Stephane Germain, CEO of GHGSat commented in a press release issued after the launch, “Hugo’s successful launch doubles our commercial capacity in orbit for performing high-resolution measurements of facility-level emissions. This launch starts the year on a high note as the next step in deploying our constellation.”
GHGSat is planning on launching eight more satellites by the end of 2022.
Kepler Communications 8 satellites launched
With this launch Kepler now has 13 small communication satellites in orbit including 10 GEN 1 and three pathfinder demonstration satellites. According to Kepler “the GEN1 platform represents an evolution beyond Kepler’s pathfinder satellites, with an increase to a 6U-XL satellite system. The increased size accommodates significant technology enhancements, including additional power and antenna capabilities that allows the support of both Ku and narrowband spectrum from a single satellite. This multi-spectrum support is achieved with Kepler’s proprietary Software Defined Radio (SDR) which has been proven onboard the five satellites already on orbit.”
The GEN 1 satellites are assembled at Kepler’s manufacturing facility in downtown Toronto. Kepler is in the process of building a small satellite low Earth orbit communication constellation of 140 satellites. They also have plans for a second constellation of another 360 satellites.
In a press release Mina Mitry, CEO of Kepler Communications said “we’re excited to continue our network deployment in response to the overwhelming global demand for our network capacity. As our network continues to grow, we move closer to recognizing Kepler’s vision of providing connectivity on and off the surface of the Earth.”
Kepler has additional GEN 1 satellites scheduled for launch in March and June.
Other satellites onboard
Other than the 10 SpaceX Starlink satellites and nine Canadian satellites, there were also 124 other satellites. Here’s the list:
- 48 SuperDove’s – Planet Lab
- 36 – Swarm Technologies
- 8 Lemurs – Spire Global
- 5 – AstroCast
- 3 – NASA V-R3x
- 3 Cluster 2 – HawkEye 360
- 3 ARCE 1 – University of South Florida
- 2 – IceEye
- 2 – Capella
- iQPS (Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space)
- NASA cubesat PTD-1
- Charlie – Aurora Insight
- SOMP2b and PIXL-1 – DLR
- PTD-1 – NASA (ELaNa 35)
- Hiber Four – Hiber
- IDEASSat and YUSAT – Taiwan’s National Space Organization
- UVSQ-SAT – Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
- GNOMES 2 – PlanetIQ
- Prometheus 2.10 – Los Alamos National Laboratory
- ASELSAT – Istanbul Technical University
- QPS-SAR 2 – QPS Institute (iQPS) (Japan)
Watch the full replay of the SpaceX Transporter-1 dedicated rideshare mission
