News

Who You Gonna Call? SEOPS!

As the most experienced rideshare and launch services provider, SEOPS is constantly iterating and innovating to create rapid and responsive hardware solutions for both our U.S. government and commercial clients.

Our latest innovation is our patented deployment system, Ghost Trap.

Ghost Trap improves upon Slingshot, one of our legacy deployment systems that has been in operation on the ISS, deploying multiple payloads. The deployer was originally created to slide into a small narrow hatch on the Cygnus resupply capsule for the ISS, but we’re happy to bring the benefit of this proven design to the wider market. The narrow configuration required the opening to be on the longer side, similar to a breadbox. However, it ended up having a greater benefit in producing stellar vibe test results.

Ghost Trap brings the payload closer to the launch vehicle interface instead of attaching on the farthest outer surfaces of a bus, offering the “smoothest ride” for the most sensitive payloads, such as those containing sensitive optical sensors or delicate solar arrays. This new approach lessens the stress load and reduces vibrations, creating a more protected and secure environment, without the need for additional adapters or isolators. This makes it a preferred solution for our launch vehicle providers, while making integration easier and faster for our clients.

Just one of the things that makes Ghost Trap special is the configuration of the propellant and the payload. Most other solutions on the market continue to put propellant in the “sweet spot” in the middle of the bus, and relegate payloads to the extreme outside, subject to the harshest environments. This system is the product of an engineering team with more than 80 years combined experience that has successfully deployed more than 400 spacecraft to their intended orbits.

We see many more uses for Ghost Trap, especially as the United States has plans to return to the Moon. There is a wave of lunar missions planned, and many will require a smooth ride and a gentle deployment system. Space Domain Awareness (SDA) beyond LEO and GEO requires a foundation built upon lunar rideshare missions, and SEOPS is ready to help build this infrastructure with solutions such as Ghost Trap. We stand ready to deliver the sensitive payloads that can secure cislunar space for our national interests.

Fun Fact: Ghost Trap was so named due to its resemblance to a certain key piece of hardware from the film “Ghostbusters.”

If you’d like to learn more about Ghost Trap or how you could use it on your next mission, let us know! Contact us at info@seops.com

SEOPS Partners with RIDE! Space to Offer Reliable Mission Management Services

We are excited to announce that we have signed an agreement with RIDE! to help more smallsat operators – especially those outside of the United States – quickly and reliably procure launch capacity and secure experienced integration and mission support to get their spacecraft safely on orbit.

Already Delivering Results

Weeks after inking the partnership, a leading smallsat provider in Hungary, C3S , needed help when their original launch plans fell through. Using the RIDE! Launch-on-Demand platform to find reliable launch services that best met their pressing needs, Houston-based SEOPS emerged as the top choice to launch the WREN satellite.

SEOPS was able to accommodate this last-minute 6U spacecraft to its manifest during the upcoming Transporter-11 Rideshare mission with SpaceX, which is targeted to launch this summer.

“Our number one priority is taking care of customers’ launch needs, whether that is capacity procurement, mission design, full integration services, hardware systems or orbital vehicles,” said Chad Brinkley, CEO of SEOPS. “RIDE! Space was instrumental in surfacing the time-sensitive situation C3S was in and we couldn’t be more pleased to have them onboard our next mission. Our years of experience supporting our customers on SpaceX’s Transporter Rideshare missions are unparalleled – especially when there is a need to accommodate a last-minute payload. We’re looking forward to working with RIDE! going forward to help more customers like C3S execute their launch plans.”

The C3S WREN (Water Resources in Efficient Networks) mission is a real-time decision support system for climate adaptation, drought prevention, and yield forecasting. The satellite features a high-performance imaging system and incorporates a unique camera system to capture multiple pictures of the planet.

“We are grateful for the invaluable partnership we’ve cultivated with SEOPS,” said Gyula Horváth, CEO at C3S LLC. “Their expertise, flexibility, and prompt service have played a pivotal role in the success of our satellite launch initiatives. We are thankful for their unwavering commitment and dedication to ensuring our satellite reaches its intended orbit.”

SEOPS Sends Customers to Orbit on SpaceX Transporter-10

SpaceX launched a big batch of satellites for a variety of private customers today. The company’s Transporter-10 mission lifted off right on time at 5:05 p.m. ET (2205 GMT) on Monday (March 4) from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

This is just the latest complex mission managed by our experienced team at SEOPS. We’ve been helping customers get to orbit for more than since 2018, and we know how to set our customers up for mission success. There is a lot of behind the scenes work to get each customers’ payloads integrated and ready for launch, and we pride ourselves on a customer-centric approach. It’s not just the integration to the launch vehicle, but we also can help customers with spacecraft design, licensing, provide cleanroom support (to include the brick and mortar), to include providing multiple flight proven deployer products that we designed and built.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to smallsat launches,” says Mike Johnson of SEOPS. “We have to be able to assess each payload and each customer separately, and do whatever it takes to make sure they get where they need to be.” From experienced fliers who are just launching the latest smallsat in a constellation, to working with university students launching for the first time, our team’s years of experience with the SpaceX integration and launch processes have helped us become a trusted, and valued leader in rideshare launches.

We’re always impressed by the important missions of our customers, and are happy to facilitate them. Here is a summary of the payloads and missions that were launched on Transporter-10 by SEOPS:

PYXIS: Axelspace Corporation’s PYXIS is the first demonstration satellite of AxelLiner, the one-stop microsatellite service. PYXIS will be demonstrating multiple components and sensors for Axelspace. PYXIS is also equipped with a deorbit device called D-SAIL, the Deployable Deorbit Mechanism for microsatellites. Developed as a countermeasure to the growing problem of space debris, this mechanism facilitates the rapid descent of satellites into the atmosphere upon mission completion, leveraging thin atmospheric resistance in orbit.

LaCE payloads: Two 6U payloads for the Navy, the LaCE (Laser Crosslink Experiment) spacecraft will demonstrate a low SWAP optical communications crosslink in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) These were developed by the US Navy’s Naval Information Warfare Command (NIWC) Pacific and sponsored by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

Scout-1: Quantum Space’s Scout-1, on their inaugural Sentry Mission, is the foundational node in their commercial mesh network known as QuantumNet. Scout-1 will be conducting on-orbit space situational awareness data collection while maturing on-orbit processing algorithms and refining their AI/ML technologies.

Tiger 7 and 8: OQ’s latest smallsats will join their counterparts in providing global NTN connectivity for machines and the internet of things (IoT). These satellites will complete their Batch-1 satellite constellation, comprised of 10 satellites. Both satellites are 6U sized nanosatellites carrying “cell tower” NB-IoT payloads. OQ has been on a fast track to complete Batch-1 to continue to provide global narrowband IoT coverage to many clients and applications. OQ is a front runner globally in offering Low Earth Orbit satellite narrowband communication for machines and the internet of things.

M3 (Multi-Mode Mission): This satellite designed by the students at Missouri S&T (Science and Technology) was developed as part of NASA’s Undergraduate Student Instrument Project and supported by NASA CSLI program. The cubesat M3 will test an experimental thruster in space. This project showcases the talent, dedication, and ingenuity of the Missouri S and T students and faculty.

Congratulations to all our customers on this successful mission! We’re already hard at work on the next one, ensuring the next round of customer payloads get to space so they can continue their important work.

SEOPS Awarded the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Professional Services Schedule

SEOPS, a company specializing in launch and deployment systems that include spacecraft Mission Integration and Operations (MI&O), has been awarded the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Professional Services Schedule. As an awardee, SEOPS is able to provide specialized services to federal agencies at a pre-negotiated fixed rate for assurred access to space.

In line with commercial launch services, SEOPS provides a catalog of turnkey services within the GSA Schedule for CubeSat and MicroSat deployments in Low-Earth Orbit on rideshare opportunities. Other services being provided to federal agencies through our services menu include microgravity research and hosted payloads.

Experienced in over 300 satellite deployments as a collective management team, SEOPS offers services to a number of federal agencies including the U.S Air Force, DARPA, and NASA. With the variety of mission applications, these services are provided through a fleet of deployment systems including the Slingshot, Equalizer, Octobucket and Rifle platforms. Backed by a 100% success rate of deployments and a regular cadence to space, these services cater to a variety of commercial and federal customers.

Due to the thorough vetting process for the consideration of this contract, SEOPS is considered a trusted launch service provider. “We are pleased to add this to our Multiple contract Vehicles. SEOPS Space is proud of our successful past performance that we have achieved since company inception” says COO, Chad Brinkley. This achievement required negotiations resulting in an efficient procurement process to facilitate affordable, reliable, and cost-effective access to space.

Adding GSA to the SEOPS fleet of contracting vehicles, federal agencies can look for our services through the GSA Advantage!® website / eBuy, the online Request for Quotation (RFQ) tool. More information can be found at gsaadvantage.gov, by searching for SEOPS’s GSA Contract number: 47QRAA22D0040

NASA selects a dozen companies for smallsat launch services

NASA awarded contracts Jan. 26 to a dozen companies, ranging from industry stalwarts to startups yet to launch their first rocket, to provide low-cost launches of agency smallsats.

NASA said it selected the companies for its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) program, which will provide launches of cubesats and other smallsats, particularly those with a higher risk tolerance. Those payloads will be launched either on dedicated missions or as rideshare payloads on other launches.

VADR is intended to build upon the agency’s earlier Venture-Class Launch Services (VCLS) demonstration efforts, which awarded contracts for single launches to several companies to support development of new small launch vehicles. Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit carried out VCLS launches under contracts awarded in 2015. Astra Space, Firefly Aerospace and Relativity Space won VCLS Demo 2 contracts in 2020 for missions launching this year.

Bradley Smith, director of launch services at NASA Headquarters, noted in a statement that the winners include “a broad range of established and emerging launch providers and launch service aggregators and brokers,” companies that arrange launches on other companies’ vehicles. “With this new tool in our toolbox, these tremendously flexible contracts will meet a wide variety of NASA science and technology needs.”

Of the 12 companies, six have conducted at least one successful orbital launch: Astra, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Virgin Orbit. Four companies are developing vehicles for first launches in the next few years: ABL Space Systems, Blue Origin, Phantom Space and Relativity.

Two others are launch brokers. Spaceflight arranges launches on a wide range of vehicles, including many of the other VADR awardees. L2 Solutions, also known as OmniTeq, provides rideshare services through a subsidiary, SEOPS Space Systems.

Notably absent from the winners is Firefly, which made its first orbital launch attempt of its Alpha rocket in September and had planned to launch its VCLS mission later this year. Firefly paused preparations for its next launch in December at the request of the federal government while the company’s largest shareholder, Noosphere Venture Partners, divests it stake at the request of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. A company spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether Firefly bid on the VADR program.

Astra, another VCLS awardee, is preparing to carry out that mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, soon. The company performed a static-fire test of its Rocket 3.3 from Space Launch Complex 46 there Jan. 22, after which it said it would announce a launch date for the mission once it received a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Astra also won a contract from NASA in February 2021 for three launches of its Rocket 3 vehicle to deploy a small constellation of Earth science satellites called TROPICS. Rocket Lab won a NASA contract in 2020 for the launch of a lunar smallsat, CAPSTONE.

NASA established VADR to streamline the procurement of such launches. Companies that won VADR contracts are not guaranteed any launches but instead must compete for individual task orders issued by the agency, similar to the structure for its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The contracts are indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity awards, with a maximum value across all the contracts of $300 million over five years.

Phase II of Mission P&G Tide Complete

SEOPS is proud to announce the completion of Phase II of Mission P&G Tide. This was made possible by our commercial Agreement with Procter and Gamble, as well as our User Agreement with ISS National Lab that provides access to the ISS Manifest, Crew Time and other valuable resources. Through this collaborative effort advanced laundry concepts were performed to raise the Technology Readiness Level (TRL). Hygiene is mission critical to long duration space missions, commercial space station laboratories and other microgravity environments.

The P&G Tide team increased their knowledge to advance similar activities on Earth in resource-constrained environments. “We are pleased to play a role in enabling research that identifies sustainable solutions in space, while bringing enhanced knowledge back to earth for terrestrial benefit.” says Chad Brinkley, SEOPS COO.

In most cases, each mission has a limited clothing budget per Crewmember that takes up precious volume on-board the ISS. Clothing items are worn for an extended time and then trashed on an expendable vehicle and disintegrated upon re-entry back to Earth. Per Mike Johnson, Chief Scientist, “At SEOPS, we think there is a better way and we are always seeking solutions to add efficiency and increase the habitable volume of the crew quarters – cleaning clothes in-situ is just one of the ways we can improve.” We are proud to participate with Procter and Gamble’s research and congratulate them on their successful mission.

SEOPS, LLC partners with SpaceX to launch aboard the company’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle

SEOPS, LLC has signed an agreement with SpaceX to launch aboard the company’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle as part of the SpaceX SmallSat Rideshare Program.

The launch will utilize SEOPS’ Equalizer Deployment System. Mounted on a 24″ port, Equalizer allows for a capacity of up to 96U and supports 1U-12U Tab or Rail CubeSat standards. All hardware is U.S designed, built, tested, and delivered. SEOPS has satellite integration facilities conveniently located near Houston, Texas.

“SEOPS is excited to provide customers with reliable, regular Sun-synchronous orbit access by combining our proven deployment systems with SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare Program. We now provide turnkey CubeSat deployment services to all LEO markets.” said SEOPS Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Michael Johnson.

CEO & Co-Founder Chad Brinkley stated, “With this agreement in place, we can quickly react to the growing CubeSat market. Using our experience with SEOPS SlingShot Satellite Deployment systems, we are adapting to the SpaceX SmallSat Rideshare Program. Having performed 4 missions on Slingshot, with 100% Mission Success, we are excited to add this capability to our portfolio of Services with Equalizer”.

UPWARD Magazine Showcases SEOPS SlingShot System

As a commercial facility on commercial resupply launch vehicles servicing the ISS, SlingShot offers a flexible, affordable rideshare for smallsats and provides the longer in-orbit time needed to prove out technology critical to the successful commercialization of LEO.

“Our approach serves as a blueprint for the commercialization model embraced by NASA,” said Brinkley, “where the private sector will lead space launch and operational advances into LEO, and NASA can be one of many customers.”

SlingShot Tests Satellite Deployment and Payload Hosting Capabilities

Launching satellites is a growing business. A new platform that could bolster satellite deployment opportunities in space seeks to service this burgeoning economy. SlingShot, by the company SEOPS, is designed to deploy CubeSats at altitudes above the station using the infrastructure offered by the International Space Station in partnership with the U.S. National Laboratory and Northrop Grumman.

SlingShot arrived at the orbiting laboratory aboard the SpaceX CRS-16 mission in early December. During this flight, the company is testing every aspect of the technology’s potential uses while also deploying satellites for SEOPS’ clients. SlingShot was designed to launch on any cargo vehicle. For this mission it was transferred from the SpaceX vehicle to the Cygnus vehicle attached to the station and then loaded with satellites for deployment when Cygnus departs from the station.

After Cygnus leaves the station, the cargo craft will navigate to approximately 310 miles (500 kilometers) above the Earth, approximately 62 miles higher than the space station’s orbit. There, Slingshot deploys two satellites, expected to stay in orbit at least two years. In addition, a mounted payload will test SlingShot’s capability to host fixed payloads for an extended period, where the payload uses Cygnus’ power, attitude control and communication capabilities.

SlingShot’s approach to satellite deployment builds on previous efforts made by other companies and international partners. Most previous deployments from the space station were at lower altitude orbits that degrade within months, limiting the useful life of the satellites.

“That is a great orbit for test demos,” said Chad Brinkley, principal investigator for the facility, “but if you look at the market for where rockets are trying to go, 500 km is ideal for closing a business case for companies that are considering flying CubeSats to give them revenue from a satellite for two plus years.”

The satellites SlingShot accommodates are modular small satellites called CubeSatsthat come in different configurations. Brinkley noted, “Our system is so flexible, we can accommodate the different CubeSat formats – all of them!”

One surprise to the development team has been the level of interest in the payload hosting capability. Fixed mounted payloads do not require adding avionics and a bus, so the development cost is significantly lower than developing a satellite. Additionally, the payload “can use Cygnus’ power and data as well as point the payload,” said Brinkley.

SEOPS worked closely with NASA to develop and get approval for SlingShot in less than a year. The company contracted directly with Northrop Grumman for the nonrecurring engineering to integrate SlingShot with Cygnus and worked with the U.S. National Laboratory to receive their allocation, securing space for transportation as well as crew time for installation of the hardware. “For a commercial company, this is to me a great model for how you can do business with NASA and other commercial companies,” said Brinkley.

“We’re excited about having an opportunity to do this,” Brinkley said, “I feel like we’re executing the vision for commercialization of space.”