News

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.”