Arcturus Space & Intelligence: This company is a Systems Engineering & Technical Advisory (SETA) and Systems Integration (SI) consulting firm that provides expertise to space and intelligence clients, focusing on system acquisition needs in defense, intelligence, civil, and commercial sectors. They offer end-to-end solutions for acquiring space vehicles, ground systems, and software systems, supporting missions like SatCom, ISR, and Space Domain Awareness.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
Astranis Space Technologies Corp. is building on the success of its Arcturus mission, which demonstrated the core functionality of its proprietary software-defined radio in 2023.
Astranis’ previous satellite Arcturus launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy in April 2023 and experienced failure of two onboard solar array drive assemblies.
Arcturus was based on Astranis’ roughly 400-kilogram MicroGEO platform that can be reprogrammed in orbit.
Arcturus, the first and only Astranis satellite deployed to date, suffered solar power issues after launching last year.
UtilitySat would provide interim services for Alaskan telco Pacific Dataport, which ordered Arcturus for services over Alaska.
Arcturus set off on 2024-02-01 and is scheduled to arrive at the Asian geostationary position by the middle of March.
Astranis had planned to lease Arcturus to Pacific Dataport to provide at least 7.5 gigabits per second of regional throughput in Ka-band.
Arcturus is a 400-kilogram, dishwasher-sized satellite launched on 2024-04-30 as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
The SATCOM industry faced major setbacks in 2023 with Viasat-3, Arcturus, and mPower satellite failures.
Insurers expect an additional $40,000,000 in claims from Arcturus and around $25,000,000 from Azersky/Spot-7.
Astranis has worked with commercial and government customers to demonstrate the successful operation of the Astranis-designed payload on Arcturus.
Arcturus, the Astranis-built satellite of around 400 kg that rode on the same Falcon Heavy flight as ViaSat-3 Americas, suffered a post-launch issue that prevents it from providing broadband over Alaska as planned.
Arcturus was designed to provide 7.5 gigabits per second of throughput in Ka-band.
The replacement satellite planned for early 2025 will have significantly more capacity than Arcturus was designed to have.
UtilitySat is a previously undisclosed Block 2 satellite that can serve as a partial replacement for Arcturus until a dedicated Pacific Dataport satellite can be launched in 2025.
Astranis launched its debut satellite Arcturus on 2024-04-30 as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy carrying the 6,400-kilogram ViaSat-3 broadband satellite.
Astranis launched its debut small GEO satellite Arcturus on 2023-04-30.
Arcturus launched at the end of April as a secondary payload to the 6,400-kilogram ViaSat-3 spacecraft.
Arcturus completed the orbital maneuvers necessary to arrive in its designated orbital slot in geostationary orbit.
The 400-kilogram Astranis-built Arcturus satellite reached geostationary orbit over Alaska.