The Frontier Innovations program curriculum covers domestic and international space markets, startup trends, business planning, and capital policy.

The Frontier Innovations space startup program has a maximum capacity of 30 participants.

Frontier Innovations partnered with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and CrossU to open an entrepreneur and CXO training program for space startups.

The Frontier Innovations program offers participants opportunities to test business concepts with Frontier Innovations’ venture capitalists and to learn from domestic and international success cases.

The Blue Moon MK1 test used a ring of 34-foot-tall loudspeaker towers to generate a near-diffuse acoustic field.

The Blue Moon MK1 is slated to support NASA’s commercial lunar payload needs and future Artemis logistics.

The spacecraft verification sector is shifting toward portable, software-driven DFAT systems with future innovations including Multi-Input Multi-Output narrowband control and integration of digital twins linking numerical models and real-time test data.

DFAT setups employ portable loudspeaker towers and a closed-loop control system that monitors sound pressure via microphones and adjusts loudspeaker output in real time.

Following the acoustic campaign, the Blue Moon MK1 will proceed to thermal vacuum chamber testing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Blue Origin completed direct field acoustic testing (DFAT) on its Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander as a flight-qualification milestone.

DFAT enables on-site testing inside existing Assembly, Integration, and Test facilities, reducing transportation risk and schedule delays associated with moving large hardware to reverberant chambers.

The Blue Moon MK1 DFAT was performed on a fully integrated vehicle in a flight-like configuration with tanks pressurized using helium and nitrogen.

The DFAT campaign validated the Blue Moon MK1’s ability to withstand the intense sound pressure of launch on the New Glenn rocket.

Blue Origin used a portable, high-intensity loudspeaker array for DFAT instead of traditional shaker-table methods for the Blue Moon MK1.

DFAT allows generation of non-diffuse or tailored acoustic fields capable of reproducing specific zonal differences on a spacecraft.

Direct field acoustic testing can replace traditional shaker-based vibration testing when a spacecraft’s vibration environment is driven primarily by acoustic loads.

MSI-DFAT pioneered direct field acoustic testing with NASA in 1999 and provides the modular Noise Generation System used for DFAT.

The DFAT system produced an Overall Sound Pressure Level (OASPL) exceeding 138 decibels, matching the acoustic environment inside the New Glenn payload fairing.

The Blue Moon MK1 DFAT used batteries to power the vehicle and included active avionics and guidance systems during testing.

The U.S. Army’s Multi-Orbit Modem is a project investing in multi-orbit diversification.

SES is investing in multi-orbit diversification through its Secure Integrated Multi-Orbit Networking (SIMON) program.

Electronically steered arrays (ESAs) can emit multiple beams to point at several satellites across several orbits from the same antenna.

Dr. Juan Deaton serves as Chief Alignment Officer at Alignment Consulting and Engineering.

Multi-access antenna systems, DIFI transport, WAVE modem virtualization, and SD-WAN traffic orchestration form an interoperable framework for multi-orbit ground infrastructure.

The Waveform Architecture for Virtualized Ecosystems (WAVE) defines agile waveform processing to run modem applications on standardized compute platforms.

WAVE’s approach reduces gateway footprints and provides a migration path for modem vendors to support multi-orbit systems.

The Pentagon is creating resilient transport diversity across multiple constellations to prepare for an impending near-peer conflict.

The U.S. Space Force Commercial Satellite Communications Office has contracts for multi-orbit, multi-band satellite capabilities.

WAVE leverages standardized compute platforms such as Amazon EC2 F2 instances to process DIFI streams using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).

Dr. Juan Deaton is the WAVE Consortium’s Executive Director and provides strategic technical guidance to the consortium board.

Digitizers such as the SENTRY RFoIP convert intermediate frequency (IF) signals into Digital IF Interoperability (DIFI) IP streams.

Using FPGA-based EC2 F2 instances allows modem vendors to deliver spectrally efficient designs at cloud scale while reducing dependence on proprietary hardware.

Analog cabling for intermediate frequencies (IFs) requires hardwiring each antenna output to the corresponding modem, creating complex and inflexible gateway hardware configurations.

Airlines are adopting multi-orbit satellite solutions to provide higher-bandwidth in-flight connectivity for passenger streaming.

DIFI IP streams enable rerouting of IF traffic through any data path and dynamic linking of modems with transmission systems over a common IP fabric.

Maritime operators are scaling multi-orbit satellite use for navigation, IoT sensors, and crew welfare applications.

Kymeta demonstrated simultaneous Ku- and Ka-band beams on the same antenna.

Parabolic antennas can track only one satellite at a time and therefore require a separate antenna per satellite to support multiple simultaneous satellite connections.

XipLink’s XipOS is an example of an SD-WAN system that can orchestrate traffic across multi-orbit links.

Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) can aggregate multi-orbit links for higher throughput, steer traffic based on latency requirements, or duplicate flows for resilience.

All.Space is developing the Hydra KuKa antenna with a Ku- and Ka-band multi-beam architecture.

Modems for multi-orbit IF streams currently rely on separate proprietary hardware, which complicates logistics and limits flexibility for gateway and aircraft operations.

Agenda topics for Innovate Space: Finance Forum include the public sector’s evolving role as a capital catalyst, cross-border capital flows, and investor approaches to value creation across the market.

The forum’s programming emphasizes financing dual-use technologies, scaling business models, and aligning capital with national security priorities.

Space Foundation and the Texas Space Commission are planning an executive-level conference focused on how capital is shaping the future of the space economy.

The Texas Space Commission is committed to pairing public and private investment with long-term economic success in support of national defense objectives.

Innovate Space: Finance Forum will take place February 18–19, 2026, at the JW Marriott Dallas Arts District in Dallas, Texas.

Innovate Space: Finance Forum is intentionally designed as a senior-level convening with leaders who are actively shaping space innovation, catalyzing growth, and scaling businesses, in partnership between the Space Foundation and the Texas Space Commission.

The Space Foundation is backing the forum using its relationships across the public and private sectors.

The conference is named Innovate Space: Finance Forum.