NewSat (Aleph-1 Constellation)

NewSat (Aleph-1 Constellation)

The NewSat satellite series, also referred to as ÑuSat, is a sequence of commercial Earth Observation (EO) satellites designed, built, and operated by Satellogic, that form the Aleph-1 constellation. Satellogic, an Argentinian company that specialises in EO satellites, was founded in 2010 by Emiliano Kargieman and Gerardo Richarte to provide commercially accessible, real-time, global imaging of Earth. The still and video imagery delivered by these microsatellites is available to customers for applications in the fields of agriculture and food production, monitoring within the oil and gas industry, cartography and urban planning, climate monitoring, resource management, disaster response, infrastructure monitoring, and to improve the monitoring, mapping, and management of forest resources. 1) 2) 3) 4)

The Aleph-1 constellation was preceded by three Satellogic nanosatellites for technology demonstration missions: CubeBug-1, CubeBug-2, and BugSat-1, launched in April 2013, November 2013, and June 2014 respectively. The first two NewSats, NewSat-1 (Fresco) and NewSat-2 (Batata), were launched two years later in May 2016. The overall goal of Satellogic is to have a constellation of 300 satellites, which would provide global coverage with a revisit time of 5 minutes (as shown in Figure 2). 1) 2) 3)

Spacecraft

All the satellites in the Aleph-1 constellation are identical 0.51 × 0.57 ×0.82 m spacecraft with a mass of 38.5 kg. 5)

Mission Status

• January 14, 2025: NewSat-45 (UzmaSAT-1), high-resolution earth observation satellite built for Malaysia’s Uzma, was successfully launched on SpaceX's Transporter-12 mission. The Falcon-9 rocket took off at 19:09 UTC from launch complex SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, in California. 38)

• August 16, 2024: Satellogic launched three new satellites, NewSat-48 (Henrietta Leavitt), NewSat-49(Klára Dán von Neumann), and NewSat-50 (Nancy Roman), from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, onboard a Falcon-9 rocket as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-11 Rideshare mission. 8)

• April 7, 2024: Satellogic launched NewSat-46 (TSAT-1A), from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, onboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 as part of the Bandwagon-1 mission. NewSat-46 was built by India's Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) in collaboration with Satellogic and it is based on Satellogic's NewSat Mark V satellite. 9) 10)

• March 4, 2024: Satellogic launched NewSat-44 (Maria Mitchell) on SpaceX’s Transporter-10 rideshare mission, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) 1)

• June 12, 2023: Satellogic launched NewSat-40 (Carolyn Shoemaker), NewSat-41 (Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin), NewSat-42 (Maria Wonenburger), and NewSat-43 (Rose Dieng-Kuntz)on SpaceX’s Transporter-8 rideshare mission, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB), California. 11)

• April 14, 2023: Satellogic launched NewSat-36 (Annie Jump Cannon), -37 (Joan Clarke), -38 (Maria Gaetana Agnesi), and -39 (Tikvah Alper), aboard the SpaceX Transporter-7 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. 1)

• January 3, 2023: Satellogic launched NewSat-32 (Albania-1), -33 (Albania-2), -34 (Amelia Earhart), and -35 (Williamia Fleming), aboard the SpaceX Transporter-6 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. 1)

• May 26, 2022: Satellogic launched NewSat-28 (Alice Lee), -29 (Edith Clarke), -30 (Margherita Hack), and -31 (Ruby Payne-Scott) aboard SpaceX's Transporter-5 mission. This brought the Aleph-1 constellation to 26 satellites. 1)

• April 1, 2022: Satellogic launched NewSat-23 (Annie Maunder), -24 (Kalpana Chawla), -25 (Mária Telkes), -26 (Mary Somerville), and -27 (Sally Ride) aboard SpaceX's Transporter-4 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This brought the Aleph-1 constellation to 22 satellites. This was the first deployment of Satellogic’s new Mark V satellite model, which featured improved cameras, radios, computers, and other subsystems compatible with all components from previous models. The remaining four satellites were updated NewSats Mark IV satellites. 1) 14)

• June 30, 2021: Satellogic launched NewSat-19 (Rosalind Franklin), -20 (Grace Hopper), -21 (Elisa Bachofen), and -22 (Sofya Kovalevskaya), onboard SpaceX’s Transporter-2 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This brought the Aleph-1 constellation to 17 satellites, allowing up to 4 daily revisits of any point of interest and expanded collection capacity of more than 5 million km2 per day in high-resolution. 23)

• November 6, 2020: Satellogic launched NewSat-9 (Alice Ball), -10 (Caroline Herschel), -11 (Cora Ratto), -12 (Dorothy Voughan), -13 (Emmy Noether), -14 (Hedy Lamarr), -15 (Katherine Johnson), -16 (Lise Meitner), -17 (Mary Jackson), and -18 (Vera Rubin) onboard the Long March-6 (Y3), Chang Zheng-6, rocket from the LC-16 launch complex of the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. 26)

• September 4, 2020: Satellogic launched NewSat-6 (Hypatia) from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, onboard ESA’s Vega rideshare service using the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) dispenser operated by Arianespace. 27) 28)

• January 15, 2020: NewSat-7 (Sophie) NewSat-8 (Marie) launched. 37) 31)

• June 27, 2018: Satellogic launched a subscription-based service that allowed customers, including government agencies or non-governmental organisations, to purchase satellite images over a specified area of interest. 32)

• February 2, 2018: NewSat-4 (Ada) and NewSat-5 (Maryam) launched. 37)

• June 15, 2017: NewSat-3 (Milanesat) launched. 37)

• May 30, 2016: NewSat-1 (Fresco) and NewSat-2 (Batata) launched. 37) 33)

Sensor Complement

The NewSat Mark IV spacecraft are equipped with three imaging payloads: a hyperspectral sensor, a multispectral sensor, and a general-purpose HD camera, as well as extra space for hosted payloads and scientific experiments. The constellation can acquire imagery in three different modes: strip mode, oblique strip mode, and spotlight mode. 34)

Hyperspectral Sensor

The hyperspectral camera onboard NewSat is limited for select customer missions. It collects imagery at a resolution of 30 m across 29 spectral bands in the visible to near-infrared (460 - 830nm) range. All bands are ortho-rectified and GIS-ready. 34) 35)

Multispectral Sensor

NewSat’s multispectral sensor houses four spectral bands (red, green, blue and near-infrared), with a spectral range of 450 - 900 nm. The newest generation of NewSats are able to deliver 0.7 m resolution imagery with a 5 km swath width using the onboard multispectral camera. 8) 37)

The basic resolution of the multispectral imagery has a 0.99 m GSD at nadir for all spectral bands. Super Resolution enhances the spatial resolution of the multispectral imagery to 70 cm using proprietary processing techniques. 34) 35)

Ground Segment

The ground station at Svalbard, Norway provides downlink capabilities in support of more than 10 passes per day. It has two antennas to support two satellites simultaneously on polar orbits. The Cordoba, Argentina, ground station is located in the CONAE (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales) facilities for NewSat-3. It supports six passes per day. 36)

The Aleph-1 satellites employ S-band communications for command uplink at 2080 MHz and two X-band feeds for downlinking, one at 8030 MHz using a custom protocol for 100 Kb/s telemetry downlink and a high-speed DVB-S2 (Digital Video Broadcasting-Second Generation) channel operating at 8050-8100 MHz for downlink of image products. They function with a signal-to-noise ratio of 43 decibels. 36)

References

1) Gunter’s Space Page, “ÑuSat 1, ..., 98 (NewSat 1, ..., 98, Aleph-1 1, ..., 98)“, URL: https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/nusat-1.htm

2) Bringing space down to earth — Satellogic is building the first scalable earth observation platform with the ability to remap the entire planet at both high-frequency and high-resolution,” Satellogic, URL: https://satellogic.com/about/

3) Caleb Henry, “Satellogic on its Way to Launching 300 Satellite Constellation for Earth Observation,” Via Satellite, 17 March, 2016, URL: https://www.satellitetoday.com/technology/2016/03/17/satellogic-on-its-way-to-launching-300-satellite-constellation-for-earth-observation/

4) Antonio San Jose, “Unlocking New Possibilities with Mark V Satellite Imagery,” 17 July 2024, URL: https://satellogic.com/2024/07/17/unlocking-new-possibilities-with-mark-v-satellite-imagery/

5) NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, “NuSat 11,” URL: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=2020-079C

6) Satellogic, “Satellogic NewSat Satellite Re-Entry Strategy”, URL: https://satellogic.com/2023/09/05/satellogic-newsat-re-entry-strategy/

7) Satellogic, “Celebrating Women in STEM”, URL: https://satellogic.com/2021/08/10/celebrating-women-in-stem/

8) SpaceX, “Transporter-11 Mission,” August 16 2024, URL: https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=transporter11

9) SpaceX, “BANDWAGON-1 MISSION”, April 7, 2024, URL: https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=bandwagon-1

10) Gunter’s Space Page, “TSAT 1A”, URL: https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/tsat-1a.htm

11) Dentz, Lenny, “SpaceX Transporter-8 launches 72 payloads marking 200th booster landing”, NasaSpaceFlight, June 12, 2023, URL: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/06/spacex-transporter-8/

12) “Satellogic Announces Successful Launch of Four Additional Satellites on SpaceX Transporter-5 Mission,” Satellogic Press Release, 26 May 2022, URL: https://satellogic.com/news/press-releases/satellogic-announces-successful-launch-of-four-additional-satellites-on-spacex-transporter-5-mission/

13) Debra Werner, ”Orbital Insight brings Satellogic data into its platform,” SpaceNews, 25 April 2022, URL: https://spacenews.com/orbital-insight-satellogic-partnership/

14) “Satellogic Launches Five Additional Satellites on SpaceX Transporter-4 Mission,” Satellogic, 4 April 2022, URL: https://satellogic.com/news/press-releases/satellogic-launches-five-additional-satellites-on-spacex-transporter-4-mission/

15) ”Satellogic Announces Upcoming Launch of Five New Satellites Onboard SpaceX Transporter-4 Mission, Satellogic Press Release, 10 March 2022, URL: https://satellogic.com/news/press-releases/satellogic-announces-upcoming-launch-of-five-new-satellites-onboard-spacex-transporter-4-mission/

16) Sandra Erwin, ”Satellogic names former chair of the Pentagon’s joint chiefs Joe Dunford to board of directors,” SpaceNews, 14 February 2022, URL: https://spacenews.com/satellogic-names-former-chair-of-the-pentagons-joint-chiefs-joe-dunford-to-board-of-directors/

17) Jeff Foust, ”Satellogic completes SPAC merger,” SpaceNews, 26 January 2022, URL: https://spacenews.com/satellogic-completes-spac-merger/

18) Jeff Foust, ”Satellogic raises $150 million from fund led by former treasury secretary,” SpaceNews, 19 January 2022, URL: https://spacenews.com/satellogic-raises-150-million-from-fund-led-by-former-treasury-secretary/

19) ”Satellogic Announces Development of High-Throughput Manufacturing Plant in the Netherlands,” Satellogic, 28 December 2021, URL: https://satellogic.com/news/press-releases/satellogic-announces-development-of-high-throughput-manufacturing-plant-in-the-netherlands/

20) Jeff Foust, ”Satellogic nearing completion of SPAC merger,” SpaceNews, 16 December 2021, URL: https://spacenews.com/satellogic-nearing-completion-of-spac-merger/

21) Sandra Erwin, ”Earth observation company Satellogic expands partnership with Amazon Web Services,” SpaceNews, 6 October 2021, URL: https://spacenews.com/earth-observation-company-satellogic-expands-partnership-with-amazon-web-services/

22) Jeff Foust, ”Satellogic to public through SPAC deal,” SpaceNews, 6 July 2021, URL: https://spacenews.com/satellogic-to-public-through-spac-deal/

23) ”Satellogic Launches 4 additional Satellites on SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket,” Satellogic Press Release, 30 June 2021, URL: https://satellogic.com/news/press-releases/satellogic-launches-4-additional-satellites-on-spacex-falcon-9-rocket/

24) ”Satellogic Partners With Four Major Space Organizations,” Satnews, 14 March 2021, URL: https://news.satnews.com/2021/03/14/satellogic-partners-with-four-major-space-organizations/

25) Jeff Foust, ”Satellogic signs multi-launch contract with SpaceX,” SpaceNews, 20 January 2021, URL: https://spacenews.com/satellogic-signs-multi-launch-contract-with-spacex/

26) Rui C. Barbosa, ”Long March 6 lofts ten Argentinian satellites,” NASA Spaceflight.com, 6 November 2020, URL: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2020/11/long-march-6-lofts-ten-argentinian-satellites/

27) “Satellogic’s Hypatia Smallsat Successfully Launched,” Satnews, 4 September 2020, URL: https://news.satnews.com/2020/09/04/satellogics-hypatia-smallsat-successfully-launched/

28) ”Vega return to flight proves new rideshare service,” ESA Enabling & Support, 3 September 2020, URL: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Vega/Vega_return_to_flight_proves_new_rideshare_service

29) Jeff Foust, ”Satellogic raises $50 million to build out imaging constellation,” SpaceNews, 19 December 2019, URL: https://spacenews.com/satellogic-raises-50-million-to-build-out-imaging-constellation/

30) Jeff Foust, ”Satellogic signs deal to provide imagery service in China,” SpaceNews, 13 September 2019, URL: https://spacenews.com/satellogic-signs-deal-to-provide-imagery-service-in-china/

31) Stephen Clark, ”Chinese company inks deal to launch 90 commercial smallsats,” Spaceflight Now, 30 January 2019, URL: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/01/30/chinese-company-inks-deal-to-launch-90-commercial-smallsats/

32) Maddy Longwell, ”Want satellite imagery but not satellites? This company can help,” C4ISRNET, 27 June 2018, URL: https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/satellites/2018/06/27/want-satellite-imagery-but-not-satellites-this-company-can-help/

33) Jeff Foust, ”Satellogic raises $27 million round for hyperspectral imaging constellation,” SpaceNews, June 2017, URL: https://spacenews.com/satellogic-raises-27-million-round-for-hyperspectral-imaging-constellation/

34) “Satellites,” Satellogic, URL: https://satellogic.com/technology/satellites/

35) “IMAGERY PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS,” Satellogic, URL: https://satellogic.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/satellogic-imagery-product-specifications.pdf

36) “Satellogic Bringing Space Down To Earth,” Satelogic, URL: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/space/workshops/2017-Bariloche/Presentations/30%20-%20Adrian%20Sinclair-%20Satellogic.pdf

37) “Constellation,” Satellogic, URL: https://satellogic.com/technology/constellation/

38) Lentz Danny, "SpaceX Transporter-12 launches more than 100 satellites", NasaSpaceFlight, January 14, 2025, URL: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/01/transporter-12/