CesiumAstro Inc. has announced a key milestone in its collaboration with the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit; CesiumAstro’s first two spacecraft have been successfully integrated as secondary payloads onto the Atlas V rocket which will deliver NASA’s Landsat 9 to orbit next month.
CesiumAstro is set to launch Cesium Mission 1 (CM1), a two-satellite on-orbit testbed that allows both commercial and defense customers to run experiments using its active electronically steerable array (AESA) communications and crosslink communications payloads. Consisting of two 6U CubeSats, this mission will enable Low Earth Orbit (LEO) experimentation from September 2021 through 2026. CM1 is the first of several planned technology demonstration missions showcasing CesiumAstro’s leading-edge communications payloads.
CesiumAstro is partnering with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to demonstrate a reduced-latency direct downlink to tactical ground terminals as one of several planned commercial and defense experiments. DIU, a US Department of Defense (DoD) organization, partners with leading commercial enterprises across the country to adopt and scale technologies that help solve critically important challenges. DIU selected CesiumAstro as one of the latest additions to its distinguished cohort of companies demonstrating excellence and creating rich, inventive solutions in a variety of critical areas from autonomy and AI to human systems, cyber, space, and connectivity.
“DIU is cultivating a rich environment for innovation and partnership,” said Shey Sabripour, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CesiumAstro. “This collaboration allows CesiumAstro to showcase the benefits of our scalable software-defined AESA technology in support of future DoD missions.”
