GPS World • July 2022 • SPACE & EARTH

Three HawkEye 360 radio-frequency geolocation microsatellites were launched May 25 aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-5 mission. They were built by Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) of Toronto. SFL also built three satellites to monitor greenhouse gas, which were also launched.

The HawkEye 360 constellation detects and geolocates RF signals for maritime situational awareness, emergency response, national security and spectrum analysis applications.

Once Cluster 5’s on-orbit checkout is complete, the HawkEye 360 constellation will be expanded to 15 satellites, doubling capacity and revisit rates. This significantly boosts the constellation’s ability to serve global customer demand and to monitor activity across places such as Ukraine.

Cluster 5 includes enhanced antenna functions introduced with Cluster 4, which allow greater flexibility in geolocating signals across a wide range of frequencies important to customers.

Cluster 4, launched April 1, has been completing checkout and moving into final formation to begin collecting data in late June. Cluster 5 is slated to achieve initial operating capability in August.

HawkEye 360 plans to continue to grow the constellation to achieve revisit rates of about 15 minutes to support timely defense, national security and commercial applications.

SFL has now developed 15 microsatellites for HawkEye 360 of Herndon, Virginia. SFL was selected for these missions due to the importance of formation flying by multiple satellites for successful RF geolocation.

Other missions developed by SFL in the past two years include 16 communications CubeSats and three microsatellites designed for Earth observation, maritime tracking and atmospheric monitoring.

In its 24-year history, SFL has developed cubesats, nanosatellites and microsatellites that have achieved more than 191 cumulative years of operation in orbit.

Septentrio Rides for Climate Data

Two Belgian adventurers are crossing Greenland on a triathlon including ski, kayak and a vertical rock climb. On the ride, they are using Septentrio’s AsteRx-SB receiver, collecting valuable data for climate research in collaboration with the Royal Observatory of Belgium.

The data will help build a precise elevation profile of the Greenland Ice Sheet as well as help calibrate existing elevation models, which are based on satellite altimetry. In addition, the multi-frequency capability of the AsteRx-SB receiver will enable monitoring of ionospheric activity as well as Galileo signals at high latitudes.

“The AsteRx-SB receiver provides accurate and reliable positioning data even in the world’s harshest environments,” said Nicolas Bergeot of the Time-Ionosphere section, Royal Observatory. Data collected will help research of arctic ice caps, ionospheric activity and other topics.

The expedition is called Nanok, which is an Inuit word for polar bear. Adventurers Gilles Denis and Nathan Goffart started the triathlon with a 600-km ski run with a pulk sled along the Arctic Circle. The second part of the triathlon is a 1,000-km trip by sea kayak along the Greenland east coast, and finally a 1-km vertical rock climb.