Tag: Xplore

Xplore’s Major Tom Software Delivers Satellite Operations Testing for NOAA with Microsoft Azure Orbital

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Major Tom dashboard showing pass timeline for satellites over ground stations around the world. (Credit: Xplore)

Xplore’s Major Tom ground station solutions utilize the cloud and demonstrate sustainability and resiliency capabilities

REDMOND, Wash., June 23, 2022 (Xplore PR)  — Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a Service®, completed a satellite testing initiative using Microsoft Azure Orbital to conduct satellite operations for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s NOAA-18 satellite. Xplore is operating over a dozen satellites on orbit; the company completed its work with Azure and became one of the first cloud-based ground control software to operate a NOAA satellite.

Xplore integrated Azure Orbital as part of a first-ever Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to demonstrate how commercial services and cloud operations can be used to securely control satellites and acquire data with NOAA satellites.

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Xplore Reaches Agreement to Acquire Major Tom® Cloud-based Mission Operation Software and Kubos Flight Software

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REDMOND, Wash., April 04, 2022 (Xplore PR) — Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a Service®, today announced it has acquired the assets of Kubos Corporation and its Major Tom® mission and flight control software platform for satellites. Major Tom enables mission operations for more than a dozen satellites currently on orbit for commercial and government customers. In a seamless transition to Xplore, key Kubos employees joined the Xplore team and will expand Xplore’s offerings to include cloud-based mission operation software.

Major Tom is a scalable platform with powerful satellite mission operations and planning tools. The cloud-based software allows operators to perform ground station scheduling, satellite tasking and telemetry monitoring, saving money and time on planning and design. With Major Tom, users operate their missions on a unified cloud platform. It provides the ability to integrate and control ground segment applications and services, and further de-risks mission operations with features that include out-of-the-box ground network integrations, data analytics, real-time dashboards and a customizable commanding API.

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Xplore Secures $16.2M in Venture Funding and Customer Contracts

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Xcraft (Credit: Xplore)

REDMOND, Wash., February 24, 2022 (Xplore PR) — Xplore Inc. announced it has received $16.2 million in funding to date. The company has aligned itself with exceptional strategic and veteran space sector investors, including: Alumni Ventures, Brightstone Venture Capital, KittyHawk Ventures, Private Shares Fund, Starbridge Venture Capital, Helios Capital, Lombard Street and Gaingels. Notable investors also include Tremendous View, Kingfisher Capital and Dylan Taylor – commercial astronaut and CEO of Voyager Space.

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Xplore Procures OrbAstro Satellites for a Series of Missions

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Xplore’s first satellite, utilizing OrbAstro ORB-6 platform for Earth Observation and Astronomy missions. (Credit: Xplore)

REDMOND, WASH. AND HARWELL CAMPUS, UK, January 25, 2022 (Xplore/OrbAstro PR) — Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a Service® today announced it has signed a contract with Orbital Astronautics Ltd. (OrbAstro), a satellite and in-orbit service provider. Xplore will utilize OrbAstro’s satellite buses for a variety of innovative missions, beginning with OrbAstro’s ORB-6 platform. Xplore will fly novel Earth and astronomical observation imagers, with a first launch scheduled for late 2022.

“We are excited to have our first flight underway, and it is wonderful to work with OrbAstro — a collaborative and high-quality supplier helping reduce time and cost in our mission development,” said Lisa Rich, Xplore’s Founder and Chief Operating Officer.

“Xplore is a highly innovative company that likes to move fast, which is what OrbAstro is all about. They are exactly the sort of company we love supporting,” said Dr Ash Dove-Jay, CEO of OrbAstro. Further, Ash said, “Through working very closely with the Xplore team, we were able to quickly create an affordable solution for highly demanding mission parameters.”

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Xplore Receives $2 Million Contract from NSIC to Accelerate Xcraft Platform Development

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Xcraft (Credit: Xplore)

REDMOND, Wash., September 21, 2021 (Xplore PR) — Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a Service, today announced it has received a $2M contract from National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC) within the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) of the Department of Defense (DoD). This funding will accelerate the development of the Xcraft spacecraft platform, culminating with launch in 2023.

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Xplore Receives USAF Contract to Develop a Commercial Navigation & Timing Service for Cislunar Space

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REDMOND, Wash. (Xplore PR) — Xplore Inc., an innovative commercial space company providing Space as a Service® has announced a follow on contract with the U.S. Air Force, (USAF) to continue developing their positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solution as a commercial service for cislunar space. Xplore’s current Phase II effort culminates in a hardware in the loop testbed that will demonstrate the required performance to enable precision cislunar missions while laying the foundation for a subsequent on-orbit test of the PNT system. This Phase II SBIR, awarded for commercial and technical innovations between the Earth and the Moon, provides the Air Force with the necessary capabilities to extend precision operations to the Moon and across cislunar space.

The PNT system Xplore is developing enables exploration, operations and commercial activities in cislunar space — a vast region that extends past the Moon to the edge of interplanetary space and is over ten thousand times the volume than nearly all space operations around the Earth. An equivalent GPS-like navigation and timing solution for this expanse does not currently exist, and Xplore’s revolutionary solution leverages its internal platform development to provide critical infrastructure services beyond geosynchronous orbit.

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Xplore Opens 22,000 sq ft Satellite Manufacturing Facility to Advance Satellite Production

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REDMOND, Wash. (Xplore PR) — Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a Service® today announced they are opening a satellite manufacturing facility in Redmond, Washington. Their new, state-of-the-art campus is a key step in the company’s mission to expand mass manufacturing of the XCraft® the company’s highly-capable, ESPA-class satellite, and the LightCraft™, Xplore’s highly-maneuverable spacecraft for deep space missions. The company will move into its new headquarters in June 2021.

Angela Birney, Mayor of the City of Redmond, said, “We are delighted that Xplore is establishing its headquarters in Redmond and employing Washington space professionals to grow the space economy.” She continued, “Redmond is a magnet for vision, technology, and talent. Xplore joins our community of thriving aerospace, high tech, and biotech companies, and thousands of small businesses where over 85,000 people are employed. Thank you for choosing Redmond.”

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Xplore Awarded NOAA Contract for Lagrange Point Solar Observation, Space Weather Monitoring

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SEATTLE (Xplore PR) – Xplore Inc., a commercial space exploration company providing Space as a ServiceTM today announced they have been awarded a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study for a solar observatory at the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point to monitor the Sun and provide early detection of solar events that can disrupt power grids and telecommunications on Earth.

Xplore Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Lisa Rich said, “We are pleased to announce NOAA has awarded Xplore a study to evaluate the feasibility of a commercial Lagrange point mission with our Xcraft spacecraft. We welcome the potential future opportunity to provide commercial services that can be leveraged to better understand the Sun and provide advanced warning to protect our critical infrastructure.”

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Xplore To Host Space for Humanity Payload on its First Moon Mission

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Xcraft (Credit: Xplore)

Xplore Reserves Private Payload for Non-profit Organization, Space for Humanity

SEATTLE, June 3, 2020 (Xplore PR) – Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a ServiceTM today announced that space industry leader Dylan Taylor plans to reserve payload space on Xplore’s first mission beyond Earth orbit. The payload will be hosted onboard the XcraftTM, Xplore’s highly capable, multi-mission spacecraft designed to perform frequent, low-cost missions in the inner solar system.

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NASA $2M Grant Advances Study to Directly Image Exoplanets Light Years Away

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Xplore’s Advanced Solar Sail for NASA’s Solar Gravity Lens Focus Mission. (Visualization by Bryan Versteeg, SpaceHabs.com)

Xplore’s advanced solar sail design will be the fastest spacecraft ever made

SEATTLE (Xplore PR) — Xplore Inc., a commercial space exploration company providing Space as a ServiceTM today announced they and their teammates won a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase III award for a two-year, $2M NASA grant to further mature the Solar Gravity Lens Focus (SGLF) architecture to image planets in orbit around distant stars starting with a Technology Demonstration Mission (TDM).

Dr. Slava G. Turyshev, a NIAC Fellow and Senior Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is the Principal Investigator leading the SGLF mission which includes Xplore, JPL and The Aerospace Corporation. The SGLF mission study is only the third Phase III award granted in the NIAC program ever.

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Xplore Receives USAF Award for Innovative Commercial Capabilities Around the Moon

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Lunar orbiting satellite. (Credit: Xplore)

SEATTLE, April 6, 2020 (Xplore PR) – Xplore Inc., a commercial space company has announced they have won an Air Force award to study positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions for cislunar space. The award category, for commercial and technical innovations between the Earth and the Moon — is entirely new for the Air Force, which is investigating the capabilities necessary to extend operations beyond geosynchronous orbit to now include cislunar space.

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Xplore Sponsors Xtronaut’s Kickstarter Campaign, Donates Space Games to The Boeing Academy for STEM Learning

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SEATTLE, March 26,2020 (Xplore PR) — Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a ServiceTM, today announced sponsorship of the Kickstarter campaign for Xtronaut 2.0, an award-winning STEM-themed board game.

Xtronaut 2.0, a fun, multi-player game for players ages eight and up, teaches the real-world challenges of solar system exploration and educates players on how to plan missions to deep space. Xplore’s high-performance spacecraft, the XcraftTM, is a new feature in Xtronaut 2.0, which mirrors real-life space missions. Players can plan exploration missions and send the XcraftTM to the Moon, Mars, Venus, and asteroids, including Bennu, the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return mission. Spacecraft in the game can launch on SpaceX, ULA, and NASA-SLS rockets.

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Xplore Selects Orbit Fab’s RAFTI Design Standard for its Exploration Missions

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Xcraft (Credit: Xplore)

March 5, 2020, Seattle, Washington (Xplore PR) – Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space As A ServiceTM today announced they are integrating the Orbit Fab RAFTI into the XcraftTM, Xplore’s highly-capable, multi-mission ESPA-class spacecraft.

The RAFTI, which stands for Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface, allows for reliable propellant transfers in the harshest space environments. It is ideal for mission destinations in any orbit, and thus aligns with Xplore’s ability to fly missions at destinations from Earth to the Moon, Mars, Venus, LaGrange points, Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and other locations in our inner solar system, more than 320 million km (200 million miles) from Earth.

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Xplore, Nanoracks Partner to Commercialize Deep Space

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SEATTLE, Jan. 29, 2020 (Xplore PR) — Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space As A Service™ today announced a partnership in which Nanoracks will provide commercial deep space flight opportunities for its customers and serve as a customer interface for payload design, preparation and integration on Xplore missions to the Moon, Mars, Venus, Lagrange Points and near-Earth asteroids.

Nanoracks has dramatically expanded the commercialization of space in low-Earth orbit by launching cubesats and microsatellites from the International Space Station, and launching hundreds of microgravity experiments, for customers since 2009.

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