SpaceQuest
| SpaceQuest Logo | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | spacecraft, engineering, computer hardware, consulting ground systems |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Fairfax, Virginia, USA |
Key people | Dr. Dino Lorenzini, Chairman & CEO |
| Products | spacecraft and spacecraft components |
Number of employees | 10 (2019) |
| Website | www.spacequest.com |
SpaceQuest, Ltd. is a spacecraft components and engineering company located in Fairfax, Virginia, which focuses on the operations of small satellites.
The company designs, develops, constructs, launches and operates microsatellites and spacecraft components. SpaceQuest qualifies its components for use in space by flying them on its own satellites. They also operate a fleet of low earth orbiting satellites, which are used for remote monitoring as well as tracking the location and status of large vessels at sea.[1][needs update][third-party source needed]
SpaceQuest's customers include US and foreign universities, NASA, the US Air Force, the Canadian Space Agency, commercial aerospace companies, and foreign developers of microsatellites.[1][2][third-party source needed] Some of their projects include:
- FalconSAT 3 & 5, satellites developed by cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
- AprizeSat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 commercial communications satellites for SpaceQuest[3][full citation needed]
- ExactView 6,7
- AO-51, amateur radio satellite.[citation needed]
- Genesis I and Genesis II, inflatable space habitats Bigelow Aerospace.[citation needed]
- Thea and Brio, launched in December 2018 on Spaceflight's SSO-A mission, a pair of 3U cubesats hosting experimental payloads for commercial customers.[4]
Satellite constellation
SpaceQuest's AprizeSat satellites carry AIS (automatic identification system) receivers that can identify navigation signals broadcast by oceangoing vessels.[5] Since all of the AprizeSats have been launched on Dnepr rockets into polar orbits, the AIS data they collect over the poles can be used by companies like Orbcomm to complement the AIS data gathered nearer the equator by the lower-inclination orbits of the OG2 constellation.[6]
In 2017, Spacequest began development on a new series of commercial small satellites based on the cubesat standard. Thea and Brio contain a mix of in-house Spacequest-designed components, and commercial cubesat components provided by Gomspace. On December 3, 2018, these satellites were launched via Falcon 9 into a sun-synchronous polar orbit. Thea's primary mission is to evaluate an experimental spectrum survey payload developed by Aurora Insight,[7] while Brio serves as the first satellite in a planned constellation from Australia-based startup Myriota.[8] Both Thea and Brio also contain AIS receivers.
References
- ^ a b "Success Stories". SpaceQuest.com. Archived from the original on 2007-06-22. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
- ^ "SpaceQuest to Develop Bus for US Air Force Academy's Falconsat-3 and FalconSat-5 Missions" (PDF) (Press release). SpaceQuest.com. 2003-08-15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
- ^ Aprize Satellite
- ^ "January 2019". SpaceQuest Ltd. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
- ^ Gibbs, W. Wayt (2014-11-14). "The Plan to Map Illegal Fishing From Space". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
- ^ "Space Hardware Firm Doubles Down On Ship Tracking Service". SpaceNews.com. 2010-04-19. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
- ^ "THEA". space.skyrocket.de. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
- ^ "Optus partners with smallsat startup Myriota on Australian IoT service". SpaceNews.com. 2019-08-20. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
External links
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- Justapedia articles in need of updating from January 2011
- Articles with invalid date parameter in template
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- Amateur radio companies
- Companies based in Fairfax, Virginia
- American companies established in 1994
- Spacecraft manufacturers