NovaWurks is a seed-stage

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

that is developing a set of novel small

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

technologies that will enable new capabilities for

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

operations in

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...

. NovaWurks is located in

Los Alamitos, California Los Alamitos () is a city in Orange County, California. The city was incorporated in March 1960. The population was 11,780 at the 2020 census, up from 11,449 at the 2010 census. The adjacent unincorporated community of Rossmoor uses the same 90 ...

. In 2013, the company received an important contract worth up to from DARPA for components for the

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

Project. The company's products both enable, and are enabled by, the more recent lower-cost access to

epitomized by

NewSpace Private spaceflight is spaceflight or the development of spaceflight technology that is conducted and paid for by an entity other than a government agency. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Unio ...

launch companies such as

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

Phoenix project

In July 2012, NovaWurks won a contract with

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

to build a hyper-integrated

satlet A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...

for the DARPA Phoenix project. The contract value was DARPA's Phoenix project aims to create a system to harvest valuable components such as power supplies or antennas from old, non-functioning satellites using an advanced robotic arm and tagged with a small

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend word, blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a T ...

. These parts are then delivered to the new satellite and attached. The Phoenix project opens up a plethora of new options for future satellites, as a lighter, incomplete satellite can be sent into orbit and finished in space with parts from non-functioning satellites. In October 2013, NovaWurks was awarded a Phase 2 contract for the DARPA Phoenix project with an additional in options that, if used, would raise the total amount to . The Phase 2 effort objective is to have "flight hardware assembled, qualified and integrated into the [

] Servicer/Tender prior to environmental test and ready for launch" by the end of 2015. The SIMPL (“Satlet Initial-Mission Proofs and Lessons”) experiment was the first HISat-based experiment funded by NovaWurks and launched aboard the

Orbital ATK Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alli ...

Cygnus (spacecraft) Cygnus is an expendable American cargo spacecraft developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation and now manufactured and launched by Northrop Grumman Space Systems as part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program. It is launched by North ...

resupply mission to the International Space Station which docked at ISS on December 9, 2015. The SIMPL experiment marked the first time NovaWurks has sent into space the company's flagship technology. Orbital ATK's Cygnus was successfully grappled by the ISS's robotic arm and then attached to the orbital outpost to begin the transfer of the SIMPL components onto the ISS. In a press release dated Dec. 17, 2015 CTO and Founder Talbot Jaeger explained the significance of the SIMPL experiment saying “SIMPL consists of eight fundamental pieces, six HISats and two solar arrays. The entire satellite will be assembled on board the ISS and then be deployed as a fully operational, newly built spacecraft. It will be another first for the space industry.” SIMPL is the first instance where satellites will be assembled in space using smaller components, delivered in large groups and assembled on the International Space Station and then deployed from the NanoRacks Microsat Deployer. This paradigm shift to traditional satellite deployment alters the accepted practice of single large satellites launching on their own dedicated rockets. The NanoRacks-NovaWurks-SIMPL-Micrsosat mission proves the HISat technology on orbit, will reduce risk for follow on HISat-capable missions, and enables commercial utilization of the cellularized technology developed by NovaWurks Inc. for payloads utilizing either ISS or expendable launch vehicle (ELV) access to space.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Official company website

Concept video depicting DARPA's Phoenix in action
Aerospace companies of the United States