Solstar's Wi-Fi links a NASA cubesat to a spacecraft in orbit

For about thirty minutes, two spacecraft flew close to each other in orbit, and during that window a small radio unit sent more than 2,300 files to the team at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The files included optical, infrared and lidar data collected on orbit. They came from a demonstration that paired NASA's R5-S10 cubesat, a small satellite, with Momentus' Vigoride-7 orbital service vehicle, and the link between them ran through Solstar Space's Deke Space Communicator.

Proximity operations are manoeuvres in which one spacecraft works close to another. To make them work, the NASA cubesat's Wi-Fi connected with the Deke unit aboard the Vigoride-7, and the Deke unit relayed the data through an experimental link provided by Iridium Communications. Before launch, ground tests showed the connection between the NASA cubesat and the Deke unit extending more than 200 meters. That figure comes from the ground, not from orbit.

Brian Barnett, Solstar's founder and CEO, placed the flight in a longer timeline: 'After three previous spaceflights and more than 10 years of work, what has emerged is a commercial product.' Momentus' CEO, John Rood, said Solstar 'added an important communications dimension to this mission.' Ethan Haase, Iridium's vice president of government solutions, said the test would show 'valuable insight into its potential role in future missions.'

For ground controllers, the change is a spacecraft that can stay in constant contact with the people running it. Barnett said that for manufacturing, satellite servicing or lunar operations, 'you need this capability to be in touch with your equipment 24/7.' He also said the data from the mission could train artificial intelligence (AI) models for future autonomous missions, including proximity operations. These are the company's stated uses. The announcement gives no price, no delivery date and no customer beyond the mission partners.

The result rests on a single flight, and the Iridium relay was, in the company's own description, experimental. Encore Technologies Corp. announced a $1 million investment in Solstar in June, which it called further validation of the company's next stage of growth. Whether the link proves reliable across repeated missions is the question the next flights will have to answer.