SAN FRANCISCO – Earth-observation startup Albedo won a U.S. Air Force Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) contract with a potential value of $12 million.
The contract announced March 3 supports Albedo’s campaign to send satellites into very low Earth orbit (VLEO) to gather visible and thermal imagery.
“VLEO represents a fundamental paradigm shift in space architecture, breaking the traditional tradeoff between exquisite capability and proliferated architectures,” Albedo CEO Topher Haddad said in a statement. “As counterspace threats grow and [low-Earth orbit] becomes increasingly congested, Albedo’s VLEO approach delivers the optimal economics for exquisite capabilities – high performance at costs that enable constellation resilience.”
Gaining Clarity
Albedo’s first satellite, the phone-booth sized Clarity-1, is scheduled to launch within days on the SpaceX Transporter 13 rideshare. Clarity-1 is designed to collect 10-centimeter visible imagery and thermal infrared imagery with a resolution of two meters per pixel.
Government and commercial satellite operators are developing satellites to operate in VLEO to obtain high-resolution imagery, avoid congested regions of low-Earth orbit and speed up communications with airborne and ground systems.
“We’re honored to pioneer this untapped orbital regime and help establish U.S. dominance in this strategic domain,” Haddad said.
Under the STRATFI contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory, Albedo will share data and provide analysis of VLEO operations “to support the development of new missions and payloads beyond its own optical sensors,” according to the news release. For example, Albedo will deliver data on GNSS telemetry, on-orbit performance, satellite drag and atmospheric density. Denver-based Albedo also will share information gathered by onboard atomic-oxygen sensors and technology to assess image-quality, pointing performance and spacecraft agility.
Albedo’s Precision satellite bus is designed for VLEO with autonomous protective modes for solar events, efficient electric propulsion, advanced guidance, navigation and control sensors and actuators, and a modular interface to accommodate various payloads.
The STRATFI program matches government and private investment. The government typically provides $3 million to $15 million. STRATFI agreements are designed to help small businesses transition technologies from research and development to production.