‘Irreparable’ thrusters and photo voltaic exercise push 3 HawkEye 360 satellites to decrease orbits

Distant-sensing satellite tv for pc operator HawkEye 360 is the newest to expertise issues in orbit, resulting from an “irreparable” failure of propulsion methods made by Austria-based Enpulsion, compounded by excessive photo voltaic exercise.

Whereas HawkEye declined to call its propulsion supplier to TechCrunch, an April 2022 letter from HawkEye to the FCC states that the affected satellites are outfitted with Enpulsion’s IFM Nano Thruster propulsion system.

HawkEye requested short-term permission from the U.S. Federal Communications Fee to function three of its satellites, known as Cluster 4, at a decrease altitude on July 24. In a separate submitting, the corporate requested everlasting authority to function its constellation at orbital altitudes of 400-615 kilometers, given the propulsion failures.

“The Cluster 4 spacecraft are at the moment working at an orbital altitude of roughly 477 km, because of failures within the propulsion methods of every of the Cluster 4 spacecraft,” the corporate mentioned in its request. “The corporate has unsuccessfully tried to treatment these failures and not too long ago concluded that the propulsion system failures are irreparable.”

HawkEye has already discontinued use of Enpulsion’s methods: in March, the FCC accepted HawkEye’s request to change to a water-based propulsion system made by Bradford Area beginning with Cluster 7 and on all future satellites. The corporate launched Cluster 7 to orbit in April, bringing its constellation to 21 spacecraft (together with the three experiencing points right here).

In response to NASA, we’re at the moment approaching photo voltaic most, or the time within the photo voltaic cycle when the solar’s exercise peaks. This exercise, which may embrace highly effective geomagnetic storms, can create points for spacecraft, together with elevated drag that accelerates their orbital decay.

TechCrunch reported final week that some Capella Area satellites have been beginning to prematurely deorbit resulting from photo voltaic exercise and points with third-party propulsion.

In an announcement to TechCrunch, HawkEye confirmed that the Cluster 4 satellites are in any other case useful. Enpulsion didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark.

“The Cluster 4 satellites are usually not at risk of deorbiting and proceed to gather information and actively service our clients,” the corporate mentioned. “They have been deployed at a decrease altitude and had a propulsion system anomaly which has shortened potential mission life, however the satellites are nonetheless anticipated to function throughout the tolerance of their design life. Our general constellation structure is strong and offers for variation in mission life for our clusters based mostly on deployment altitude, anomalies, and area climate.”