Sidus Space to Integrate Satellite With ASTRA Operations Under Follow-on NASA Contract

Sidus Space, a space services company that specializes in satellite design, manufacturing and data collection, will proceed to the next phase of NASA’s Autonomous Satellite Technology for Resilient Applications project under a follow-on contract with the space agency.

The company said Wednesday that it will work with a team from the Autonomous Systems Laboratory at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to integrate its LizzieSat satellite with ASTRA’s autonomous operational on-orbit capabilities.

Sidus’ previous contract involved the integration and spaceflight demonstration of autonomous operations derived from the Mars Campaign Development Division. LizzieSat-1 will be launched within the year to validate autonomy software designed by MCD.

Under the new agreement, the company will help devise the ASTRA Payload Operations Control Center at Stennis, and tightly coordinate it with the Sidus Mission Operations Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

“The POCC will monitor and control day-to-day activities between LizzieSat and NASA’s ASTRA payload operations, utilizing proven NASA operations architectures to greatly enhance our mission success and performance,” said John Curry, chief mission operations officer at Sidus.