Momentus and Solstar to offer communications, transportation and infrastructure in low-Earth orbit

BRISBANE, Australia – Momentus and Solstar Space announced a three-year agreement Oct. 13 to expand communications, transportation and infrastructure services for government and commercial missions in low-Earth orbit.

The reciprocal-services agreement is designed to combine “the respective strengths, products and services of each company to deliver comprehensive low-Earth orbit space capabilities to address a broad range of commercial, government and space-agency requirements,” according to the news release.

In a joint mission, scheduled for February, the two companies will “demonstrate real-time, continuous communication with space systems across diverse mission profiles,” Momentus CEO John Rood said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Momentus and Solstar announced plans to provide customers of the Vigoride space tug with on-demand connectivity through Solstar’s Deke Space Communicator. Building on that pact, the companies signed a reciprocal-services agreement with a value as high as $15 million to combine Solstar’s communications expertise with Momentus products and services related to launch, logistics, payload deployment and on-orbit services.

“We are pleased to deepen our partnership with Solstar Space as we continue to scale our in-space servicing capabilities,” Rood said. “This collaboration gives Momentus key advantages to provide resilient spacecraft-to-spacecraft operations including refueling and repair, on-orbit inspection and reliable data-relay capabilities.”

Outdated Communications

Ongoing communications among spacecraft is particularly important for demanding jobs like intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance; in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing; and rendezvous, proximity operations and docking. “These missions cannot operate reliably and securely without persistent space-based communications,” Solstar CEO and founder Brian Barnett said in a statement.

Solstar specializes in intersatellite data relay, space-to-ground communications and space-based Wi-Fi.

“Outdated space comms approaches, originating in the 1960s, oftentimes leave space assets disconnected,” Barnett said. “Solstar is filling those space-communications gaps just as Momentus is filling gaps for spacecraft and payload deployment and in-space servicing. Together we are removing roadblocks to advancing space operations.”