Maritime Launch Services has unveiled its suborbital launch program currently scheduled to begin during the second quarter of 2024. Maritime Launch’s suborbital program called Dedicated Altitude Research and Testing (DART) is a program designed to offer flight opportunities to researchers across a wide range of mission capabilities, ranging from building and testing new concepts, high-speed tracking, conducting research, and testing payloads intended for future orbital missions as well as upper atmospheric monitoring and sampling.
During this first commercial suborbital launch campaign planned for early 2024, Maritime Launch’s manifest will carry experiments totalling up to 15kg across two separate launch configurations. The DART program is available to serve various clients including industry, academia, government agencies, and research and educational institutions in North America and internationally.
“Our suborbital launch program is a turnkey solution for clients. With seamless integration of experimental payloads into suborbital rocket missions, our Spaceport Nova Scotia team will manage all logistics, payload integration, and mission execution, so clients can focus solely on their payload objectives,” says Stephen Matier, President and CEO, of Maritime Launch. “Given the success of our launch in July, which included the launch of the VCL-1 ChipSat survivability experiment, we are focused on maturing our launch heritage at the Spaceport while at the same time, support an underserved market and generate revenue.”
Maritime Launch established DART exclusively for researchers, technology innovators, academic institutions, and R&D companies. The program allows companies and institutions to test their hardware in extreme, space-like conditions.
Maritime Launch will be using flight-proven suborbital vehicles configured for different client applications capable of launching payloads to various extreme environments, including high-g accelerations, microgravity conditions, and exposure to other high-altitude factors. High-speed suborbital rocket launches over the Atlantic Ocean are ideal for activities requiring high-speed tracking. The DART program will accommodate customer payloads in the industry-standard 1U configuration.
For the first flight, Maritime Launch has already received commitments from payload clients including GALAXIA Mission Systems, a space computation company based in Nova Scotia. GALAXIA designs and develops computationally rich computers and reliable electronics for space missions, including software-defined satellites. For this suborbital launch, GALAXIA will be testing Hydra, A self-contained computer system that is designed for high-G atmospheric environments where large-data processing in real-time is key. This simulates the environment that Hydra is designed for and operates in to support the next generation of aerospace and defense systems.
"As a dynamic player in the space industry, we continuously strive to push the boundaries and broaden our horizons, exploring new markets to address emerging challenges and bridge market gaps,” says Arad Gharagozli, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of GALAXIA. “Our Hydra system has been meticulously crafted to cater to clients in the aerospace sector with a demand for computationally intensive solutions amidst atmospheric complexities, including exposure to high G-forces, unpredictable vibrations, and rapid temperature fluctuations. The forthcoming opportunity to trial Hydra aboard the DART mission offers us an invaluable chance to demonstrate our system's capabilities in an environment that would otherwise be arduous to replicate. Most significantly, this DART mission accelerates our journey towards achieving an elevated Technology Readiness Level (TRL), hastening our entry into the global export market."
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