Israeli space-tech startup NSLComm has announced that its first nanosatellite will be launched at 1:42 Eastern Time on Friday morning at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East.
NSLSat-1 is an “expandable” nanosatellite solution to meet the growing global demand for increased connectivity, has been successfully installed on the payload of the Soyuz launch vehicle that will take it into space.
Based at Airport City near Israel's Ben Gurion airport, NSLComm has designed fabric-like, flexible dish antennas that expand in space to offer high-throughput communications for small satellites that is up to 100 times faster than that of today’s best performing nanosatellites. The company's nanosatellites also offer substantial cost savings (around 10 times) for larger satellites.
The technology permits antennas to be stowed during launch in a compact volume and deployed while in orbit, saving mass, volume, and supporting structures. Post-deployment, the antenna has an innovative "smart" sub-reflector, the FlexoSub, enabling the antenna to compensate for any reflector shape imperfections and change ground patterns while on the fly.
NSLComm’s technology is also the only solution that can bring high-speed broadband connectivity to and from small terminals, allowing for a full array of applications around IoT and sensors, in areas such as agriculture, mining, oil & gas, shipping, government and more. The technology can also support large pipes of data for internet and video at costs that are significantly lower than current satellite communication technology offers.
NSLComm cofounder and CEO Raz Itzhaki said, “The launch of NSLSat-1 is a significant achievement for our company and what we believe to be a watershed moment for the entire satellite industry. Our technology represents one of the biggest leaps in satellite antenna performance-to-weight ratios and, with this launch, we are on a mission to prove that high-speed satellite communications can be done faster, cheaper and more effectively than it has been to date.”
The company is targeting the government, IoT and high-throughput and trunking markets, worth an estimated $50 billion annually. Once in space, NSLSat-1 will be tested with a number of tier-one partners from across the automotive, telecom and travel industries.
Several weeks ago, NSLComm signed an agreement with Amazon Web Services for the use of AWS Ground Station, a network of ground stations for satellites.
“JVP is proud to support groundbreaking entrepreneurs and to position the Israeli technology ecosystem as world class actors with disruptive offerings," said Yoav Tzruya, General Partner at JVP. "NSLComm is changing the satellite communication market in a meaningful manner, providing two to three orders of magnitude improvement in cost per bandwidth, and unlocking a myriad number of new applications for several multi-billion dollar markets.”
“The Israel Space Agency at the Ministry of Science & Technology supports innovative startup companies with cutting edge technology in order to increase their competitive capacity and to expand the Israel space ecosystem,” said Avi Blasberger, Director of the Israel Space Agency.
NSLComm, in cooperation with its partners, expects to launch 30 satellites by 2021 and hundreds by 2023, enabling its network of nanosatellites to provide a high-speed worldwide communications for its customers network via an orbiting constellation.
OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved said, “Space is indeed the new frontier for venture capital and NSLComm is leading the way towards nano-satellites that are smarter, more agile and more powerful than ever before. This company will link communities around the world in previously unconnected locations with high speed connectivity and things will never be the same again.”
NSLComm’s investors include Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), OurCrowd, Cockpit Innovation and Liberty Technology Venture Capital. The company is also supported by the Israel Space Agency and Kodem Growth Partners in New York City.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 4, 2019
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