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September 30, 2019. 

The First Arab to Reach Low-Earth Orbit

In my role managing this region for Stellar’s international sector, I am excited to report that giant leaps in space are being made across the Arab world.  Last week, an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hazzaa Al-Mansoori, joined Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir on a mission to the International Space Station. After lifting off from Kazakhstan for a six-hour journey, the crew successfully docked their Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the station and made history.

An aspiration as vast as the cosmos itself, the pursuit of space is fundamental to the human experience – from children who gaze up at the stars to organized efforts to benefit and elevate both citizens and societies. It was with this ambition that the United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) was founded in 2014, as a government administration responsible for developing, fostering and regulating a sustainable and world-class space sector for the nation.  The country’s leadership had long acknowledged the potential of exploration to propel the UAE to a higher technological and scientific echelon. As such, another agency was established in Dubai called the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) to work with UAESA toward the goal of establishing UAE as the premier space-faring nation in the Arab world and custodian of the first ever Arabic and Islamic mission to explore Mars.

Al-Mansoori, a military aviator, is one of two candidates selected for the inaugural UAE Astronaut Programme through the MBRSC. Announced in 2018, he began preparing for spaceflight at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, as part of an agreement between MBRSC and the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos to train Emirati astronauts.

This is clearly just the start of an expanded regional focus on research & development as well as exploration. In addition, UAE is the venue for the 2020 international Astronautical Congress, an annual policy and technical meeting of the world’s key space agencies – another important event for the country and the region as well as a sign that the Middle East is a player in space. With our current strategic presence in the UAE, Stellar Solutions is right in the middle of the action which is a great place to be!

A New Race for Space

Historically, space exploration has been limited to a handful of nations, but things are changing rapidly with numerous rising countries and technology advancements. As stated in the Space Ready: The Launchpad for Emerging Space Agencies report, “With the advances in technology, space is no longer the exclusive domain of powerful states with significant national budgets for their space programs. Smaller states, as well as a vast number of commercial enterprises, have become increasingly involved in the space arena and have demonstrated the immense socio-economic benefits that ensue.”

According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), there are approximately 31 national space agencies around the world, and the list is increasing. Countries in Europe (11) and Asia (6) have the vast majority of established agencies, while North America (3) consists of two of the most established world agencies (NASA and Canadian Space Agency) that are founding members of the International Space Station. The Middle East and North Africa (3), Africa (2), and South America (2) represent opportunities for new space, particularly as exploration is broadened through small satellites and ridesharing.

The initial cooperation for building the space station was signed by the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and the eleven member states of the European Space Agency or ESA (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom). Humans have been aboard the space station nonstop since 2000, with 239 people from 19 countries having visited. The vast majority in terms of numbers have been from the United States (151) and Russia (47), and nearly all of the 19 countries that have visited are the original ISS partners with the exception of six: Brazil, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, South Africa, South Korea and now the UAE.

Of the more than 200 people to visit the station, only one has been from Africa, one from South America, and now one from the Middle East. This is another indicator of the challenge of achieving truly global participation as well as the ample need for established expertise in space that Stellar can provide to markets that are developing.

The Space Ready report notes that the UAE space program has “has quickly earned credence as a leading space power in its region. By focusing on development of national capabilities in space technology, the UAE agency aims to contribute towards economic diversification and the consolidation of a knowledge-based economy”, and that they are one of only nine countries worldwide planning missions to Mars. The report’s many recommendations to fledgling space agencies include multiple references to the importance of commercial partnerships to maximize both technical and economic potential. And this is a challenge we are uniquely poised to support. 

The space journey of Hazzaa Al-Mansoori is a vivid example of the momentous times we are in! As I write this, he is up there with an international crew of eight other astronauts, circling the Earth once every 90 minutes and helping usher in the future. 

About the Author: Mohamed Youssif is general manager for Middle East and North Africa for Stellar Solutions’ international business sector.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49715269

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/emirati-arab-reach-international-space-station-190926061419169.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/science/emirati-astronaut-uae-international-space-station.html

https://www.space.com/soyuz-ms15-space-station-expedition-61-crew-launch-success.html

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Stellar Solutions, Inc., based in the United States, Stellar Solutions Aerospace Limited, based in the United Kingdom, and Stellar Solutions Aerospace France operate seamlessly together to serve customers’ critical needs across global markets.

September 27, 2019.

We are excited to announce that Stellar is one of five winners in Phase 2 of MagQuest, a $1.2 million National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) competition to advance geomagnetic data collection for the World Magnetic Model.  The pioneering research of the QuakeFinder team is well suited to this global open innovation initiative that was launched in March to attract novel approaches that increase the efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of geomagnetic data collection.

THE STELLAR PROPOSAL

Global Acquisition of Magnetic Measurements at Altitude (GAMMA). Adding magnetometers as hosted payloads to planned satellite launches with optional integration of ground-based sensors. The combination of spaceborne and terrestrial data could increase coverage and decrease risk.

Congratulations to Dan Schneider and our QuakeFinder team!

Read our Phase 2 Press Release here: https://www.prweb.com/releases/stellar_solutions_wins_phase_2_award_in_1_2m_national_geospatial_intelligence_agency_competition/prweb16608988.htm .

Read our Phase 1 Press Release here: https://www.prweb.com/releases/stellar_solutions_quakefinder_selected_for_phase_1_of_national_geospatial_intelligence_agency_competition/prweb16398178.htm .

September 19, 2019.

Stellar Solutions Founder and Board Chair Celeste Ford recently interviewed with The Kamla Show as part of its Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) series. The interview aired in multiple markets nationwide and will continue to be shown through 2020 in addition to being available online.

Click here to see the interview. Other national leaders interviewed for this series include former United States Chief Technologist Megan Smith.

The Kamla Show is a weekly TV series hosted in Silicon Valley, that engages high-profile female leaders, entrepreneurs, technologists, filmmakers, artists and other newsmakers from the San Francisco Bay area. The show currently broadcasts in nearly 40 states, with customers including PBS and independent stations, cable and school districts. 

Having founded Stellar Solutions nearly 25 years ago as one of very few women-owned technical companies in aerospace, Celeste is committed to sharing her experiences, knowledge and success with the next generation of female leaders.

September 19, 2019.

Recent events in the news are a reminder of how the aerospace and technology world is constantly changing in ways that Stellar is striving to address, just as the entrepreneurial landscape remains even more dynamic and competitive. Shifts in national policies can impact many of our customers, and in turn influence our ability to meet their critical needs. We also view evolving requirements as opportunities to strengthen current relationships and capabilities as well as build new ones.

The White House released National Security Presidential Memorandum-20 on August 20, regarding the “Launch of Spacecraft Containing Space Nuclear Systems“.

The National Space Council recently met, with several recommendations to the President regarding NASA’s work in human exploration of the Moon and eventually Mars (Space Policy Directive-1) – to include international and commercial partnerships.

Finally, as reported by several news sources, in late August we saw the first major step in the formulation of an entirely new branch of the U.S. military–the creation of a Space Command.

• Gen. John Hyten, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, noted in April that “there’s no doubt the Space Force of the future will have to have a very strong relationship with the National Reconnaissance Office.”
• “After months of analysis and deliberations, the intelligence community and Department of Defense have agreed to align U.S. Space Command and the NRO into a new, unified defense concept of operations at the National Space Defense Center,”  said Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.
• Maguire also said: “As part of U.S. Space Command, the National Space Defense Center is a joint DoD-Intelligence Community organization and will become the center of gravity for defending our vital interest in space,” and “For the first time, there will be a unified structure that fully integrates Intelligence Community and Department of Defense space defense plans, authorities and capabilities to ensure seamless execution of space defense systems.”
• Gen. Joe Dunford, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff indicated that the primary missions of the new U.S. Space Command are “missile warning, satellite operations, space control and space support.”
• Former NRO Director Marty Faga said, “The speed of attacks on satellites is the major reason for the change in command structure. A big problem at least currently for all of our systems, military and IC [intelligence community], is that many forms of attack will come with no warning like cyber, jamming and laser. Moreover, kinetic ASAT [anti-satellite] attack in LEO [low earth orbit] takes eight minutes from launch to strike. It will be quite a while before our ability to detect, track and respond will be that fast.”

In addition to all of our very important civil and commercial work, space protection and resiliency are at the forefront of our mission partners’ critical needs–and Stellar is postured to lead in this effort. Our teams bring cutting-edge commercial technologies and expertise in the field to ensure the physical and cyber security of our nation and its allies.  The increasing complexity of emerging threats requires a systems approach to mitigate and deter, our domain of expertise. Defense Programs VP Betsy Pimentel recently discussed the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s focus on “EPIC Speed” in transforming defense technology acquisition and development, and how Stellar is already walking the talk with our high-impact enterprise solutions, partnerships and customer service, cross-cutting innovation (among our Defense, Intelligence, and Defense Support & Cyber business sectors), and unique culture.

We are closely monitoring all of these national space developments, as part of our delivery of ongoing end-to-end systems engineering for space systems and supporting infrastructure, as well as processes and strategies that serve the government in missile warning, communications, surveillance, and risk management. Stellar is helping our customers ensure space superiority, resiliency, and continuity of operations around the globe.

About the author: Michael Lencioni is the CEO of Stellar Solutions, providing key leadership and strategic direction for the international systems engineering company’s rapid-response capabilities and services related to global surveillance and cybersecurity, space exploration, risk management, and technology optimization.

August 19, 2019.

Part of the United States Air Force Space Command, the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) in Los Angeles provides principal development and acquisition for military space capabilities. The SMC is in the process of implementing a restructure of the organization to reinvigorate its workforce and shift its overall focus to an enterprise approach. Announced last year by the Secretary of the Air Force, the stated central goal is to “take down the walls that keep programs in stovepipes and create a more unified enterprise that looks at systems horizontally from design to production.”

As part of our key support to all phases of space system development and operations across numerous sectors, Stellar Solutions already embraces many of the elements of SMC 2.0 and we’ve seen significant evidence of their effectiveness and success.

The central concept used to describe the transformation of this organization, SMC 2.0, is “EPIC Speed”. This means: evaluating capabilities at the Enterprise level; using Partnerships wherever possible to build on Innovation of others as well as sharing technologies internal to the Air Force; and changing the Culture to move quickly and accept measured risk.  These approaches are being combined to increase the speed of acquisition.

Stellar Enterprise: our employee-driven strategic perspective is designed to continue fulfilling our vision to realize employee dream jobs while meeting critical customer needs. Although our activities and organization are defined by customer-focused business sectors, all employees are encouraged and enabled to cross boundaries to achieve the best possible enterprise solution (“buy 2, get 200”).

Stellar Partnerships: our boundary-crossing activities enable cooperation across our sectors and ultimately our customer bases. An example is the collaboration between the Overhead Persistent Infrared community within our Defense and Intelligence Sectors and the weather communities (terrestrial/climate and space weather including solar events) within our Defense and Civil Sectors.  We are working together on sensor development, data processing and products, and end-user application—in addition to our overall systems engineering support to sensor and spacecraft integration in both areas. Our Defense Support and Cyber sector also brings a partnership to the warfighter community using exercises to ensure that the capabilities being developed will integrate well into the theater of operations.

Stellar Innovation: our “built to last” business processes adapt internally to support changes in our environment. Stellar Solution’s initiatives with new space entrants in all technology areas ensure our familiarity with the latest innovations and our readiness to deliver related solutions to our customers in all sectors, informing the way ahead.

Stellar Culture: our culture of collaboration and answering questions at the speed of need bring together solutions that meet our customers’ critical requirements. Our corporate focus on engaging employees and customers is a vital part of Stellar’s Baldrige journey of performance excellence and sustainability.

The SMC Commander, Lt. General John F. Thompson, recently testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Strategic Forces that our space forces face an environment that is increasingly competitive. He indicated that while America enjoys superiority in other mission areas, “our adversaries have recognized the extent to which our space capabilities provide a strategic advantage and are working to deny the use of our capabilities with asymmetric advantages of their own; the space acquisition enterprise must adapt to deliver capabilities to outpace the threat.”

I am personally excited for this opportunity to help the Air Force and the broader community rise to the challenge. EPIC Speed is not possible without continued focus on each of these key elements: enterprise, partnerships, innovation and culture. The application of these concepts within our Stellar culture is consistent with the goals of SMC 2.0, and focusing on that alignment in each mission area will embody a future enterprise with the resiliency needed to meet our nation’s needs.

About the author: Betsy Pimentel is Vice President for Defense Programs at Stellar Solutions, leading robust technology, management, and expert solutions for Department of Defense customers related to space and missile systems for national protection and security.