Blue Canyon Tech

BOULDER, Colorado – September 11, 2017 – Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) has been awarded two contracts by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for missions that will reach geostationary orbit (GEO).

The first contract has BCT designing and manufacturing a state-of-the-art 60 kg microsat bus for the Space Situational Awareness (S5) mission, led by the Air Force. Applied Defense Systems (ADS) will provide the payload.

BCT will spearhead integration of the S5 payload with the microsat bus, conduct launch vehicle integration and perform bus-level functionality testing of the spacecraft prior to delivery.

The objective of the S5 mission is to measure the feasibility and affordability of developing low cost constellations for routine and frequent updates to the GEO space catalog.

AFRL awarded a second contract for BCT to build, test and deliver a 12U-class CubeSat bus for the ASCENT mission. AFRL will provide and integrate the ASCENT payload with BCT’s 12U spacecraft bus. Blue Canyon Technologies will perform bus-level testing of the complete spacecraft prior to delivery.

The ASCENT mission will demonstrate various CubeSat operations in geostationary orbit (GEO).

“By leveraging our flight-proven, small satellite avionics, we are lowering spacecraft costs and reducing lead times to enable new types of missions like S5 and ASCENT. We are excited to work with AFRL to bring this capability to the small satellite market.”, said George Stafford, BCT president.

BCT’s 12U-class CubeSat and 60 kg microsat spacecraft are both high-performance satellites which include ultra-precise attitude control systems that allow for accurate knowledge and fine-pointing of the satellite payloads. The highly integrated design also maximizes payload volume.

Both spacecraft will be developed at BCT’s Spacecraft Manufacturing Center located in Boulder, CO. The office and laboratories are designed specifically for high-volume production of spacecraft systems and components, with the manufacturing capability to handle large constellations of small spacecraft.

About Blue Canyon Technologies
Blue Canyon Technologies, Inc. is a privately-held business founded in 2008 to bring high-performance, affordable solutions to space missions. The company is an innovative, experienced integrator of aerospace systems and developer of advanced aerospace products and technologies. For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and for other company information, please visit www.bluecanyontech.com.

BOULDER, Colorado – August 15, 2017 – Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) has been awarded a contract by Aurora Flight Sciences to build and test a new 6U-class CubeSat bus for the Deformable Mirror (DeMi) demonstration mission led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Space Telecommunications, Astronomy and Radiation (STAR) Laboratory and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). MIT is providing the microelectromechanical system (MEMS) deformable mirror (DM) instrument for the mission. Aurora Flight Sciences is managing the project and systems integration.

Under the terms of the contract, BCT will deliver the instrumentation-ready 6U spacecraft bus to MIT, which will spearhead integration of the DeMi payload. BCT will test the bus functionality of the spacecraft prior to delivery of the spacecraft.

BCT’s 6U spacecraft is a high-performance CubeSat that includes an ultra-precise attitude control system that allows for accurate knowledge and fine-pointing of the satellite payload. The highly integrated design also maximizes payload volume.

“BCT is pleased to be selected by Aurora Flight Sciences and MIT for contribution to the DeMi mission. BCT is leveraging our increased manufacturing and test capability to build the DeMi spacecraft and to meet the needs of the growing small satellite market. BCT is currently designing and building 37 spacecraft on 20 different missions,” said George Stafford, BCT president.

The objective of the DeMi mission is to fly a 6U CubeSat with a wavefront sensor to demonstrate and characterize the operation of a MEMS DM in low Earth orbit (LEO). Deformable mirrors are used to correct both static and dynamic optical aberrations in optical systems, with applications such as improving contrast in astronomical imaging, or in free-space optical communications, for coupling laser light into a single-mode fiber for optical preamplification. The DeMi mission aims to provide on-orbit performance qualification of MEMS deformable mirrors for closed-loop wavefront sensing. DeMi plans to include an internal laser and wavefront sensor for mirror characterization as well as a small telescope to demonstrate closed-loop wavefront control on a star.

The 6U spacecraft is being developed at BCT’s Spacecraft Manufacturing Center located in Boulder, Colo. The office and laboratories are designed specifically for high-volume production of spacecraft systems and components, with the manufacturing capability to handle large constellations of small spacecraft.

About Blue Canyon Technologies
Blue Canyon Technologies, Inc. is a privately held business founded in 2008 to bring high-performance, affordable solutions to space missions. The company is an innovative, experienced integrator of aerospace systems and developer of advanced aerospace products and technologies. For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and for other company information, please visit www.bluecanyontech.com.
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BOULDER, Colorado – August 14, 2017 – Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) has been awarded a contract by the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) to build a new 6U-class CubeSat bus for the Compact Spectral Irradiance Monitor Flight Demonstration (CSIM FD) mission.

LASP will provide, integrate and test the CSIM FD payload with BCT’s 6U spacecraft bus. BCT will conduct the functional bus testing, while LASP will perform environmental testing of the complete spacecraft prior to launch.
BCT’s 6U spacecraft is a high-performance CubeSat that includes an ultra-precise attitude control system that allows for accurate knowledge and fine-pointing of the satellite payload. The highly integrated design also maximizes payload volume.
“With the CSIM FD mission, BCT will be continuing our longstanding and successful partnership with LASP. We are excited to be working alongside one of the world’s most distinguished space science research centers, and helping enable new missions like CSIM FD.”, said George Stafford, BCT president.

The purpose of the CSIM FD demonstration mission is to measure solar spectral irradiance to understand how solar variability impacts the Earth’s climate and to validate climate model sensitivity to spectrally varying solar forcing.
The 6U spacecraft will be developed at BCT’s Spacecraft Manufacturing Center located in Boulder, CO. The office and laboratories are designed specifically for high-volume production of spacecraft systems and components, with the manufacturing capability to handle large constellations of small spacecraft.

About Blue Canyon Technologies
Blue Canyon Technologies, Inc. is a privately-held business founded in 2008 to bring high-performance, affordable solutions to space missions. The company is an innovative, experienced integrator of aerospace systems and developer of advanced aerospace products and technologies. For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and for other company information, please visit www.bluecanyontech.com.

BOULDER, Colorado – May 31, 2017 – Blue Canyon Technologies’ (BCT) 3U CubeSat for the RAVAN mission, which has been successfully operating in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) since November 2016, is extending mission operations through April 2018. After recording its “first light” data when its radiometer doors opened on Jan. 25, 2017, the RAVAN mission, funded by NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office, has authorized continued operations.

The RAVAN project (RAVAN stands for Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes) is being led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).  BCT manufactured the spacecraft bus and spearheads the operations out of its advanced Mission Operations Center located in Boulder, Colorado.

RAVAN is currently measuring the Earth’s radiation imbalance, the difference in energy reaching the top of Earth’s atmosphere from the sun and the energy reflected and radiated to space from the Earth. NASA is making solar measurements that will enable absolute radiometric calibration of RAVAN’s observations. RAVAN is positioned as a demonstration mission for a potential follow-on constellation of CubeSats that will measure Earth’s radiation imbalance around the globe.

About Blue Canyon Technologies

Blue Canyon Technologies, Inc is a privately-held business founded in 2008 to bring high-performance, affordable solutions to space missions. The company is an innovative, experienced integrator of aerospace systems and developer of advanced aerospace products and technologies. In 2016, Inc. Magazine listed BCT as the #1 Fastest Growing Private Engineering Company in the United States. For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and for other company information, please visit www.bluecanyontech.com.

BOULDER, Colorado – November 22, 2016 – Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) has successfully launched its first 3U CubeSat, referred to as the XB3, into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The spacecraft was one of several CubeSats carried to an altitude of nearly 400 miles into space via the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket on Friday November 11^th at the Space Launch Complex 3 East at Vandenberg Air Force Base.  BCT manufactured the spacecraft for the Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes (RAVAN) project, led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL).

BCT’s advanced Mission Operations Center will autonomously operate XB3-RAVAN for the life of the mission from its Boulder, Colorado UHF ground station. Working with a grant from the state of Colorado, BCT has been increasing its spacecraft production and test capabilities.  BCT is now providing end-to-end mission solutions for their customers.

BCT’s XB3 has been manufactured to be the highest precision-pointing nano-satellite ever flown. Currently, more than fifteen different spacecraft missions that use its high-performance XB spacecraft bus are in production.

RAVAN will measure the Earth’s radiation imbalance, the difference in energy reaching the top of Earth’s atmosphere from the sun and the energy reflected and radiated to space from the Earth.  RAVAN is being positioned as a demonstration mission for a follow-on constellation of CubeSats that will measure Earth’s radiation imbalance around the globe.

About Blue Canyon Technologies

Blue Canyon Technologies, Inc is a privately-held business founded in 2008 to bring high-performance, affordable solutions to space missions. The company is an innovative, experienced integrator of aerospace systems and developer of advanced aerospace products and technologies. In 2016, Inc. Magazine listed BCT as the #1 Fastest Growing Private Engineering Company in the United States. For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and for other company information, please visit www.bluecanyontech.com.

BOULDER, Colorado – November 7, 2016 – Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) has recently been awarded a contract to build and test a new 6U-class satellite.  Funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, BCT will deliver the spacecraft bus, ready for instrumentation, to the HaloSat project, which is funded by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility.

BCT’s XB spacecraft is a high-performance small satellite that includes an ultra-precise attitude control system that allows for accurate knowledge and fine-pointing of the satellite payload.  This mission builds upon the success of BCT’s recent performance on the MinXSS spacecraft, which is completing its 6th month on-orbit.  BCT is currently working on over fifteen different spacecraft missions that use its high-performance XB spacecraft bus.

HaloSat is a CubeSat that will measure soft X-ray emissions from the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. The sum of baryons observed in the local universe falls short of the number measured at the time of the cosmic microwave background—the “missing baryon” problem. HaloSat should help determine if the missing baryons reside in the hot halos surrounding galaxies.  The HaloSat mission is led by the University of Iowa Principal Investigator (PI), Dr. Philip Kaaret.  The team from the University of Iowa in collaboration with NASA Goddard’s Space Flight Center, and Johns Hopkins University will be developing the science instrument for the HaloSat mission.

Located in Boulder, Colorado, the company is developing a new environmental test facility, increasing manufacturing output, and creating a satellite ground-station for single to constellation-sized missions.  Working with a grant from the state of Colorado, BCT has been increasing its spacecraft production and test capabilities.  BCT is now providing end-to-end mission solutions for their customers.

“BCT was recently recognized as the fastest growing privately owned engineering company in the United States.  We are providing key technology to enable and expand the world’s small satellite market.  The HaloSat mission will be another important science mission that BCT’s spacecraft bus will help make possible.”, said BCT’s President, George Stafford.

The HaloSat mission is expected to launch in 2018 via the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative.

About Blue Canyon Technologies

Blue Canyon Technologies, Inc is a privately-held business founded in 2008 to bring high-performance, affordable solutions to space missions. The company is an innovative, experienced integrator of aerospace systems and developer of advanced aerospace products and technologies. In 2016, Inc. Magazine listed BCT as the #1 Fastest Growing Private Engineering Company in the United States. For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and for other company information, please visit www.bluecanyontech.com.

BOULDER, Colorado –June 30, 2016 – In its first ever flight, the XACT attitude control system from Blue
Canyon Technologies (BCT) is providing high-performance guidance, navigation, and control to the
orbiting Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) spacecraft.

A 3U CubeSat funded by NASA and led by the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and
Space Physics, MinXSS requires precision pointing to carry out its scientific objectives. Integrating an
array of high-performance miniaturized space sensors and actuators, including BCT’s Nano Star Tracker
and Micro Reaction Wheels, the XACT unit provides state-of-the-art attitude control for small spacecraftlike MinXSS. On-orbit telemetry from both the XACT unit and independent spacecraft instrumentation indicates 1-sigma cross-axis pointing error better than 8 arcseconds, which is less than the width of the Empire State Building as viewed from Los Angeles.

MinXSS was deployed from the International Space Station on May 16, and is designed to collect soft Xray emissions from the sun that will help scientists better understand space weather in which solar storms impact our space-based technology such as communication and navigation systems.

The mission exemplifies the increasing capability of low-cost CubeSat missions, which have proliferated as the enabling technology has developed. In the coming years BCT’s XACT attitude control system and XB-1 spacecraft bus are slated for dozens of flights in support of a wide array of scientific, commercial, and defense missions.

About Blue Canyon Technologies
Blue Canyon Technologies, Inc. is a privately-held business founded in 2008 to bring high-performance,
affordable solutions to space missions. The company is an innovative, experienced integrator of
aerospace systems and developer of advanced aerospace products and technologies.

BOULDER, Colorado – April 12, 2016 – Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) has recently been selected by The Ohio State University (OSU) to build a 6U spacecraft called CubeRRT.  The CubeSat Radiometer Radio Frequency Interference Technology Validation (CubeRRT) mission will observe, detect, and mitigate radio frequency interference (RFI) for microwave radiometers.  RFI is a growing concern for Earth science observations due to its negative impact on science measurements with microwave radiometers. CubeRRT is being developed through collaboration between OSU, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Goddard and JPL will build the front-end instrument and the backend electronics for the spacecraft, respectively, while OSU will implement CubeRRT’s antenna subsystem and manage the project.

BCT will integrate the CubeRRT payloads with the 6U spacecraft bus and perform environmental testing of the complete spacecraft.  The spacecraft will be operated from BCT’s Mission Operations Center located in Boulder, Colorado.  BCT’s 6U spacecraft is a high-performance CubeSat that includes an ultra-precise attitude control system that allows for accurate knowledge and fine-pointing of the satellite payload.

“We are excited to work with The Ohio State University, NASA Goddard, and JPL on this important mission.  BCT’s XB satellite platform continues to be a perfect match for science missions like CubeRRT that require a reliable, high-performance spacecraft”, said George Stafford, BCT president.

CubeRRT’s mission is to identify and mitigate RFI for space-based microwave radiometers.  As spectrum usage has increased by the communications industry, RFI has become a problem for science missions.  CubeRRT will build on the success of RFI mitigation techniques developed for NASA’s Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) mission, but at higher frequencies – 6 – 40GHz – instead of SMAP’s 1.4 GHz.  Mitigation at these higher frequencies will allow scientists to continue using radiometry for high quality Earth science measurements.

The 6U spacecraft will be developed and operated at BCT’s Spacecraft Manufacturing and Operations Center located in Boulder, CO.  The office and laboratory are designed specifically for high-volume production of spacecraft systems and components, with the manufacturing capability to handle large constellations of small spacecraft.

About Blue Canyon Technologies

Blue Canyon Technologies, Inc. is a privately-held business founded in 2008 to bring high-performance, affordable solutions to space missions. The company is an innovative, experienced integrator of aerospace systems and developer of advanced aerospace products and technologies.  For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and for other company information, please visit www.bluecanyontech.com.

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