Saber Astronautics is an space operations and software company based in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

in Australia, and

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

in the United States.

Company structure

Saber Astronautics consists of two separately incorporated entities – Saber Astronautics, LLC in the US and Saber Astronautics Australia Pty Ltd in Australia. The Australian business has a

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

Chippendale, New South Wales Chippendale is a small inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on the southern edge of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the City of Sydney. Chippendale is locate ...

. The US business has a headquarters in Boulder, Colorado.

History

Saber Astronautics was first established in 2007 as a research and development startup in

, and in 2008, in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

with a mission to reduce barriers to spaceflight and the "democratisation of space". The company initially developed

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

diagnostics Diagnosis (: diagnoses) is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in a lot of different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". ...

software for satellites in 2010 with a focus area on

system of systems The term system of systems refers to a collection of task-oriented or dedicated systems that pool their resources and capabilities together to create a new, more complex system which offers more functionality and performance than simply the sum of ...

, and conducted spacecraft design on contract. The machine learning diagnostics tools were demonstrated on the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Advanced Composition Explorer Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE or Explorer 71) is a NASA Explorer program satellite and space exploration mission to study matter comprising energetic particles from the solar wind, the interplanetary medium, and other sources. Real-ti ...

space weather satellite in 2012. Saber entered the space operations software market in 2012 with the Predictive Ground station InterfaceTM (PIGI) in 2012. PIGI was first used in live operations in 2014 for the California-based cubesat startup Southern Stars' SkyCube mission in 2014. In 2013 Saber was accepted into NASA's Flight Opportunities Program for an Electrodynamic Deorbit Tether to

deorbit Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entry ...

cubesats A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

. The tether completed parabolic flight tests in 2015 and 2016. Since 2017 the company has supplied the

United States Space Force The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space force branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces, armed forces of the United States and one of the eight uniformed services of the Unite ...

with the Space Cockpit software. It provided civilian space operators as part of the JCO Pacific in 2020. Between 2020 and 2022 the company led the Sprint Advanced Concepts Training (SACT)

wargame A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for Recreational wargaming, recreation, to train military officers in the art of milit ...

s for the Pacific timezone. In 2023 the

New Zealand Defence Force The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF; , "Line of Defence of New Zealand") is the three-branched military of New Zealand. The NZDF is responsible for the protection of the national security of New Zealand and its realm, promoting its interests, ...

was selected to take over lead. In 2020 the company won an Australian Space Agency’s Space Infrastructure Fund (SIF) grant to construct an operations center in Adelaide. In 2022, the company opened this new office, operations centre and concurrent design facility on Lot 14 in Adelaide in proximity to the

Australian Space Agency The Australian Space Agency is an agency of the Australian Government responsible for the development of Australia's commercial aerospace industry, coordinating domestic space activities, identifying opportunities and facilitating internatio ...

(ASA).

Notable achievements

In 2010 the company, in partnership with the 4 Pines Brewing Company, worked on developing the first space-drinkable beer. The project was funded by a crowdsourcing campaign that failed to achieve its goal investment. The project was continued through internal funding, and has conducted parabolic flight tests every few years. The 'Nitro Stout' beer is sold by 4 Pines in a regular bottle. In 2016 the company founder, Dr Jason Held, was assigned to lead a taskforce to advocate for an Australian space agency. The taskforce delivered its report in late 2017. In 2018, Held was assigned to the government-appointed "Expert Reference Group" to design the

which was founded in 2019. He remains a member of the ASA Space Industry Leaders Forum, which informs the agency on issues relevant to the industry and civil space sector. Since 2020 the company has been a partner of the US Joint Task Force-Space Defense Commercial Operations Cell (JCO) Pacific. In 2022 the company won a contract to conduct the launch tracking and in-orbit operations for the

AST SpaceMobile AST SpaceMobile is a Public company, publicly traded satellite designer and manufacturer based in Midland, Texas, United States. The company is building the SpaceMobile satellite constellation, a space-based cellular broadband network that will ...

BlueWalker 3 satellite. This satellite is a prototype for space to ground mobile phone service.

Products

Software

* Predictive Interactive Ground-station Interface (PIGI) – satellite command and control * Space Cockpit – defence-focused satellite command and control * Terrestrial and Astronomical Rapid Observation Toolkit (TAROT) – a space domain awareness visualisation * Mission Management Board (MMB) – a space operator–focused chat board

Services

* Commercial spaceflight operations * Space domain awareness services and advice

Facilities

* Responsive Space Operations Centre, Adelaide * Responsive Space Operations Centre, Colorado Springs

References

External links

* Australian companies established in 2008 Space technology Private spaceflight companies Aerospace companies of Australia Companies based in Sydney {{Aero-company-stub