An update on Mission 1 and Mission 2: Same name, new vehicle, new standard for space exploration

‍In our last update, we celebrated the launch of our first mission, Brokkr-1, and highlighted key capabilities and learnings the company was targeting on our way to in-house design and integration of our vehicles.

For Brokkr-1, we couldn't have gotten off the ground without the partnership of key third parties that added the necessary hands and expertise to get that vehicle flying in record time; great work all! Now it's been a huge few months for AstroForge, and there's a lot to report. 

Here’s where we are:

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Mission 1 - Farewell Brokkr-1

As a reminder, we launched Brokkr-1 to space in April 2023 to demonstrate our refinery technology operating in space.

We expected to lose communication with Brokkr-1 this spring, and we made our last contact on May 16, 2024 14:52 UTC. We received downlink telemetry packets but remained unable to close the command uplink necessary to activate the refinery payload. So while we could reasonably monitor overall vehicle health, we were not able to check out the demo refinery on this flight.

The final status of the mission objectives are below:

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Separation - COMPLETED

Initial Contact - COMPLETED

Deploy Solar Arrays - COMPLETED

Satellite Commissioning and Checkouts - COMPLETED

Refinery Baseline Checkouts - INCOMPLETE

Refinery Demonstration - NOT COMPLETED

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This mission has been invaluable to AstroForge, identifying weaknesses to resolve for our upcoming Mission 2 and providing our team with the experience of a flight campaign from concept design to on-orbit operations and all the steps in between to build, qualify, and certify a vehicle for space. Congratulations to all involved and everyone who stepped in with a helping hand, and to our partners, investors, family, and friends. We’re thankful to have had your support through it all. Brokkr-1 signing off. Truly, Ad Astra Per Aspera. 

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Mission 2 - Same Odin Name, New Odin Vehicle

Our second mission will send our vehicle, Odin, to deep space to gather images of our target asteroid. This will be the first-ever deep space mission by a commercial company and the first to collect images of an M-type asteroid.

The Odin vehicle failed vibration testing on March 12, 2024; the first natural frequency of the vehicle was significantly lower than expected and well below the SpaceX requirements to be certified to launch. We traced the root cause to a manufacturing defect in the baseplate, a large part of the structure made by one of our third-party vendors. The baseplate, where the propulsion tanks and thrusters are mounted, consists of a foam core sandwiched between carbon composite panels. The foam core was cracked in multiple places, leading to the off-nominal response seen in the vibration test. 

Vibration testing is strenuous on a spacecraft but safe by design when the design performs as expected; that's the point of the test. But when a vibration test goes off-nominal as ours did, all subsystems are potentially compromised and must be re-evaluated. 

With our newfound learnings from Mission 1, the AstroForge team performed a deep review of each system, rigorously comparing the as-built components to their design schematics and validation procedures. In that review, we identified damage to the propellant lines, harnessing that failed to meet NASA build standards, and discrepancies between schematics and the as-built avionics that dropped the performance margin in the communications system below our flight requirements. This spacecraft could not fly.

There are times when a company has to make extremely difficult decisions. Decisions that will test the resolve and strength of the team. Decisions that could ultimately make or break the company. On April 2, 2024, the AstroForge team unanimously decided to accelerate the in-house design of our own vehicle, planned for Mission 3, to use right now. 

Up to that point, we had only been designing and building our own payload; all other parts of the Mission 2 spacecraft were designed and integrated by a third party. And at that point, there were only seven months left to launch. Seven months to design and build a bus from scratch, produce mission-specific avionics systems, find and procure long-lead components (typically longer than seven months by itself), pass rigorous full-system flight testing, work with our supplier Dawn to fix the propulsion system, and get licensed and certified with Range Safety, SpaceX, and the FCC. 

AstroForge prides itself on how quickly we can move. Our first mission from company inception to launch was 460 days. That was a toaster-sized Cubesat. This is a grossly larger 100kg mostly-custom vehicle, and we need to do it 50% faster, just 212 days. We're fast, but this was insane. 

It was also the right decision. AstroForge is an exciting place to work, where best-of-the-best engineers sink deep into solving world-class problems. We've assembled insane levels of talent, thoughtfulness, experience, technical savvy, and resolve to make insane-seeming tasks viable. It's the right time to bet on ourselves.

It’s been a little over 3 months since we made our in-house-designed pivot; here’s where we are and what we still need to do:

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Define requirements and design the vehicle - COMPLETE

Design and manufacture primary structure - COMPLETE

Structural and thermal analysis of the vehicle - COMPLETE

Procure available components (solar arrays, reaction wheels, RF system) - COMPLETE

Design and fabricate mission-specific avionics (power distribution, flight computer, imager payload, onboard cameras, IO board) - COMPLETE

Repair and requalify propulsion system, in partnership with Dawn Aerospace - COMPLETE

FCC License Application - COMPLETE 

End to end testing with 1 of 4 ground station sites - COMPLETE

Design, build, test, and qualify solar array deployment mechanism - COMPLETE

Design, implement, and test mission operations software - COMPLETE

Design, implement, and test core GNC algorithms - COMPLETE

Design, implement, and test subset of flight software systems and drivers - COMPLETE

Design, implement, and test backend infrastructure - COMPLETE

Design, implement, and test data analysis tools - COMPLETE

Design, build, and test flight harnesses - COMPLETE

Design, build, and integrate thermal systems - COMPLETE

Integrate and test the full Odin vehicle - COMPLETE

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Vibration testing - IN PROGRESS 

Design, implement, and test representative Flatsat for HITL testing - IN PROGRESS

Mission design and trajectory optimization - IN PROGRESS

Acceptance test mission-specific avionics - IN PROGRESS

Complete flight software system and drivers - IN PROGRESS

Complete GNC software and testing - IN PROGRESS

Complete simulation environment in support of HITL testing - IN PROGRESS

End to end testing with all ground station sites - IN PROGRESS

TVAC testing - TODO 

HITL testing - TODO

Mission operations rehearsals - TODO

Ship to launch site - TODO

Launch integration - TODO 

Launch - TODO 

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This list is long and exhaustive, and intentionally so, not only to highlight the monumental task at hand but to showcase the AstroForge team. 

We're on track, but we can't shy away from the fact that any new team building a new vehicle is a lot of risk. It's the right risk at the right time. And everything we learn on Mission 2 sets us up for an even better Mission 3. 

Introducing the new Odin vehicle. Same name, new vehicle, setting a new standard in aerospace to deliver the first commercial deep space vehicle in record time. LFG!

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