CubeSat UHF Payload Offers Data, Voice and Text

Elbit announced on 18 December that its NANOVA nanosatellite has been successfully launched to space.

Developed in collaboration with an American company, NANOVA is part of the BIRD foundation initiative, planned to form part of a nanosatellite constellation for commercial purposes. NANOVA will be controlled from a ground station at the company’s site in Haifa. The spacecraft is a 3U (the size of a juice carton), 5kg CubeSat hosting a UHF communication payload that provides a direct satellite link for data, voice and text messaging.

NANOVA was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in southern India, onboard the POLAR Satellite Launch Vehicle. It was set out to its orbit 18 minutes from launch at an altitude of 580 kilometers.

Elbit Systems’ decades of experience in designing, manufacturing and deploying spaceborne electro-optic payloads, space structures and satellite communications, together with its leadership in avionics, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence, provide the company with a unique technological foundation for providing end-to-end nanosatellite constellation solutions.

Yoram Shmuely, General Manager of Elbit Systems Aerospace Division, stated “We plan to continue to invest in this emerging field, expanding our sensing capabilities and the range of potential applications.”

Designed to meet strict cost-efficiency requirements, NANOVA integrates mature in-house capabilities and commercial-off-the-shelf space-hardened components, while featuring advanced UI/UX and sophisticated analytical tools. These make NANOVA an attractive solution for reliable communication services in areas with limited or no satellite coverage. Such services are required for a range of commercial applications, including search and rescue operations, emergency communications from remote areas, fleet logistical and tracking management as well as machine-to-machine monitoring and sensing for a wide variety of needs.