SFL Missions Awarded Contract for Fast-Turnaround AISSat-4 Nanosatellite Development to Expand Capacity in Norwegian Maritime Monitoring System

AISSat-4 is needed to expand operational capacity in Norway’s maritime situational awareness network.

AISSat-4 is being developed on SFL’s SPARTAN 6U nanosatellite platform and will carry a single payload – a miniaturized Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver built by Kongsberg Seatex of Trondheim, Norway. The SPARTAN bus is space proven with 18 commercial communications satellites previously deployed using this platform.

SFL Missions is uniquely prepared to develop AISSat-4 on an accelerated schedule. Additionally, the SPARTAN platform relies on heritage hardware and software and is easily tailored to accommodate the AIS receiver and antennas.

“We have extensive experience in implementing AIS missions, and therefore we have the expertise and design heritage needed to implement the AISSat-4 mission on a short schedule,” said Dr. Robert E. Zee, SFL Missions Director and CEO.

More broadly, he added, SFL Missions Inc. has the capacity to work on many satellite missions concurrently, and since the team is vertically integrated, it maintains full control over the subsystem and spacecraft level assembly, integration, and testing schedules.