NASA has awarded its first “low-cost” Venture-class Earth Science Mission to the University of Michigan. The mission, Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), will study ocean weather, and the data from CYGNSS will help scientists analyze the formulation and life of hurricanes. CYGNSS will receive $151.7M over the next 5 years to develop and build eight microsatellites to be launched on a Pegasus launch vehicle.
MXL will perform one of the seven science tasks for CYGNSS. We will provide constellation and small satellite orbit design, L1 data geolocation and antenna pointing determination. Unfortunately, none of the satellite design and development will occur at MXL. While our nanosatellite systems are capable of the mission, SWRI will be building the satellite.