Imma Perfetto
Cosmos science journalist
Australia’s largest commercially designed and built satellite, Optimus, was lost somewhere in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) following a successful launch in March.
After several weeks of attempts to establish communications with the satellite, Space Machines Company announced in May that it had lost contact.
Co-founder and CEO Dr Rajat Kulshrestha told Cosmos that the Australian startup sees its Optimus mission as both a step in the right direction and a learning moment.
“It was already a massive challenge to [try] to build a 280kg satellite,” he says.
“From the very beginning our view was … ‘If we can build this, test it and put it in a rocket with SpaceX, that’s 95% mission success. If we get it to orbit, that’s another 3% and if it does everything we wanted to do, then it’s 100%’.”
Optimus was launched on Transporter-10, SpaceX’s dedicated SmallSat rideshare program which delivered 53 spacecrafts into orbit.
This month, Transporter-11 delivered more than double that, including 3 Australian satellites.
Like carpooling to save on an Uber ride, Transporter and other rideshare programs have drastically reduced the cost barrier to access space.
“Rideshare with SpaceX and other rockets … is an interesting paradigm,” says Kulshrestha.
Low cost is the obvious benefit. A spot on a rideshare rocket, according to Kulshrestha, will set you back about $6,000 per kg of satellite. Whereas a dedicated, solo launch will cost approximately 4 times that.
“But what it also means is that you’re one of n-objects that are going together,” he explains.
“And that can cause a lot of issues as far as identification of the spacecraft in orbit, because they’re so close and … space is so vast, that if you’re only being released … in quick succession, it almost forms a cluster of spacecrafts.
“So, it took us a long time to identify who’s who and it was not an issue just we faced, it was an issue everybody faced on that flight.”
Traditionally, Kulshrestha says, satellites and their operations are configured to make contact with humans within the first couple of weeks.
“Having to be in space without humans in the loop for 4, 5, 6 weeks is not something that generally is accepted practice,” he says.
“So, I think that really played a part into the outcome that, you know, we could not identify it fast enough and hence the communication efforts were sub-optimised.”
These lessons are informing new solutions for faster spacecraft contact and identification, and more robust communications through additional channels.
“I think on top of the technical learnings, but also commercially, really starting to think about the value of what you give up in rideshare in accuracy and [precision] to the cost,” says Kulshrestha.
Space Machines Company has several launches planned for 2026, including the next generation Optimus vehicle. It will depart on NewSpace India Limited (NSIL)’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) as part of the first dedicated launch agreement between Australia and India.
The 450kg orbital servicing vehicle’s primary purpose will be to approach space debris to collect data about it using optical and infrared sensors.
“Part of the mission objective is to move significantly enough that we can show that manoeuvring will happen to go and check these objects out,” says Kulshrestha.
“[The satellite] will approach them relatively close, so less than 10km from the object.”
Space Machines Company is building capabilities for “roadside assistance in space” to facilitate a more sustainable future for the industry as space becomes increasingly congested and contested.
In 2023, there were 12,597 spacecraft (including 3,356 inactive ones) in orbit and global government spending on space defence grew 18% to $57 billion.
“A foundational capability to … service, and upgrade, and extend the life [of satellites] and remove debris can only happen if you are collecting deep data about these assets from close up,” says Kulshrestha.
“Our focus is to provide an affordable and accessible way to collect that data for our customers in orbit. Where we can approach another critical asset in space, and we can provide a diversity of data and assessment of the situation, whether that is for commercial use [or] for national security purposes.”
