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History & Milestones

SOCON

SeaHawk-1 is a 3U CubeSat (size 30x10x10cm and weight 5kg) designed and built by AAC Clyde Space and launched in December 2018 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9. SeaHawk-1 CubeSat was one of the 64 satellites included in the Spaceflight SSO-A Small Sat Express: their first dedicated ride-share mission for small satellites.

High Resolution Images

SeaHawk-1 is also the first 3U CubeSat specifically designed to carry an ocean color instrument payload (HawkEye). The goal of this proof-of-concept mission is to provide free high-spatial resolution images of Earth’s coastal regions. HawkEye, designed by Cloudland Instruments, is an 8-band multispectral instrument similar to SeaWiFS (one of the most successful ocean color missions to date).

It differs in that:

  • it was miniaturized (10x10x10cm) to fit inside the CubeSat,
  • band 7 was modified to improve atmospheric correction,
  • all bands were designed not to saturate over land,
  • and the entire sensor was built with low-cost, off-the-shelf materials.

One of the biggest contributions of SeaHawk-1 is its 130-meter spatial resolution.

This high resolution (~8 times better than SeaWiFS or standard global ocean color satellites) ocean color imagery will resolve sub-mesoscale features and will advance our understanding of key coastal processes and ecosystems. Some examples of potential areas of application include early detection of harmful algal blooms, glacier dynamics, threatened coral reefs, storm water runoffs, etc., all of which have direct impact in human well-being or livelihood.

SeaHawk-1 follows a sun-synchronous orbit an altitude of ~590km, orbiting 15-times a day with a current repeat time of about 18-days. SeaHawk-1 is one of two identical CubeSats, and SeaHawk-2 is expected to be launched within the next year, potentially reducing the time needed to re-image any given location.

The data will be available at no cost through NASA’s Ocean Biology Processing Group and UNCW. In the near future, the scientific community will also be able to submit requests for image acquisition (e.g. for field support) through UNCW.

This project is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant GBMF4526 to UNCW at Wilmington, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography and Space Act Agreement 450-AGMT-0149 between NASA and UNCW.

SpaceX Spaceflight Launch

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First Light Images

The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) together with NASA, AAC Clyde Space, Cloudland Instruments, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, is pleased to announce the successful acquisition and retrieval of SeaHawk-1 CubeSat’s first ocean color image from space. On March 22nd, it was downlinked via X-band from SeaHawk-1 CubeSat to the ground station at NASA Wallops and immediately transferred to NASA Goddard, where it was processed.

This first SeaHawk-1 engineering test image (pictured above) was captured by the HawkEye instrument on March 21st, 2019 at 18:47 UT from an altitude of 588 km and superimposed on Google Map data © 2019 Google, INEGI. At the current altitude that SeaHawk is flying, the pixel resolution of the HawkEye instrument is approximately 130 meters (425 feet) giving us an image size of approximately 6000 lines along track (780 km or 485 mi) x 1800 pixels across track (234 km or 145 mi). The true color full resolution closeup of the region from south of Monterey Bay to north of San Francisco (presented below) was produced by combining three of the Hawkeye bands (red band-6 (670nm), green band-5 (555nm) and blue band-2 (443nm).

It Takes a Village

UNCW's Satellite Oceanography Lab

Faculty members from the Department of Physical Oceanography and the students from UNCW's Student CubeSat Lab participated in the joint telecon on Friday, when the first image was downlinked to the ground station at NASA Wallops. The UNCW CubeSat Lab is a newly formed student association that was born in 2018 as a result of the genuine interest in the project by some students from UNCW's Master's Degree in Data Science.

The students are now involved in several projects under the guidance of advisors from the Department of Physical Oceanography and the Data Science Program. Students in the UNCW CubeSat Club presented a poster at the First NC Space Grant Student Symposium in April 2019.

Our Counterparts

The target location for the first light image was discussed with the entire SeaHawk team. The decision was based on certain requisites that included: a latitudinal range between 20-40 degrees, low probability of cloud cover or sun glint, a combination of land and ocean, and the CubeSat path. NASA Goddard, MD then scheduled the image acquisition and was in charge of processing the raw data up to level 1-A with the assistance of Cloudland Instruments and AAC Clyde Space.

Meanwhile NASA’s Near-Earth Network (NEN) ground station in Wallops, VA was in charge of downlinking the image from the CubeSat via X-Band and sending it to NASA Goddard for processing.

Project Schedules

Start date End date Milestone
08/18/2014 08/13/2014 SMALL SATELLITE CONFERENCE, LOGAN, UT
11/15/2014 06/15/2018 SOCON -- SUSTAINED OCEAN COLOROBSERVATIONS WITH NANOSATELLITES
07/21/2015 Pre-Preliminary Design Review (PDR) Clyde Space - Glasgow, Scotland
08/05/2015 08/10/2015 SMALL SATELLITE CONFERENCE, LOGAN, UT
08/17/2015 Pre-Preliminary Design Review (PDR) Goddard Space Flight Center
01/13/2016 Spaceflight Launch Service Agreement (SLA) for SeaHawk-1
02/02/2016 Moore Foundation Annual Report
04/18/2016 Preliminary Design Review (PDR) Clyde Space- Glasgow, Scotland
08/04/2016 Preliminary Design Review (PDR) NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center
08/04/2016 Critical Design Review CDR Teleconference
08/06/2016 08/11/2016 SMALL SATELLITE CONFERENCE, LOGAN, UT
11/22/2016 Moore Foundation Annual Report
02/24/2017 Cloudland - HawkEye Prototype First Light
03/05/2017 Cloudland - HawkEye Protype First "Group Selfie"
03/17/2017 Cloudland - HawkEye First Light Flight Unit
04/14/2017 Cloudland - HawkEye First 8-Band Image
05/26/2017 Cloudland - HawkEye Flight Unit Passed Vibraton Test (VIB)
05/30/2017 FCC License Request
06/02/2017 08/21/2021 RENEWAL: Sustained Ocean Color Observations with Nanosatellites(SOCON): Launch and Operations Support for SeaHawk “Proof-of-Concept” Flight Missions
06/12/2017 Cloudland - HawkEye Passed Thermal Vacuum Test (TVAC)
06/12/2017 Cloudland - HawkEye-1 and HawkEye-2 Completed
06/13/2017 Clyde Space Orbital Debris Analysis (ODAR) Completed
06/14/2017 University of North Carolina at Wilmington's license request to the NOAA Commercial Remote Sensing Reg ulatory Affairs (CRSRA} Licensing Program for operation of a Private Remote Sensing Space System pursuant to the National and Commercial Space Programs Act (NCSPA or Act), 51 U.S.C. § 60101, et seq.
06/14/2017 UNCW - Clyde Space Strategic Trade Agreement (STA) for Export of HawkEye-1 to Clyde Space
06/14/2017 NOAA CRSRA License Application Submitted
06/28/2017 HawkEye-1 Shipped from Cloudland Instruments to UNCW
07/12/2017 Cloudland Instruments HawkEye Pre-Shipping Review
08/03/2017 SeaHawk Critical Design Review
08/05/2017 08/10/2017 SMALL SATELLITE CONFERENCE, LOGAN, UT
09/17/2017 Spaceflight Launch Service Agreement for SeaHawk-2
09/19/2017 SeaHawk-2 Shipped from Cloudland to UNCW
10/06/2017 10/07/2017 Morrison, Holmes and Longmire Meet with STEM Team at University of Georgia
10/11/2017 NOAA CRSRA BaseLine Pre-Flight License Audit
10/12/2017 NOAA CRSRA Data Protection Plan Submitted
10/26/2017 NOAA Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs (CRSRA) License UNCW-2017-L1
10/26/2017 Waiver of Requirement for Maintaining Operational Control for SeaHawk-1 and SeaHawk-2 from Ground Station Location within the United States.
10/26/2017 NOAA CRSRA License UNCW-2017-L1
11/21/2017 Meeting By Cloudland and JPL on Potential of Flying HawkEye Engineering Model on ER-2 Aircraft
12/14/2017 UNCW - Clyde Space Strategic Trade Agreement (STA) for Export of HawkEye-2 to Clyde Space
12/21/2017 Clyde Space an dACCMicrotec Merger
01/02/2018 Request of Waiver NOAA CRSRA License for TT&C and Science Data Encryption
01/15/2018 Authur C. Gallager Pre-Launch and Launch Insurance Issued for SeaHawk-1
02/01/2018 Decision to Fly HawkEye-2 on SeaHawk-1
02/09/2018 HawkEye Prototype Finder Scope First Light
03/12/2018 HawkEye-2 Shipped from UNCW to Clyde Space
03/14/2018 HawkEye-2 Integrated in SeaHawk-1 Flatsat
03/18/2018 SeaHawk-1 Integrated into Soft Stack
03/18/2018 HawkEye-2 First Light via Softstack
03/19/2018 Syrlinks EWC27 X-Band Transmitter Testing At Goddard Space Flight Center
03/26/2018 NOAA CRSRA File UNCW-2018-W1 Waiver of TT&C and Science Data CRSRA LicenseEncryption Requirement
04/02/2018 Revise Data Protection Plan (DPP) NOAA License UNCW-2017-L1
04/24/2018 4/26/2018 FINAL FLIGHT REVIEW, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
04/25/2018 Draft Joint Space Operation Center (JSpCO) Registraton Filed
05/08/2018 Cloudland - HawkEye-2 Passed TVAC and VIB Tests
05/15/2018 Moore Foundation Annual Report
06/01/2018 06/01/0222 NASA 450-AGMT-0149 NONREIMBURSABLE SPACE ACT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE AND UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA WILMINGTON
06/22/2018   NOAA CRSRA Annual Audit for License UNCW-20017-L1
06/27/2018 Final Approval for Spaceflight Intergration Control Document for SeaHawk-1
06/28/2018 01/01/2023 FCC License 0469-EX-CN-2017-WJ2xDP University of North Carolina Wilmington
07/10/2018 HawkEye-2 Shipped from UNCW to Clyde Space
07/10/2018 Spaceflight Spacecrsaft Readiness Review (SRR)
07/10/2018 Clyde Space: SeaHawk-1 VIB Test Passed
07/12/2018 Clyde Space: SeaHawk-1 TVT Test Passed
08/04/2018 08/09/2018 SMALL SATELLITE CONFERENCE, LOGAN, UT
08/11/2018 HawkEye-1 and HawkEye-1 integrated into SeaHawk Flatsats at Clyde Space by Cloudland Instruments
08/21/2018 SeaHawk-1 and HawkEye-2 Are Integrated into Softstack
09/17/2018 SeaHawk-1 Passed Clyde Space Flight Readiness Review (FFR)
09/23/2018 SeaHawk-1 hand carried from Glasgow, Scotland to Spaceflight Facility in Seattle, US
09/26/2018 SeaHawk-1 Integrated into Lower Free Flyer (LoFF) Launch Vehicle at Spaceflight Facility in Seattle
10/16/2018 SeaHawk-1 Launch Vehicle Shipped to Vandenberg Spaceport
10/18/2018 Lower Free Flyer (LoFF) with SeaHawk-1 Integrated arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
10/25/2018 SeaHawk-1/Sustained Ocean Colour Observation with Nanosatellites (SOCON)
Mission Operations Readiness Review (MORR)
11/18/2018 Launch Window forSeaHawk-1 aboard Spaceflight SSO-A SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch Opens
12/03/2018 Launch of SeaHawk-1
12/04/2018 06/21/2021 SeaHawk-1 Commissioning Phase
12/04/2019 First contact with SeaHawk-1
06/21/2021 SeaHawk-1 Ocean Color Data will be Available via NASA Ocean Color DAAC
TBD SeaHawk-1 Open Tasking Request Website will be Open to the Community

SeaHawk 1 In the News