Horizon Technologies commissions new ADC in Lincoln
Image courtesy Horizon Technologies
In anticipation of the first Amber launch in October from Cornwall via Virgin Orbit as part of the 'Start Me Up' Mission, the ADC was commissioned in a new facility by both Horizon Technologies and LNS as they both to prepare for the Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) data to start coming from the first Amber CubeSat.
As part of the Satellite Applications Catapult (SAC) IOD-3 mission, the Amber-1 launch consists of many firsts:
• Part of the historic First UK Space Launch
• First UK commercial SIGINT CubeSat • First RF CubeSat constellation designed solely for MDA
• Amber will be a first-of-its-kind mission in the UK, providing 'always on' commercial RF signal geolocation and monitoring for government and commercial end-users.
Amber data will be used by governments to provide information on tracking and prevention of illegal fishing, smuggling, trafficking, piracy, etc. Amber is a non-cooperative system in that it doesn’t depend on a ship’s AIS transponder to be active.
Amber CubeSats will geolocate and monitor signals such as ship’s radars, sat phones, and other RF emissions. The current conflict in the Ukraine has clearly shown the value of commercial space-based data sources. Once active, Amber will be another tool to combat illegal oil and gas smuggling and transshipments.
