Services | Southern Stars

Do you want to orbit your own nano-satellite? We did! And we can help you launch yours.

Placing even the smallest spacecraft in orbit is an incredibly difficult undertaking. It requires a great deal of engineering and testing – there are a whole host of government regulations to comply with, and licenses that you need to obtain. Interacting with the various government agencies that issue them can be a daunting and frustrating task. Southern Stars can help.

If you’re just getting started

We can also help you resolve the many engineering decisions you’ll need to make. Who should launch my satellite? What kind of flight computer should I use? What type of ADACS? How will I communicate with it? Southern Stars can help you find the right answers to these questions.

We can handle your regulatory work for you

We'll develop the reports you need to satisfy the FCC, NOAA, NASA, and other government agencies that need to issue approvals and licenses before you can launch. We’ll interface with officials on your behalf, as your advocate – freeing you to pursue your technical and commercial goals.

We'll share our expertise

We can help you avoid common pitfalls. We've assisted organizations ranging from three-person startups to a major public art museum launch their first spacecraft. With this experience, we’re confident that we can get you flying in much less time – and with much less effort – than if you’d walked this road alone.

Testimonials

We’ve known Tim’s team since their SkyCube days, and been impressed by their ability to adapt to rapidly-changing mission requirements. Tim was easy to work with during the highly stressful spacecraft integration and delivery process. Offloading our regulatory work let us to focus on what Pumpkin does best – build bleeding-edge, best-in-class, high-reliability flight hardware.
— Pumpkin Space Systems

In 2017, we worked with Tim on a unique project to place art in orbit on a 3U CubeSat. He handled regulatory issues, performed system testing, provided project management, and fulfilled the launch provider’s requirements for spacecraft delivery. The project became unusually challenging from a regulatory standpoint, but Tim worked above and beyond to get all the approvals we needed to put our spacecraft in orbit.
— LACMA

Clients

A few of the previous clients we’ve worked with are listed below. Feel free to contact us for more information.

In 2017-18, Southern Stars worked with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to deliver an unusual 3U CubeSat on Spaceflight Industries’ SSO-A mission. This presented an unique licensing challenge that required coordination between Spaceflight, FCC, FAA, NTIA, and the DoD. All issues were resolved, and Enoch launched in December 2018. For more information, click here.

In 2015, we developed an FCC experimental license application, an orbital debris report, and obtained a NOAA earth-sensing license for Pumpkin Inc.’s SUPERNOVA-Beta 6U CubeSat. We also developed a 1U hosted payload aboard the CubeSat, which launched in November 2015.

We worked with Kubos during 2017 and 2018 to obtain an experimental license from FCC for their demonstration CubeSat and ground station. The 1U CubeSat and its Texas transmitter are planned to begin operating during the second half of 2019.

In 2016, we developed an FCC experimental license application, an orbital debris report, and applied for SpaceVR’s Overview VR 3U CubeSats earth-sensing license with NOAA. We also helped SpaceVR select a contactor to build flight hardware.