A technician works on a double deployed cubesat in the Clyde Space clean room. Credit: Clyde Space

LOGAN, Utah Scotlands Clyde Space will build buses for three small satellites Silicon Valley startup Audacy plans to send into medium Earth orbit in 2019, according to an agreement announced Aug. 8 at the Small Satellite conference here.

Audacy is seeking to establish a commercial version of NASAs Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, which transmits communications from satellites to ground stations. With satellites in medium Earth orbit, Audacy plans to offer simultaneous access to its network for customers operating thousands of satellites, launch vehicles and human spaceflight missions.

Before establishing its operational constellation of satellites weighing hundreds of kilograms, Audacy wants to demonstrate its technology, including customer satellite terminals featuring K-band antennas and software defined radios, on the cubesats built by Clyde Space, James Spicer, Audacy chief engineer, said by email.

Craig Clark, Clyde Space chief executive, said he was delighted to win Audacys order because the firm has an awesome concept and because Audacy conducted an exhaustive review of the market before selecting Clyde Space for its demonstration mission. I really like this win. I wanted to work with them, Clark told SpaceNews.

In addition to building the satellite bus, Clyde Space will bring Audacy personnel into its Glasgow facility to help them design their technology demonstration mission and operate the cubesats, Clark said.

Through the demonstration mission, Audacy will support numerous customer satellites with a range of missions and applications in multiple sectors from agriculture to disaster management, according to the announcement.

Audacy, a company established in 2015 by co-founders who met at Stanford Universitys Graduate School of Business, established its first ground station in San Francisco in 2017 and its second, in Singapore in 2018. As demand grows, the firm plans to build a third ground station in Luxembourg.

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Clyde Space to build cubesats for Audacy technology demonstration - SpaceNews