For over 20 years the Toronto based Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) has been building small satellites with cutting edge technology for a variety of customers, from space agencies to New Space companies. In the last year the company says 20 satellites they built were launched.
It was the recent launch of the SpaceX Transporter-2 mission that pushed them over 20 satellites being launched in less than a year. The customer was HawkEye 360 which saw its Cluster 3 radio frequency geolocation microsatellites launched. The three Cluster 3 formation flying satellites were built on the SFL 30-kg DEFIANT microsatellite bus.
The DEFIANT platform is proving to be quite successful for SFL with several customers selecting it including HawkEye 360, the Defence Research and Development Canada and the Norwegian Space Agency. In an email, an SFL spokesperson told SpaceQ that other unnamed customers had selected the DEFIANT platform and will see their satellites launched this.
In total, SFL expects to have another six of their satellites launched this year. They also told us they currently are building 23 satellites for a variety of customers.
Over the years SFL has excelled at developing innovative new technologies and are continuing to do so. When asked what new technologies they have under development, the SFL spokesperson said they couldn’t disclose that at this time.
SFL did say that in the past year they’ve developed “missions developed for the Norwegian Space Agency (NOSA) in Norway, the Dubai-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in the United Arab Emirates, GHGSat Inc. of Canada, Space-SI of Slovenia, and a Canada-based telecommunications company.” That company telecommunications is Kepler Communications.