Lockheed Martin, a leading aerospace and defense company, is now offering commercial licenses to its Horizon™ Command & Control (C2) and Compass™ Mission Planning software. These software solutions are designed to assist future developers of commercial satellite constellations in planning missions and operating their systems.
Horizon and Compass are built on an integrated and scalable modular architecture that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of customers. They provide mission critical capabilities for small, medium, or large constellations, including orbit management, autonomous operations, and formation flying.
Lockheed Martin has already utilized versions of the Horizon and Compass software in over 50 spacecraft for government, research, and commercial space missions. Now, they are making these proven software solutions available to commercial companies entering the space industry.
Paul Koether, program director at Lockheed Martin Space, emphasized the importance of their mission planning and command and control expertise in supporting the developing space economy. By offering Compass and Horizon, Lockheed Martin aims to alleviate the complexities of satellite operations for user companies, allowing them to focus on delivering services to their customers.
Horizon is an extensible, cloud-enabled C2 jump-start kit that adheres to industry and telemetry standards. It offers flexibility to customers by being adaptable to any satellite bus and mission planner. It also includes a semi to full autonomous operations mode, enabling “lights out” operations when direct human engagement is not required. Key features of Horizon include commanding, telemetry processing, storage and analytics, scheduled execution, and user-friendly displays.
Compass, on the other hand, is a modularized, microservice-based software tool suite that facilitates efficient development and deployment of satellite bus, payload, and communications mission planning. Its out-of-the-box, cloud-native configuration uses mission-tailored automation to plan the most efficient missions. This helps customers maximize the use of their space vehicles and minimize on-orbit fuel usage. Key features of Compass include dashboard visualization, orbit management, feasibility assessment, downlink scheduling, altitude control, payload scheduling, rules-based planning, and contact planning.
With the introduction of commercial licenses for Horizon and Compass, Lockheed Martin is providing valuable resources to support the growth of the commercial space industry. By leveraging these software solutions, future developers of satellite constellations can streamline their operations and focus on delivering innovative services to their customers.
