On January 24, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), in partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF) Defence Science & Technology (DST), and SEOPS Space, successfully launched Otter, a research & development (R&D) demonstrator, aboard the Transporter-12 mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-4E Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Jan. 14, 2025, at 2:09 p.m. EST.
The aim of Otter’s collaborative R&D mission is to enable new technological developments to operate in an increasingly complex space environment. Otter is a 6U CubeSat built and operated by NPS on behalf of the NRO, and hosts a NZDF payload built by DST. The primary payload, Tui, is a NZDF payload built by DST in Auckland, New Zealand. Tui will characterize and validate space-based communication network performance. Two secondary payloads built by NPS will help develop and evaluate communication technologies and concepts of operations on future CubeSat missions.
“The NRO is always looking for innovative ways to advance our capabilities in space,” said Dr. Aaron Weiner, director of the NRO’s Advanced Systems & Technology Directorate. “This demonstrator showcases the value in rapidly space-qualifying low-cost, commercial off-the-shelf hardware.”
Source: NRO
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