Jacobs Mango One Satellite Launches, Lays Pathway for Next Generation, Affordable Space Solutions for Military, Civil and Commercial Customers

Jacobs begins new era in advanced, affordable space radar payloads with successful launch of its Mango One satellite on January 24 from Cape Canaveral, FL aboard the Space X Falcon 9 Transporter One mission, a rideshare launch to a sun-synchronous orbit. Mango One is funded and developed by Jacobs utilizing Spire's Space as a Service (SpaaS) offerings to demonstrate and qualify radar, communications and intelligence capabilities in space.

The launch is a major step in Jacobs strategic entre as an aerospace and defense prime space payload hardware and software provider of affordable, commercial space based Active Electronically Scanned Arrays (AESAs). Jacobs use of commercial 5G technology is reducing the cost of space radar by a factor of two to five times less than legacy space radar systems. This is a significant milestone in Jacobs strategic acquisition of KeyW, which brings over 25 years of airborne and terrestrial radio frequency (RF) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and moving target indication (MTI) payload hardware and processing.

“The successful Mango One launch and demonstration of highly capable and affordable space solutions is exactly the innovation engine that we envisioned by the Jacobs acquisition of KeyW,” says Jacobs Critical Mission Solutions Senior Vice President Steve Arnette. “Kudos to the entire team for a great milestone on the path to enabling our customer’s missions.”

Our approach enables government and commercial customers to proliferate space-based sensors that see in the dark and through clouds to provide near continuous monitoring and gather valuable actionable intelligence in the ground, sea, air and space domains.  Jacobs development of commercial based designs and leverage of state of art high volume and quality electronics manufacturing significantly expands the U.S. industrial base capacity to provide competitive solutions for U.S. and international customers. 

Jacobs embarked on the space payload vision in 2018, and has rapidly achieved space qualification of commercial based space radar. Our team of RF scientists, engineers and advanced electronics manufacturing professionals have created a new product line by leveraging the multi-billion commercial investment in 5G technology and tailoring it to meet the critical mission needs of both government and commercial customers. The use of state-of-the-art advanced commercial manufacturing processes allows Jacobs to rapidly scale capacity to meet market demand, and insertion of leading-edge technology as the commercial market continues to advance the state-of-the-art semiconductors and integrated circuits. 

At Jacobs, we’re always looking for dynamic and engaged people to join our team. Bring your passion, your ingenuity and your vision. Let’s see the impact we can create, together.