NASA & Technical Baseline
NASA SmallSat State-of-the-Art 2026 report and related references — the primary technical foundation for avionics, power, thermal, propulsion, communications, and radiation.
View sources →Research Library
Every claim has a source you can verify.
Phase 1 architecture sources plus the August 2026 first-pass power/thermal, regulatory, bus-interface, ADCS/propulsion, TT&C/ground, cost-floor, conjunctions, and first-hardware maps. Official public documents only — high-level titles and links, not vendor quotes or gated interface numbers.
What the library covers
Phase 1 source capture plus the 2026 first-pass maps, including ADCS, propulsion, TT&C / ground, the cost floor, conjunctions, and first hardware. Every major public claim traces to a primary document. Click any category to see the official public pages we used. Restricted or request-only material stays in the internal archive.
Starlink Laser & Constellation Data
Starlink progress reports, third-party laser integration precedents (Muon, Starcloud, Vast), and public data on orbital shell configuration.
View sources →High-Definition Video Payloads
Flight heritage from NEMO-HD, Sen 4K on 16U, and current smallsat camera systems with real performance and power data.
View sources →Propulsion & Debris Mitigation
Commercial smallsat propulsion options and the regulatory drivers: FCC 5-year PMD rule, NASA ODMSP, and Conjunction Assessment requirements.
View sources →Hosted vs. Independent Economics
Public analyses of rideshare pricing, hosted payload market data, and interface guidance that informed the architecture trade.
View sources →Orbit Selection
Starlink shell configuration data, tracking records, and launch vehicle information supporting the locked 485 km / 53° baseline.
View sources →Power & Thermal (2026 first pass)
NASA SmallSat SOA power and thermal chapters, solar-constant and eclipse references, and public ISL-peer pages used for the cameras-only / dual-laser class — not Mini Laser kilograms or watts.
View sources →Regulatory Map (2026 first pass)
NOAA remote-sensing contact, FCC radio (not optical) licensing, the five-year disposal clock, and the Space Modernization order. High-level gates only — not a legal memo.
View sources →Bus Interface (2026 first pass)
After-separation ownership from the live rideshare book, the 2020 Starship Users Guide, Moog ESPA, and public ESPA-class solar/battery pages. Hosted Starship watts stay unpublished.
View sources →ADCS & Propulsion (2026 first pass)
NASA GNC, deorbit, and in-space propulsion chapters, public XACT-class pages, Tesat optical-terminal pointing, FCC five-year disposal, and SkySat / ELSA-d 1-N heritage. Class, not a buy. Mini Laser pointing stays unpublished.
View sources →TT&C & Ground (2026 first pass)
NASA communications and ground-data chapters, FCC Part 5 checklist and FAQ, 47 CFR § 5.64, and public KSAT Lite / Leaf / AWS S-band pages. Optical is not the command path. No backyard dish invented. ICDs stay gated.
View sources →Cost Floor (2026 first pass)
Official Falcon rideshare pricing page, 47 CFR § 1.1103, and NOAA remote-sensing FAQ. The locked bus is quote-only. SpaceX's printed rideshare prices are for sun-synchronous orbits, not this 53° path. 53° / Bandwagon has no printed dollar; the Starship smallsat ticket is missing. Not a bid.
View sources →Conjunctions (2026 first pass)
Official NASA conjunction handbook, ESA Space Environment Report I10R0, and FCC DA-26-36. 485 km is a congested band. We do not have a cited collision-avoidance rate for this shell. A published 1–3 avoidance-maneuvers-per-year number (Funke) is for a different, higher polar orbit, not 485 km / 53°. Not a CARA study.
View sources →First Hardware (2026 first pass)
Official shop and product pages only. Nothing that closes a locked flight need is add-to-cart. The real flight parts still need a quote; a web shop cart does not close them. Garage surrogates are not flight close.
View sources →Traceability: Phase 1 (Decision 0004) and the August 2026 first-pass maps (power/thermal, regulatory, bus interface, ADCS/propulsion, TT&C/ground, cost floor, conjunctions) were developed with systematic source capture. Public cards here are official URLs only. Request-only ICDs, unpublished Starship watts, and Mini Laser size/weight/power stay out of this library.
How the work is documented
- Sources are captured at first use — original files or complete snapshots with retrieval metadata.
- Key claims, limitations, and exact locations of use are recorded for each source.
- A master index organizes material by category so the evidence trail remains usable over time.
- Public summaries on this site describe the major bodies of evidence; the complete working archive stays internal to support ongoing analysis and revisions.
This work was done in close collaboration with Grok. See the main Research page for the current high-level synthesis.