SAN FRANCISCO – Los Angeles-based startup Charter Space has started beta testing its space systems and program management software platform.
The platform, called Ubik, is designed to help engineering teams manage and execute space programs throughout their lifecycles.
“There’s the immediate convenience of having all your data warehoused in one environment,” Yuk Chi Chan, Charter co-founder and CEO, told SpaceNews. “You’re all looking at the same screen.”
Chan, a former Singapore Army Engineers logistics officer, co-founded Charter in late 2021 with Yukun Yin, a software engineer and former Singapore Army combat engineer. For the last two years, the pair led Charter’s campaign to develop Ubik.
In late September, OHB Sweden, Oligo Space, Esper Satellite Imagery and Digantara were among the companies that began testing Ubik. Select project management teams at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory also are conducting beta testing.
“We’ve been in design pilots with these partners for a good number of months,” Chan said. “On September 27th we brought all the software into production and we gave them the ability to start importing real-world data and supporting real-world missions on our tools.”
Forward Pressure
When selecting beta tester, Charter looked for organizations with near-term, fast-paced missions.
“It’s important for us to have users who are pushing aggressively towards ambitious goals, because that creates that forward pressure that we need in order to gather good user feedback, Chan said.
Charter plans to begin sharing Ubik with additional organizations near the end of the year.
Shoaib Iqbal, CEO and co-founder of Australian startup Esper Satellite Imagery, said in a statement that Charter “built an excellent product that is 10x’ing our engineering and mission management as we build towards a large Earth-observation constellation.”
Arkisys chief engineer Rahul Rughani, said in a statement, “I see the potential for this software to enable innovative projects and free them from the traditional boundaries in the aerospace design process.”
Charter participated in the Techstars Space Accelerator.
Correction: Charter, formerly London-based, is now headquartered in El Segundo, California, with an office in London.
