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Charter begins beta testing of its software platform

Posted on by darion

SAN FRANCISCO – London-based startup Charter Space has begun beta testing of its space systems and program management software platform.

The platform, called Ubik, is intended to help engineering teams manage and execute space programs throughout their lifecycle.

“Having all your data stored in one environment provides instant convenience,” said Yuk Chi Chan, co-founder and CEO of Charter Space news. “You’re all looking at the same screen.”

Chan, a former Singapore Army Engineers logistics officer, co-founded Charter with Yukun Yin, a software engineer and former Singapore Army combat engineer, in late 2021. For the past two years, the two have spearheaded Charter’s campaign to grow Ubik.

At the end of September, OHB Sweden, Oligo Space, Esper Satellite Imagery and Digantara were among the companies that started testing Ubik. Select project management teams at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are also conducting beta testing.

“We have been participating in pilot projects with these partners for many months,” Chan said. “On September 27, we put all the software into production and enabled them to start importing real-world data and supporting real-world missions with our tools.”

Press forward

When selecting a beta tester, Charter looked for organizations with short-term, fast-paced missions.

“It’s important for us to have users who aggressively pursue ambitious goals because it creates the forward pressure we need to garner good user feedback,” Chan said.

Charter plans to begin making Ubik available to additional organizations by the end of the year.

Shoaib Iqbal, CEO and co-founder of Australian startup Esper Satellite Imagery, said in a statement that Charter “has created an excellent product that outperforms our engineering and mission management by a factor of 10 as we approach a large Earth observation constellation.”

Arkisys chief engineer Rahul Rughani said in a statement: “I see the potential for this software to enable innovative designs and free them from traditional constraints in the aerospace design process.”

Charter participated in the Techstars space accelerator.