the Hammers Company

12/03/2025

March 11, 2025. NASA’s successful PUNCH launch
PUNCH is a NASA Small Explorer mission that will make global, 3D observations of the young solar wind, from the outermost solar atmosphere to the inner heliosphere. PUNCH launched on March 11, 2025. The PUNCH mission consists of a constellation of four small satellites in Sun-synchronous, low Earth orbit that together will produce deep-field, continuous, 3D images of the solar corona as it makes a transition to the young solar wind. The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) operates the four PUNCH spacecraft from its offices in Boulder. This includes monitoring the spacecraft and coordinating their movements. [Credit NASA, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)]
The Hammers Company’s GALAXY spacecraft command and control ground software provides real-time operations for the constellation.

12/02/2025

November 17, 2025. Exhibiting the GALAXY Space Link Extension (SLE)
The Hammers Company’s GALAXY® spacecraft command and control MOC software is used for real-time operations of 9 spacecraft for UC Berkeley at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL). The Berkeley spacecraft operations includes THEMIS (5 spacecraft, 2 orbiting the moon and 3 in elliptical earth orbits), NuSTAR, Carruthers Geocorona Observatory (CGO), and ESCAPADE Blue & Gold (2 spacecraft heading toward L2). Communications compatibility with numerous ground stations around the world is a critical capability supported by Galaxy. Galaxy’s Space Link Extension (SLE) also enables communications through NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN).
(Courtesy of UC Berkeley) “…image captured from the "DSN Now" website last night. By chance, 5 of the (now) 9 spacecraft we operate were downlinking simultaneously through the DSN. THEMIS C at the moon, ESCAPADE Blue and Gold heading toward L2, and Carruthers (CGO) getting close to L1. All are controlled with Galaxy of course, and all of them are interfaced to the DSN with your SLE module. Things have gone well so far, but nearly continuous coverage of two spacecraft [ESCAPADE blue & gold] simultaneously through DSN keeps us busy…”

11/26/2025

CONGRATULATIONS on the successful launch of the NASA Escapade spacecraft!
November 13, 2025. “NASA’s ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) twin spacecraft have deployed from the Blue Origin New Glenn second stage. The spacecraft will go into a kidney bean-shaped Earth-proximity phase lasting roughly a year, before initiating a trans-Mars Injection engine burn sometime in November 2026….The ESCAPADE mission is the first coordinated multi-spacecraft orbital science mission to the Red Planet. Its twin orbiters will take simultaneous observations from different locations around Mars. The observations will reveal the planet’s real-time response to space weather and how the Martian magnetosphere changes over time…”
ESCAPADE is led by the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, which is responsible for mission management, systems engineering, science leadership, navigation, operations, the electron & ion electrostatic analyzers, and science data processing and archiving.
(Credit NASA, UC Berkeley: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/escapade/2025/11/13/nasas-twin-escapade-spacecraft-have-deployed/ ; https://escapade.ssl.berkeley.edu/ )
The Hammers Company’s GALAXY® spacecraft command and control system is used for real-time operations of the Escapade spacecraft alongside Carruthers, THEMIS and NuSTAR at UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL), all spacecraft are operated using GALAXY®.

11/18/2025

CONGRATULATIONS on the successful launch of the NASA Carruthers spacecraft!
September 24, 2025. “NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On – L1 (SWFO-L1) launched together on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on their way to Lagramersmnge point 1, an orbit approximately 1 million miles from Earth toward the Sun.” Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is a collaboration with the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with Dr. Lara Waldrop serving as the mission’s principal investigator; the University of California, Berkeley; and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. (Credit NASA, BAE, UC Berkeley; https://science.nasa.gov/mission/carruthers-geocorona-observatory/ )
The Hammers Company’s GALAXY® spacecraft command and control MOC software is used for real-time operations of the Carruthers spacecraft alongside THEMIS and NuSTAR at UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL), all spacecraft operated using GALAXY. The GALAXY command encryptor is running in a stand-alone system in the control center. The stand-alone encryption system used in Colorado during AI&T is now back at the SSL as a warm spare.
SUCCESS using Galaxy’s command encryption!
… from Bryce Roberts, Ground Systems Engineer at the SSL, UC Berkeley
“we launched Carruthers earlier this morning and it looks very healthy. Just wanted to send you a note because we've now gotten a number of commands in through your block encryptor, including one to switch from the master key to our first yearly traffic encryption key.”

The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, or Carruthers mission will study Earth’s exosphere, the outermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere. It will be the first

10/31/2025

June 21, 2025 – the Hammers Company will provide software modifications to our mission operations software encryption product, SECRYT®, provide support for technical meetings and provide remote training to support real-time command uplink encryption for NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor, NEO Surveyor, mission to be launched no earlier than September 2027 (https://science.nasa.gov/mission/neo-surveyor/). The Hammers Company will provide three SECRYT software licenses to BAE for spacecraft and instrument development and integration shared with NEO developers at JPL and LASP in Colorado. “Neo Surveyor is the first space telescope specifically designed to detect asteroids and comets that may be potential hazards to Earth.” (credit NASA/JPL)
SECRYT is a standalone application, “encryptor,” that performs CLTU encryption using AES-256. SECRYT mimics the action of the Ground Encryption Decryption Unit (GEDU) using our SpacePacketSecurity component which is also a GALAXY component. Actual GEDUs are used by Landsat 8 & 9, so we know them well (Hammers’ GALAXY is the mission operations C&T system for the Landsat 8 & 9 spacecraft).

10/31/2025

February 16, 2024 – the Hammers Company will provide GALAXY® software enhancements to support the Canadian Space Agency’s QEYSSat cryptography with standard and custom CFDP capability requirements. The compatible uplink encryption and downlink decryption in GALAXY uses AES-256 in Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) for authenticated encryption & decryption. The GALAXY SpacePacketSecurityComponent will encrypt, decrypt, and authenticate Space Packets using OpenSSL for the implementation of cryptographic functions, including the AES-256 GCM algorithm. The GALAXY cryptographic component applies the authenticated encryption algorithm to Space Packets it receives on input. The component can decrypt and authenticate Space Pacekts received on its input and will output the decrypted Space Packet on its output.
The Canadian Space Agency’s “Quantum Encryption and Science Satellite (QEYSSat) mission will demonstrate quantum key distribution (QKD) in space. QKD is a technology that creates virtually unbreakable encryption codes and will provide Canada with secure communications in the age of quantum computing. QEYSSat will bring Canada a step closer to the realization of a truly secure communication infrastructure that will enable national and even global interconnection.” (Credit: Canadian Space Agency https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/qeyssat.asp)
QEYSSat is scheduled for launch in 2026.

10/31/2025

December 1,2023 - the Hammers Company's software encryption/decryption capability in our Galaxy real-time spacecraft command and control system will be used for two upcoming NASA missions, Carruthers (planned launch in 2025) and MUSE (planned launch in 2027).
Galaxy is used to provide command, control and telemetry for real-time operations in the Mission Control Centers. Galaxy supports development, I&T and mission operations support for spacecraft missions.

10/31/2025

October 31, 2022 – The Hammers Company has added CCSDS Space Data Link Security Protocol (SDLSP) uplink encryption to the Galaxy® telemetry and command system. This all-software implementation is based on the FIPS 140-2 certified OpenSSL library included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

The new component provides authenticated encryption and authentication-only functions using AES-256 in Galois/Counter Mode (GCM). It also includes the ability to decrypt and authenticate CCSDS telecommands using the SDLSP, expanding Galaxy’s extensive simulation capabilities to include this technology. The company plans to add SDLSP downlink decryption capabilities in the coming months.