Success Story
HawkEye 360
HawkEye 360 is a defense technology company operating a commercial RF sensing satellite constellation that delivers real-time radio frequency intelligence from space.
By combining advanced analytics with space-based RF data collection, HawkEye 360 supports government and commercial customers with enhanced situational awareness and low-latency decision-making capabilities.
Hawkeye 360’s Challenge: Fast, Repeatable Deployment Testing
As HawkEye 360 continued scaling its constellation and developing increasingly sophisticated spacecraft platforms, the engineering team required a reliable and resettable deployment mechanism that could support rapid testing and qualification cycles. Conventional release mechanisms often require replacement or refurbishment after deployment, creating additional cost and operational complexity during test campaigns. For HawkEye 360, repeated deployment testing was critical to validating spacecraft wing performance and ensuring mission reliability before launch.
Dcubed Solution: Resettable Release Mechanisms for Rapid Deployment Testing
After evaluating its options, HawkEye 360 selected Dcubed’s resettable Release Nuts as the Hold-Down and Release Mechanism (HDRM) for its deployable solar arrays.
Unlike traditional single-use HDRMs, Dcubed’s reusable deployment mechanism enabled the engineering team to rapidly reset the system after each deployment test. This allowed HawkEye 360 to execute deployment cycles efficiently while maintaining consistent deployment performance.
Dcubed Impact
By integrating Dcubed’s Release Nuts, HawkEye 360 completed an exceptionally thorough deployment qualification campaign. The engineering team conducted extensive deployment cycles during the project while maintaining smooth and reliable actuation performance.
Dcubed supported the integration with rapid technical response and close engineering collaboration, providing HawkEye 360 with both flight-ready hardware and a working relationship designed to keep development moving at speed, following a true test-as-you-fly, fly-as-you-test approach.
The success of the Release Nut integration has prompted HawkEye 360 to choose Dcubed for additional applications across future missions.
Today, HawkEye 360 continues advancing its RF sensing constellation with spacecraft systems designed to deliver enhanced global RF awareness and low-latency intelligence capabilities from orbit.
