AST SpaceMobile, a newly public startup aiming to provide space-based cellular broadband connectivity, remains on track to launch its experimental BlueWalker 3 satellite this summer, managers said late March 31.
Redwire, a newly public in-space manufacturing and services startup, expects to be part of at least eight planned launches this year after notching a dozen in 2021 and growing its backlog of work to almost $272 million.
Spirit AeroSystems (Europe), based in Prestwick, Scotland, has signed a term sheet in principle with UK startup Electric Aviation Group (EAG) to collaborate on the development of technologies to support zero-emission flight.
As it awaits its seventh mission via a Falcon 9 launch imminently, Ion Satellite Carrier provider D-Orbit–which is going public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC)–expects to have 20 space tugs operational by 2023, a top executive says.
Blue Origin conducted its fourth crewed flight on March 31, sending five paying passengers and employee Gary Lai—the lead architect for the New Shepard transportation system—into suborbital space.
At the end of 2020, South Korean automaker Hyundai revealed that it planned to field a longer-range regional air mobility vehicle as a follow-on to the electric vertical takeoff and landing urban air taxi it is developing for market entry in 2028.