A pair of test satellites for Amazon’s planned 3,236-member Kuiper broadband constellation will be launched as secondary payloads on the debut flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan-Centaur rocket, targeted for early 2023.
New standardized mechanical interfaces for grappling and connecting spacecraft are critical to enabling growth of the in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing industries, a panel of industry players says.
At the request of its customer, United Launch Alliance is delaying the debut flight of its Vulcan-Centaur booster to the first quarter of 2023, though CEO Tory Bruno acknowledges that even if Astrobotic’s lunar lander was ready, it would be difficult to make the previously targeted December launch date due to delays with Vulcan’s BE-4 core stage engines.
AE Industrial Partners, the leading private equity investor in aerospace and defense by deal volume, has acquired a majority stake in small satellite builder York Space Systems, the companies announced Oct. 4.
U.S. space infrastructure specialist Redwire said it will buy Qinetiq Group’s Space NV business, a provider of integration, equipment and other backbone space systems in Europe, for about €32 million ($31.4 million).
Vulcan’s debut launch, targeted for late this year or early 2023, will send a privately owned lander, carrying payloads for NASA and other customers, to the surface of the Moon.
The National Reconnaissance Office on Sept. 28 increased its work with commercial space companies, awarding six study contracts for commercial radio frequency remote sensing.
Brian Binnie, who clinched the $10 million Ansari XPrize for the Paul Allen-Scaled Composites team that built the SpaceShipOne reusable suborbital spacecraft, has died, his family announced on Sept. 18.