Virgin Orbit, the airborne small-satellite rocket launch upstart that announced its intent to go public Aug. 23, apparently will build and offer a fleet of Earth-observation and internet of things (IoT) satellites starting in 2023, according to investor materials.
Australia has approved a launch permit for tiSPACE, a Taiwanese rocket startup, to test launch its Hapith I rocket from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex by the end of 2021.
Despite the worldwide pandemic, the global space economy grew 4.4% last year to reach $447 billion, with the commercial sector accounting for the bulk of the increase, a new Space Foundation report shows.
Virgin Orbit, the small-satellite launching startup under aerospace entrepreneur Richard Branson’s portfolio that started operations this year, plans to end 2021 as a publicly traded company after a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, executives announced Aug. 23.
Collins Aerospace is to develop an environmental control and life-support system (ECLSS) for a privately owned and operated outpost in low Earth orbit for an unidentified customer.
Millennium Space Systems says last month’s early re-entry of an experimental spacecraft successfully demonstrated the ability of deployable tape technology to significantly accelerate de-orbiting a satellite.
The rise of launch companies like SpaceX and Rocket Lab have shown the U.S. government how it can leverage the investment of private companies to reduce its costs and improve its technologies.
Low-Earth-orbit launch upstart Rocket Lab will become a publicly traded company Aug. 25 after shareholders approved a reverse merger with Vector Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, grossing three-quarters of a billion dollars for the 15-year-old rocket company.
Blue Origin’s next New Shepard flight will test the upgraded lidar and descent landing computer NASA is developing to enable lunar landings at sites that were considered too challenging during the Apollo era.
Microsoft will provide the use of its cloud and be a customer to SES for its O3b mPower satellite constellation, which will dramatically improve connectivity for governments and military customers, according to the CEO of SES.
Big data analytics disruptor Palantir Technologies and BlackSky, a startup with a burgeoning constellation of imaging satellites and its own data analytics service, are partnering to offer their combined services for allied government customers.
Small-rocket mass-manufacturing startup Phantom Space has acquired Micro Aerospace Solutions, a 21-year-old Melbourne, Florida, provider of small satellite thruster, communications and data capabilities, the companies announced Aug. 17.
Blue Origin has turned to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to challenge NASA’s award of a single $2.94 billion contract to SpaceX for development of a lunar Human Landing System.
Honeywell said its Aspire 150 and 350 satellite communications systems designed to use Iridium’s new Certus high-speed L-band service should be certified this year.
While urban air mobility SPACs have generated many headlines in recent months, due in part to their eye-watering sums, the SPAC phenomenon has featured more new new-space public candidates by end-market.
Slingshot Aerospace, an Austin, Texas, startup focusing on space traffic-control products and services, has acquired another startup, Stellatus Solutions, which was building a platform for competing satellite operators to communicate among themselves.
A NASA-backed Moon mission targeted to launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, will instead fly from Rocket Lab’s New Zealand spaceport due to ongoing efforts by NASA to certify the Electron booster’s automated flight termination system for use at Wallops.
Building on their cooperation to install a first-of-kind space surveillance radar, LeoLabs and the New Zealand Space Agency have announced a multiyear agreement to develop a space regulatory and sustainability platform.
Boeing says it will continue to be a “long-term strategic” investor in AEI HorizonX and remain the anchor investor for the current fund and AEI HorizonX’s first standalone fund planned for 2022.
