Commercial Space

With its first launch in the offing, Vega C is to start a series of key and long-awaited evolutions in Arianespace’s offering.

Blue Origin’s next flight of the New Shepard suborbital spacecraft will include its first repeat customer.

Momentus’ space tug demonstrator has arrived at Cape Canaveral for its inaugural launch aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-5 mission after its application for payload review won FAA approval.

Space-based cellphone connectivity provider AST SpaceMobile, which went public last year after a deal with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), will raise $75 million by selling more stock.

Maritime Launch Services, which aims to establish Canada’s first indigenous space launch from Nova Scotia, and rocket manufacturing startup Reaction Dynamics of Quebec are partnering for a 2023 debut.

Virgin Galactic is slipping its forecasted start of revenue-generating commercial operations to the first quarter of 2023 instead of this year, executives announced May 5 while revealing the space tourism provider’s latest quarterly loss.

Spire of San Francisco signed a contract to provide weather data collected by its satellites to Gale Force, a maritime routing software company.

The CEO of Avio does not see any problem in the medium term regarding supply of the RD-843 engines that power its upgraded Vega C light launcher, despite their Ukrainian origin.

Norway is investing in a mini-constellation of maritime reconnaissance satellites to support surveillance in the High North.

Growing defense roles, including responsive launch and hypersonic tests, factor in Virgin Orbit near-term capability goals.

Satellite-based remote sensing startup Satellogic expects to grow its low Earth orbit constellation to as many as 34 Earth observation satellites by the fourth quarter, executives say.

Astroscale has completed rendezvous operations with its ELSA-d orbital debris removal demonstration despite losing half the servicing spacecraft’s maneuvering thrusters.

Start-up launch vehicle and satellite developer Phantom Space has emerged from stealth mode with a purchase agreement for more than 200 rocket engines from Colorado-based propulsion company Ursa Major.

MDA has made the first commercial sale of its Canadarm3 robotic arm technology to Axiom Space.

Aviation Week flies aboard Northrop Grumman’s reengined L-1011 TriStar carrier aircraft for a simulated rocket launch.

A way to transfer fighters to Ukraine; NGAD’s collaborative wingman; DARPA studies HAWC lessons learned; and Russia launches Angara 1.2.

After successfully launching a 34-satellite rideshare mission from New Zealand, a Rocket Lab helicopter crew snared the returning first-stage booster mid-air for the first time, then released the rocket into the ocean for retrieval by ship.

Developed for Pegasus air launch, the L-1011­—world’s last operational TriStar—is pivoting to high-speed test and launch vehicle markets.

French satellite startup Prométhée has contracted with NanoAvionics to build a hyperspectral nanosatellite demonstrator. The ProtoMéthée-1 will be based on NanoAvionics’ 16U nanosatellite bus M16P and would be a forerunner to plans to launch a 20-satellite constellation by 2025, Prométhée said on April 29.

Private astronaut mission’s bonus days on ISS shift next crew launch.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

Taiwan’s new hypersonic R&D office; North Korean nuke pledge; Capella Space raises cash for analysis; and Lockheed’s radar upgrades.

Several venture capital firms and the related office at Lockheed Martin have teamed to invest $27 million in X-Bow Systems, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based additive manufacturing startup targeting production of solid rocket energetics.

Hours after a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule returned from a privately financed sortie to the International Space Station (ISS), NASA cleared the company to proceed with a launch attempt at 3:52 a.m. EDT on April 27 to deliver the next resident crew to the orbital outpost.

Capella Space has raised $97 million through a Series C financing round that it plans to spend on further developing its automated image analysis software and next-generation satellites.