Redwire, the private equity-backed space rollup, said Dec. 15 it bought LoadPath, a developer of payload adapters, deployable structures and thermal products for the space industry.
Iridium has officially launched its own Global Maritime Distress and Safety System service, providing a single terminal for emergency data and voice communications that company leaders said would be competitively priced.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have selected the initial trio of astronauts for the third of SpaceX’s commercial crew launches to the International Space Station, Crew-3, which is expected to launch in fall 2021.
British satellite operator Inmarsat has puts its very-high-throughput GX5 satellite into commercial service, boosting inflight broadband capacity for its commercial and business aircraft customers in Europe and the Middle East.
The U.S. director of national intelligence announced that the nation is creating an Intelligence Community Commercial Space Council, during a Dec. 9 meeting of the National Space Council.
UK venture capital outfit Octopus Ventures and investment firm BGF joined existing Orbex investors High-Tech Gründerfonds, Heartcore Capital and Elecnor S.A. in a new funding round for the launch company.
The Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 7 selected 180 companies to participate in the first phase of an ambitious project to bring high-speed internet to rural communities in the U.S.
NASA has awarded four companies contracts to collect samples of lunar regolith, then transfer ownership to the agency, not for return to Earth necessarily but to expand the legal and regulatory framework for commercial space activities on the Moon and beyond.
Aspiring small satellite launch service and logistics provider Aevum has unveiled an 80-ft.-long, 60-ft. wingspan unmanned aircraft system to serve as the reusable first stage of a three-stage, autonomous launch system that aims to cut costs and dramatically reduce the time needed to plan and execute missions.
The European Investment Bank, the long-term lending institution of the European Union, announced Dec. 3 that it could invest up to €20 million ($24.3 million) in Spire Global, a Luxembourg-registered nanosatellite operator for cloud-enabled data analytics, marking the European institution’s first direct new-space venture.
Axiom Space, selected by NASA to berth the first element of an eventual commercial low Earth orbit-crewed free flyer at the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024, has significantly upgraded the architecture of its planned Axiom Station, providing an initial four-person crew capability.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed an €86 million ($100 million) contract with an industrial team led by Swiss start-up company ClearSpace for the provision of a debris removal service.
After years of discussions, Canada’s Telesat and Loral Space & Communications will combine to form a new publicly traded Canadian company called Telesat Corp., the companies announced.
Virgin Orbit will make a second attempt to reach orbit with the air-dropped LauncherOne small satellite rocket on Dec. 19, with backup launch windows available later in the month in the event of a delay.
The space launch ambitions of the Shetland Islands have been given an additional boost with investment from a Scottish conservation fund, but the cash injection appears to have prompted a war of words between competing space ports.
SpaceX has marked its 100th Falcon 9 launch with a record seventh reflight of a first-stage booster, a mission that increased the company’s burgeoning Starlink broadband network to more than 950 satellites.
