Commercial Space

Ursa Space, a satellite-based synthetic-aperture-radar services startup, said March 21 it raised $16 million in Series C venture capital.

Viasat and Inmarsat, the U.S. and UK satellite-based services providers, have promised the British government they will boost overall research and development spending there by 30% after their proposed merger.

After releasing its satellite computer vision and guidance software in January, Scout has raised an undisclosed bridge round of financing led by venture capital firm Decisive Point.

Aquarian Space raised $650,000 in seed capital to fund development of a lunar satellite communications relay network.

Long in the making, space-based optical communications is finally joining the mainstream.

Retired astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is heading back to the ISS to oversee three private travelers.

Egypt approved to receive F-15EX; North Korean missile test failure; Satcom prototype clears review; and Boeing’s Australian suppliers.

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

Starlink not built for battlefield, so Elon Musk makes on-the-fly updates to keep Ukrainians online.

Driven by exponential growth in the number of proposed satellites in low Earth orbit and beyond this decade, investors and entrepreneurs are eyeing commercial-oriented space situational awareness (SSA) as a growth sector worthy of new investments, entrants and partnerships.

Satellite imagery appears to confirm that a Ukrainian attack on an airfield previously captured by Russian forces resulted in the destruction of several Russian helicopters.

Less than five weeks after technical issues thwarted Astra Space’s first commercial mission, the Alameda, California, startup returned to the launchpad March 15 with a successful flight for another paying customer.

This is the year is when the bevy of SPACs that formed in 2020 faces a deal-or-no-deal moment.

Whisper’s quiet drone; Avoiding satellite collision; Refueling in space; Hypersonic funding boost; and Rapid hydrogen refueling.

With commercial LEO satellite constellations growing tenfold and governments eager to tap new-space, lasers comms’ have arrived.

Slingshot Aerospace has developed a web portal and mobile app, Slingshot Beacon, that allows satellite operators to communicate and avoid satellite collisions in orbit.

SpaceX has delivered Starlink terminals to Ukraine, worked to bypass jamming of the devices and is contemplating future space projects in the country.

Russia’s invasion has reawakened Western democracies and shown the limits of brute force.

OneWeb board members voted on March 3 to suspend launches of its broadband satellite constellation from the Russian-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Boeing has confirmed that recent composite cryogenic tank tests that pave the way for future liquid-hydrogen-fueled aircraft used a reusable tank shell originally built as flight hardware for DARPA’s former Experimental Spaceplane Program.

The 15-nation partnership faces its strongest challenge amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Use of Russia’s largest commercial space contract may be halted, with Russian State Space Corp. Roscosmos requesting legally binding guarantees from the OneWeb satellite operator and the French Arianespace launch provider that the constellation, deployed by Russian Soyuz 2 rockets, will not be used for military purposes.

Rocket Lab has confirmed plans to locate manufacturing facilities and launch operations for its new medium-lift reusable Neutron rocket on a 28-acre site on Wallops Island in Virginia.

Northrop’s Mission Robotic Vehicle to install life-extension pod on Australian Optus satellite.

Local authorities in the Shetland Islands have given a green light for the construction of the SaxaVord Spaceport.