Manufacturing

Small GEO manufacturer Swissto12 awarded MDA Space a contract to build antenna systems for three HummingSat satellites in the Inmarsat-8 program. Under the contract announced Tuesday, MDA Space will design and build L-band navigation antennas and design and configure the packaging concepts for the HummingSat Geostationary Orbit (GEO) smallsat platform. The antennas will be built,...

Aerospacelab’s U.S. ambitions have taken the next step with the opening of its satellite manufacturing facility in Torrance, California. A year ago, Aerospacelab opened its U.S. presence in Palo Alto, and now opens the doors to its first factory designed to address its growing U.S. customer base. The company announced the major milestone, Sept. 5....

Nuview has selected Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) to develop the pathfinder satellite bus for its LiDAR demonstration satellite.  Nuview, which emerged from stealth mode in 2023, plans to build the first commercial LiDAR satellite constellation to provide continually updatedc 3D elevation data of the Earth’s land surface. The company says that space-based LiDAR can capture...

Loft Orbital and Abu Dhabi-based Marlan Space established a joint-venture space infrastructure company called Orbitworks in the Middle East. The new firm will be based in the UAE and serve as the first private space infrastructure company in the region. Loft Orbital and Marlan Space, an affiliate of the International Holding Company (IHC), pledged an...

Tesat opened a new production facility in Backnang, Germany, to manufacture the company’s laser terminals.  Tesat is ramping up for industrialized production of its laser terminals, which were selected to support the Telesat Lightpseed constellation, built by MDA Space. Tesat will supply 792 of its SCOT80 optical communications terminal under the deal.  The new facility...

Los Angeles-based satellite manufacturing startup Apex introduced a new satellite bus designed for Geostationary Orbit (GEO). The GEO Aries bus platform is an ESPA-class satellite bus. It is a high delta-v satellite bus that can support communications, imaging, and other use cases. Apex will begin delivering GEO Aries buses to customers in 2026. “Now that...

GHGSat has contracted Space Flight Laboratory to build two additional greenhouse gas monitoring satellites for the company’s constellation.  The satellites, announced Monday, will be based on the SFL 15-kg NEMO satellite bus, the same platform used to build the first nine GHGSat spacecraft. SFL built GHGSat’s demonstration satellite which launched in 2016 and built eight...

Things are picking up rapidly for Belgium-based satellite manufacturer Aerospacelab. This year alone the company launched four demonstration satellites on the Transporter-10 rideshare mission, broke ground on a new mega factory in Belgium, acquired AMOS, and signed a pivotal contract with MDA to provide subsystems for the Aurora constellation line. CEO and founder Benoît Deper spoke with Via Satellite about how...

Japanese satellite manufacturer Axelspace is debuting a new service for in-orbit demonstration of space components, called AxelLiner Laboratory or AL Lab. The service allocates space on Axelspace’s 100 kg-class microsatellites to customers for their in-orbit demonstration equipment.  Axelspace said that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has provided in-orbit demonstration opportunties through the Innovative Satellite...

Thales Alenia Space placed a follow-on order with Redwire Corporation for additional Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) wings for the manufacturer’s Space Inspire line of satellites.  The follow-on order increases the total number of shipsets that Redwire will deliver based on its existing agreement with Thales Alenia Space, announced in June. Redwire announced the deal on...