E-letter: Briefs

NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have reached an agreement to resume integrated crews on U.S. crew spacecraft and the Russian Soyuz to transport crew to and from the […]

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has awarded BlackSky a second award to support a research program to automate analysis of satellite imagery. On Thursday, BlackSky announced the $4.4 […]

Capella Space is adding a selection of its synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Open Data Sponsorship Program to make it openly accessible. The company […]

Skyrora has opened a large new manufacturing and production facility in the U.K., which it claims to be the largest of its kind in the nation. This new facility in […]

Northrop Grumman has won a sole source, $22 million cost-plus-fixed-fee undefinitized contract through February 2026 from U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command for the Rapid On-orbit Space Technology Evaluation Ring […]

Planet has won a new contract with one of Germany’s federal agencies. The company announced July 13 that it had signed a contract with the German Federal Agency for Cartography […]

Viasat will supply in-flight connectivity (IFC) satellite capacity and equipment to commercial airline Virgin Atlantic under the terms of a new contract announced Wednesday. Viasat said its IFC hardware will […]

Rocket Lab launched NROL-162, the first of a pair of back-to-back missions for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) early Wednesday.  A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched from Pad A at […]

Measat is expanding its satellite network in partnership with Datacom and ST Engineering iDirect to improve broadband access in Malaysia, the companies announced Tuesday. This expansion comes after Arianespace launched […]

York Space Systems awarded Canadian manufacturer MDA a contract to design and build Ka-band steerable antennas for York Space satellites.  MDA said the contract will support space security and communications […]

Airbus selected French space startup Anywaves to supply antennas for the satellite platforms Loft Orbital ordered in January. Anywaves announced Tuesday that it will supply more than 70 products for […]

SpaceChain has completed the testing of the space node it created for Velas Network, which is hosted on Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite and independent of terrestrial networks. The company announced […]

Holly Johnson will lead manufacturer MDA’s Robotics and Space Operations (RSO) division on a permanent basis after taking on the role in an acting capacity earlier this year. MDA promoted […]

Nanoracks confirmed Monday that it will conduct a second Bishop Airlock mission with Japanese space robotics startup Gitai. A follow-up to the companies’ successful Bishop Airlock demonstration in 2021, the […]

Reaction Engines, a U.K. space company, has begun testing its high-Mach propulsion technology in a critical U.S.-based trial, as it looks to make more of an impact in the United […]

Ericsson and  Qualcomm announced Monday that they have teamed up with Thales to test satellite-delivered, space-based 5G services to global customers and to validate that 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN) can […]

Terran Orbital reported Friday that it successfully completed the first TCM burn (TCM-1) on the NASA Artemis program’s CAPSTONE space vehicle. CAPSTONE uses the gravity of the Sun instead of […]

Satellite operator Measat has made two new key executive appointments as it looks to build for the future. It has appointed Ganendra Selvaraj as its new Chief Commercial Officer and […]

Israeli satellite technology company Gilat Satellite Networks has won a new defense contract in Asia, the company announced July 7. Gilat was awarded follow-on orders for the expansion of a […]

A new venture capital firm Stellar Ventures recently launched a fund with more than $23 million in capital commitments dedicated to investing in space technology. Celeste Ford, founder of aerospace […]

Launch and space systems company Rocket Lab established a Responsive Space Program on Thursday that will open a direct line of communication with satellite operators to understand their mission requirements […]

Denver-based in-space transportation company Atomos Space entered into a technology partnership with Addvalue Innovation, a communication terminals provider, to develop orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) that relocate Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites […]

Two Australian startup space companies are partnering to create a software-defined space-to-ground capability. Antaris and Quasar Satellite Technologies announced the partnership July 7, that will see the two companies bring […]

Kleos Space’s U.K subsidiary is setting up operations at the Space Park Leicester research hub. Kleos plans for the new UK facility to provide access to a tech community, and […]

L3Harris is making a strategic investment in Mynaric, investing 11.2 million euros ($11.4 million) in the business for a 7.2% share. L3Harris will acquire 409,294 new bearer shares of Mynaric […]

Inmarsat and hiSky have completed testing of hiSky’s Smartellite terminals with Inmarsat’s Global Xpress (GX) network. The two companies announced the successful testing July. 5. The move marks the first […]

SatixFy Communications confirmed Wednesday that its electronically steered multi-beam array achieved a high-speed, low-latency 5G backhaul link with a OneWeb Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation satellite during a June 28 demonstration […]

Space data and analytics company SatSure is launching a new subsidiary, KaleidEO, to build optical payloads to collect satellite imagery.  SatSure said in a Tuesday announcement that it incubated the […]

Both Virgin Orbit and United Launch Alliance executed successful launches during the holiday weekend serving U.S. Department of Defense customers.  Virgin Orbit’s fourth mission, Straight Up, carried seven satellites to […]

Airbus will supply Northrop Grumman with satellite platforms for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer award, the companies announced Tuesday.  The Airbus U.S. Space & Defense subsidiary […]