E-letter: Briefs

Launch startup iRocket plans to go public in a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger with a blank check company backed by former U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.  iRocket announced […]

Space42 has secured export credit agency (ECA)-backed financing to fund the Al Yah 4 and Al Yah 5 satellites.  Space42 announced $695.5 million in financing on Wednesday, arranged by Crédit […]

SpaceX launched NASA’s Tracers satellite mission on Wednesday afternoon, along with payloads for a number of rideshare customers. The Falcon 9 mission took off from Vandenberg Space Force Station in […]

SpaceX launched the ninth and tenth satellites in SES’s O3b mPOWER constellation on Tuesday evening. These two satellites will join the first eight satellites already in service, adding capacity to […]

Earth Observation (EO) startup DeepSat has selected Redwire to provide modeling, simulation, and design services for a Very-Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellite constellation as a first step toward DeepSat deploying […]

Peru’s national telecommunications program Pronatel has awarded Gilat Satellite Networks $60 million to upgrade regional broadband infrastructure.  Under the contract announced Tuesday, Gilat will upgrade broadband infrastructure in Peru’s Apurímac, […]

Eutelsat has signed a new Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) capacity deal with the U.K. government’s FCDO Services and NSSL Global, after the U.K. recently increased its investment in the operator. The […]

Lynk Global and blank check company Slam Corp have ended the deal to take Lynk public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger. Lynk announced Monday the two parties […]

GMV is developing an advanced collision avoidance service for large-scale telecommunications constellations under a new R&D contract from the European Space Agency (ESA).  GMV announced Monday it will build on […]

Satellite developer and operator York Space Systems has agreed to acquire Atlas Space Operations, adding a global provider of satellite communications ground infrastructure that together York believes improve its operations and provide […]

Planet has signed a multi-year contract expansion with Colombia’s government entity responsible for geographic data to continue to use Planet’s technology for land management, adding AI capabilities to track change […]

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions reported that over-the-air (OTA) testing with Intelsat demonstrated a 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) over a satellite in Geostationary Orbit (GEO).  The demonstration Kratos announced July […]

Quadsat has raised a further 5 million euros ($5.8 million) from its Series A funding round as it looks to accelerate its electronic warfare capabilities and become a bigger player […]

The FCC will consider an order that would streamline processes for space stations and earth stations at its August 7 open meeting.  The FCC said these changes will clear regulatory […]

Globalstar is building out its ground network around the world with recent moves in Japan, Spain, and Texas to support its next-generation satellite constellation, called C-3. The company plans to […]

MDA Space will lead a new United Kingdom satellite mission called “SkyPhi,” focused on 5G direct-to-device (D2D) satellite communications.  The mission is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and […]

Denmark is donating European-produced satellite services to Ukraine’s defense through the European Defence Agency (EDA). Denmark is providing Ukraine with satellite receiver terminals for access to satellite-based communications, the Danish […]

SpaceX launched the third Amazon Project Kuiper mission early Wednesday morning from Cape Canaveral, marking the first SpaceX launch in Amazon’s constellation deployment.  SpaceX launched 24 Kuiper satellites at 2:30 […]

Atlas Space Operations has increased its global ground network by activating a new antenna in Mwulire, Rwanda. The ground station as a service (GSaaS) provider, says the expansion will improve […]

One of the biggest telcos/wireless operators in Canada is bringing satellite messaging to market. Rogers is launching Rogers Satellite, a new satellite-to-mobile text messaging service, enabled by SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, […]

Globalstar has a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army to assess the company’s devices for low probability of intercept and detection communications.  Globalstar said the […]

Quantum computing company IonQ has completed its acquisition of Capella Space, a move it said will support building a space-based satellite quantum key distribution (QKD) network.  IonQ said the company […]

Spain’s Indra Group has signed a new financing agreement with the European Investment Bank worth 385 million euros ($447 million) to invest in the defense and space sector. The loan […]

The Australian Department of Defence is investing $4 million in a sovereign Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite project, led by Australian satellite operator Optus. Under the co-funded arrangement announced Monday, Optus […]

Firefly Aerospace looks to be the next space company to go public, filing a registration statement for an initial public offering (IPO) on July 11. The company hasn’t yet announced how […]

Arabsat is teaming up with First Gulf Company (FGC) to deliver VSAT and satellite data services in Saudi Arabia. This agreement leverages Arabsat’s Geostationary Orbit (GEO) Ku-band infrastructure and FGC’s […]

The FCC approved SES’s acquisition of Intelsat on Friday, determining that the combination will create “a more vigorous satellite competitor.” With this approval, the deal is set to close this […]

Varda Space Industries raised a $187 million Series C round to scale the company’s work to build in-space pharmaceutical labs and hypersonic reentry test capabilities.  Varda has completed three launch […]

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently demonstrated the first deep-space optical communication with a European ground segment, communicating with NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment onboard the Psyche mission.  […]

Aeromexico is upgrading to Viasat‘s advanced in-flight connectivity (IFC) solution on its Embraer E190 jets to further integrate its fleet with fast Wi-Fi for customers. Installation is underway. Embraer announced […]