E-letter: Briefs

Earth imaging startup Pixxel has signed global mining group Rio Tinto as an early adopter of its technology. Rio Tinto plans to assess Pixel’s imaging satellites for mineral exploration, monitoring...

Mangata Networks has closed a $33 million Series A funding round to advance its plans for a satellite and edge computing network. The round, announced Tuesday, was led by Playground...

Astroscale U.S. has signed on as a customer for Orbit Fab’s “gas stations in space” refueling service. Orbit Fab’s fuel shuttle will refuel Astroscale’s fleet of Life Extension In-Orbit (LEXI)...

Intelsat has ordered two software-defined satellites from Thales Alenia Space that will contribute to the operator’s plans for a 5G unified global network. The two satellites — Intelsat 41 (IS-41)...

Hispasat has signed a new climate-related deal in Spain in the area of reforestation. The Spanish operator announced Jan. 12 that it is partnering with the Repsol Foundation to develop...

Cloud software provider Senet has partnered with Eutelsat Communications, TrakAssure, and Wyld Networks to offer interoperable terrestrial and satellite LoRaWAN IoT connectivity. The organizations have formed the Multimodal IoT Infrastructure...

The U.S. Air Force awarded a $15.5 million contract to HawkEye 360 on Tuesday to provide space-based radio frequency (RF) data, analytics, and research to the help the military demonstrate,...

Telesat will work on 5G technology and demonstrations in partnership with Canadian program ENCQOR 5G. Under the agreement announced Tuesday, Telesat plans to conduct demonstrations, trials and pilots of 5G...

Momentus announced Monday that the company’s president, Fred Kennedy, has resigned and will step down Jan. 21. The company’s CTO Rob Schwarz will serve as interim head of Engineering and...

NASA announced on Monday that Dr. Katherine Calvin will serve as both chief scientist and senior climate advisor, effective immediately.  She succeeds Jim Green, who retired from his role Jan....