E-letter: Briefs

SpaceX launched 30 payloads to mid-inclination orbit on Saturday in the Bandwagon-2 rideshare mission. The Falcon 9 mission lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Saturday, Dec. […]

K2 Space won a U.S. Space Force contract to build its first ‘Mega’-class satellite for a planned launch to Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO). The mission, set for February 2026, is called […]

Turion Space won a $32.6 million fixed-price contract to build three satellites for the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) with multiple payloads and real-time command and control.  Under the […]

Arianespace’s longtime CEO Stéphane Israël will leave the company at the end of the year, the French launcher announced Thursday. Israël led Arianespace since 2013 and supervised 108 launches and […]

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed allocating more spectrum for space launch communication. The proposal announced on Dec. 19 would reallocate the 2360–2395 MHz band on a secondary basis for […]

Maxar Intelligence has received $35 million in total for new tasking contracts from two government customers in the Asia-Pacific region. Maxar said these contracts are the first purchase of direct […]

NASA awarded Firefly Aerospace a $179 million award to deliver six experiments to the Moon in 2028. This will be Firefly’s third lunar mission and it is its fourth NASA […]

Airbus and the French Space Agency CNES have completed the TELEO mission demonstrating very high throughput laser communications between Geostationary Orbit (GEO) and Earth. TELEO is an optical communications payload […]

A ThinKom ThinAir antenna was the primary communications technology onboard the Rapcon-X aircraft’s recent inaugural flight.  Rapcon-X is an aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (A-ISR) solution by Sierra Nevada Corporation […]

Iceye closed $65 million in extension funding, taking the company’s total raised in 2024 to $158 million. The funding round extension included participation from funds managed by Finnish sovereign wealth […]

The Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded additional funding to SpiderOak to demonstrate integrating the U.S. Space Force’s identity and access management software within the company’s platform. SpiderOak announced the addition […]

SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 national security missions back-to-back from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California between Monday night and Tuesday morning, followed by an O3b […]

Eutelsat Group ordered a 100-satellite update for the OneWeb constellation from Airbus Defence and Space, the operator announced Tuesday. These satellites will provide continuity for OneWeb before Europe’s IRIS constellation […]

UltiSat CEO David Myers is stepping down from the position at the end of the year, Myers announced on LinkedIn on Monday. The company’s Chief Strategy Officer Jim Scott will […]

The European Commission signed the contract on Monday for Europe’s IRIS² constellation with the group of companies tasked with delivering the constellation in the SpaceRISE consortium.  The EC Director-General for […]

T-Mobile is preparing to start beta testing with SpaceX’s Starlink direct-to-cell satellite service in early 2025 and opened registration on Monday for a limited number of slots to participate in […]

Satellite manufacturer Millennium Space Systems has hired Tony Gingiss as CEO after Jason Kim departed the company earlier this year for Firefly Aerospace.  He was most recently chief operating officer […]

ANT61, an Australian satellite hardware company, is targeting Japanese insurance market, signing a deal with Sompo Risk Management. Sompo Risk Management will integrate ANT61’s Beacon system into its existing suite […]

SpaceX wants to incorporate Starbase as its own city in Texas. The Starbase production site in Cameron County, Texas, is home to development of SpaceX’s Starship rocket.  Kathy Lueders, former […]

Iridium debuted two new products this week — a smaller, more powerful IoT module, and Iridium Certus GMDSS for maritime safety communications.  The Iridium Certus GMDSS combines Global Maritime Distress and […]

Loft Orbital will fly four hyperspectral sensors on upcoming Loft satellites for Australian startup Esper. As Esper’s space infrastructure partner, Loft will integrate and operate the first first Four Leaf […]

ST Engineering iDirect has released a technology that enables tracking and switching between satellites in Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) and Non-Geosynchronous Orbit (NGSO). The feature is currently in on-orbit satellite testing […]

Air Canada plans to make its onboard Wi-Fi free for its loyalty members with a sponsorship from Canadian telco Bell, the airline announced Thursday. Air Canada’s onboard Wi-Fi is powered […]

Australian space startup Fleet Space Technologies closed a Series D funding round worth $150 million Australian dollars ($100 million) to grow the capabilities of its ExpoSphere platform, which combines satellite […]

Honeywell and Airborne Aerospace announced new deals to supply subsystems for the MDA Space Aurora satellite line, which supports anchor customer, the Telesat Lightspeed constellation.  Honeywell’s satellite attitude control system […]

Telespazio has won two new contracts worth 144 million euros ($151.3 million) to provide services to the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) and the European Commission. The […]

A new agreement between Maxar Intelligence and Satellogic allows Maxar to task Satellogic’s constellation to support national security missions for the U.S. government and select U.S. partners internationally. The companies […]

Astroscale’s ADRAS-J mission completed its final approach of an abandoned rocket upper stage in space, approaching the large piece of debris at an approximately 15-meter distance. Astroscale did not reach […]

The Peruvian Air Force (PAF) is using satellite connectivity via the SES-14 Geostationary (GEO) high throughput satellite for its bases and pilots and to improve operations across the country, SES […]

Viasat has received a new five-year contract worth up to $568 million from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to support U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) technology modernization. The award […]