E-letter: Briefs

Blue Origin will now land astronauts on the surface of the Moon, as the Jeff Bezos-owned company won the second NASA human landing system award on Friday. It is a […]

Inmarsat has ordered three small Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellites from Swissto12 for the eighth-generation of its L-band network. The three I-8 satellites will be based on Swissto12’s HummingSat satellite platform […]

German space startup Reflex Aerospace has booked a slot on a SpaceX mission to launch its demonstration satellite in fall 2024. Reflex also expanded its seed funding round with a […]

Measat has made a significant broadband commitment to Malaysia’s military personnel. The company announced May 17 that it will be providing its CONNECTme NOW satellite broadband services for free under […]

Spire Global’s CFO Thomas Krywe plans to step down from the company in September, Spire disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Wednesday.  The announcement comes as […]

SSC has a new 10-year contract to build and manage a satellite network portal (SNP) in Northwest Canada for OneWeb. The site is currently under construction and will serve as […]

Satellite cybersecurity company SpiderOak has received new investments from Accenture Ventures, Raytheon Technologies‘ RTX Ventures, and Stellar Ventures — beyond the company’s $16.4 million Series C round closed in January. The […]

Yahsat is teaming up with Bayanat and Iceye as it looks to build a national satellite remote sensing and Earth Observation (EO) capability within the United Arab Emirates to commercially […]

Oman-based telecom service provider Azyan Telecom has signed a deal for Kymeta u8 terminals, which it will use to access OneWeb’s Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) connectivity. The terminals will be delivered […]

Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) has won a new 2.26 million euros ($2.46 million) contract from the European Space Agency (ESA), the company announced May 15. This contract is for the […]

Terran Orbital recorded record revenue of $28 million in the first quarter of 2023 and a new 16-satellite deal, but the company is burning through cash quickly. The manufacturer announced […]

Speedcast is expanding its presence in Saudi Arabia to meet demand for connectivity from the energy market. The company announced Tuesday it has secured an Internet Service Provider license from […]

OneWeb is expanding its distribution network in Africa with a new deal with service provider iSAT Africa. The service provider signed a distribution partnership agreement with OneWeb and will deliver […]

Arianespace has set a target date of June 16 for the final Ariane 5 mission, retiring Europe’s workhorse heavy-lift rocket.  The mission will launch two satellites — Syracuse 4B, built […]

Astroscale and Momentus have teamed up to pitch NASA on a mission to reboost the Hubble Telescope, the companies announced last week.  The mission concept would use a Momentus Vigoride […]

Tesat has joined SES’s team for the Eagle-1 quantum key distribution (QKD) satellite. SES announced last week that Tesat will develop and integrate the quantum key payload.  Tesat will manufacture […]

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) awarded a 235 million euro ($256 million) contract for an in-orbit servicing demonstration mission to a consortium of space companies led by Thales Alenia Space. […]

Spire Global reported a record $24.2 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 34% year-over-year. New customer additions and increased adoption by existing customers drove […]

Planet Labs has expanded its strategic partnership with AXA Climate to offer insights from Planet’s satellites that inform parametric insurance products for a drought insurance program.  AXA Climate is a […]

NASA’s TBIRD mission recently broke its own record for optical communications in space, demonstrating 200 gigabits per second in a space-to-ground optical link from a satellite in orbit to Earth. […]

A task force for the Ariane 6 rocket provided an update on the vehicle’s progress toward first flight on Friday, reporting vehicle assembly is not expected to start until November […]

AT&T has filed with the FCC to lease spectrum to AST SpaceMobile for satellite direct-to-cell service.  In filings to the FCC on Thursday, AT&T notified the commission it has a […]

Rocket Lab increased revenue 35% in the first quarter of 2023, beating the upper end of its previous guidance for the quarter.  The launcher reported $54.9 million in revenue in […]

Bulent Altan will step down as Mynaric’s co-CEO later this year, with Mustafa Veziroglu taking the helm of the company as its sole CEO. Mynaric said the decision announced Thursday […]

Hughes Network Systems says the Jupiter 3 satellite is set to ship to the launch site in June, and will launch in the first available window. The company gave the […]

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM) held the second Black Skies electronic warfare (EW) exercise recently and is preparing to hold another this fall, as the […]

Sidus Space will use Atlas Space Operations ground station services for its upcoming LizzieSat constellation, the companies announced Wednesday.  Atlas Space Operations provides Ground Software as a Service (GSaaS) to […]

SpaceX has signed its first customer agreement for Starlink with a rail line, as Brightline announced Tuesday that it is offering free Starlink connectivity to passengers.  Brightline is an inter-city […]

Google connectivity-focused spinoff Aalyria announced a software partnership on Tuesday with defense tech firm Anduril Industries geared toward national security use cases. The companies will integrate Aalyria’s networking orchestration platform, Spacetime, […]

Spire Global and OroraTech are working together on a Canadian Space Agency contract to monitor wildfires from space via satellite.  The contract is for preparatory work for a wildfire-monitoring satellite, […]