A report this month by a panel of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) advises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Space Commerce (OSC) in the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to ramp up efforts to ensure unimpeded satellite orbits. The panel’s chairman, Michael Dominguez, a former senior official with U.S. Department…

Exotrail has raised $13 million (11 million euros) for on-orbit transportation for small satellites. This Series A round was led by two European Venture Capital firms, Karista (through Paris Region Venture Fund) and Innovacom. IXO Private Equity, NCI-Waterstart, Turenne Capital, and returning investors 360 Capital, Irdi Soridec Gestion, and Bpifrance also invested. This round aims…

Astroscale is making a move into Geostationary (GEO) on-orbit servicing. Astroscale U.S. Inc., the U.S. unit of Astroscale Holdings Inc., is acquiring the intellectual property of Effective Space Solutions R&D Ltd. (ESS), an Israeli satellite life-extension and servicing company.  “Astroscale is known for blazing trails in on-orbit debris-removal services in (Low-Earth Orbit) LEO, and now…

Throwing money at problems works in space, too! A paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that the space debris problem can be fixed once and for all, not by the engineers and scientists who consider space their domain, but with cold, hard cash: about $235,000 per satellite. Such a plan would create financial barriers…