Satellite News

NASA and Bigelow Aerospace today evaluated why the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) attached to the ISS did not fully expand as planned. A new attempt is currently scheduled for Saturday.

UrtheCast Corp. announced that it will receive C$5.0 million in Government of Canada Technology Development Program (“TDP”) funding, as part of a C$54 million contribution programme for the development of new satellite technologies, as administered by the Government of Canada.

Lift-off of a SpaceX Falcon 9 with Thaicom 8 on board did not take place as scheduled at 2140 UTC.

Bolivian personnel have taken over the operations of the country’s Chinese-built Tupac Katari satellite.

HawkEye 360, Inc., a subsidiary of Allied Minds, announced that it has selected Deep Space Industries and its sub-contractor, the University of Toronto Space Flight Laboratory (SFL), as the manufacturer for its Pathfinder small satellite cluster. Deep Space Industries has also chosen to participate in HawkEye 360’s first preferred financing round.

Planetary Resources, Inc. announced that it has secured US$21.1 million in Series A funding. The capital will be used to deploy and operate Ceres, an advanced Earth observation business that features the first commercial infrared and hyperspectral sensor platform. Earth observation will be another aspect of Planetary Resources’ operations in addition to prospecting and mining asteroids, the company said.

An attempt to inflate the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) docked to the International Space Station has failed.

SES S.A. announced that it is launching a capital raising to fund the acquisition of the remaining shares in O3b Networks. As a result, SES will own 100% of O3b Networks, a satellite operator with a constellation of 12 High Throughput Satellites (HTS) at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO).