Satellite News

The Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft was bolted into place on the International Space Station’s Earth-facing port of the Unity module at 1342 UTC on 12 August 2021.

Spire Global, Inc. announced a new partnership and satellite mission with its first South Korean Space Services customer, Hancom Group, an ICT [information and communications technology] convergence company. This will be the first commercial satellite mission for a private South Korean company.

Mynaric and SpaceLink announced the signature of a definitive agreement on the sale of optical inter-satellite link (OISL) terminals for satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) with a total order volume of up to US$28 million depending on exercised options and SpaceLink’s satellite prime selection.

Rocket Lab announced it has signed a deal with in-space manufacturing company Varda Space Industries to produce three Photon spacecraft that will integrate with their space factories, enabling high-value products to be manufactured in zero-gravity and returned to Earth in Varda’s re-entry capsule.

Astrobotic said it has won a Phase I NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to further develop sensors that three-dimensionally map uncooperative spacecraft and planetary bodies in real time.

Lockheed Martin’s In-space Upgrade Satellite System (LINUSS) completed environmental testing and is ready for launch later this year, demonstrating how small CubeSats can regularly upgrade satellite constellations to add timely new capabilities and extend spacecraft design lives.

The payload designed and developed by Alén Space for the first nanosatellite of Sateliot’s constellation has successfully completed its first in-orbit demonstrations. This validation process is a fundamental step for providing IoT communications services with world-wide 5G coverage.

Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a Service, announced a co-operative Memorandum of Understanding with Accion Systems to provide spacecraft hosting services for the next generation of Accion’s flagship ion thruster, TILE.