Satellite News

Smallsat integrator NanoAvionics has announced its latest satellite rideshare mission “MP42” to be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 with payloads from OQ Technology and Veoware.

The launch of the Proton-M heavy lift launch vehicle with the Ekspress-AMU3 and Ekspress-AMU7 communication satellites has been postponed from 6 December to 12 December, CEO of Roskosmos Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying.

Rocket: Electron; Payload: two BlackSky Gen-2 satellites; Date: 18 November 2021, 0138 UTC; Launch site: Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. The Earth-imaging satellites were deployed into 427 km x 439 km x 42.02 degrees orbits.

The U.S. Space Force exercised its second contract option valued at approximately $737 million for the procurement of three additional GPS III Follow On (GPS IIIF) space vehicles (SVs) from Lockheed Martin. This contract option is for GPS IIIF space vehicles 15, 16 and 17 (SV15-17).

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Astroscale Holdings Inc. announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Virgin Orbit. The MOU establishes a new partnership in which the two companies will seek opportunities to co-operate on a series of space initiatives that will drive the future of space sustainability and on-orbit servicing ecosystem.

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Arianespace signed a contract with Australian operator SingTel Optus to orbit the Optus-11 satellite using the Ariane 6 heavy launch vehicle. Optus-11 will be the seventh SingTel Optus satellite launched by Arianespace.

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Rocket Lab USA has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Planetary Systems Corporation (PSC), a Maryland-based spacecraft separation systems company, for US$42 million in cash and 1,720,841 shares of the company’s common stock, plus the potential for an additional 956,023 shares of common stock for a performance earnout based on PSC’s CY 2022 and 2023 financial results. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.

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Orbit Fab, the Gas Stations in Space company, and Dawn Aerospace, a space-transportation company, announced a collaboration to make on-orbit refuelling available to satellites utilising nitrous oxide and propylene (N2O and C3H6).

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