NanoAvionics expands its U.S. manufacturing facilities and aims at taking “30 percent of the US market share in nano-/microsatellite manufacturing and mission provision services”, the company said. NanoAvionics existing facility Columbia will be used to produce “high-quantities of nano- and microsatellite buses, for both single and constellation missions”.

The European commissioner for internal market, Thierry Breton, does not see Eutelsat involved in the European broadband satellite constellation due to its investment in OneWeb, the FT reports. “I do not see how, structurally, an entity can have stakes in two competing projects,” the FT quotes Breton.

Iridium invests in the Scottish navigation service provider DDK Positioning, the Nasdaq-listed company said. Iridium has made a strategic investment in the Aberdeen, Scotland based provider of enhanced Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) accuracy solutions, the company said. DDK uses the Iridium network to provide global precision positioning services.

Ready for the drop: the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos are preparing one of the two main parachutes for the ExoMars 2022 mission for its high-altitude tests in June, ESA said. The tests focused on demonstrating the readiness of new equipment developed by Airborne Systems, as well as verifying changes to the parachute and bag provided by Arescosmo.

NASA builds a new Earth System Observatory to cope with climate change, forest fires and hurricanes and to support a “real-time agriculture”, the U.S. agency said. “With the Earth System Observatory, each satellite will be uniquely designed to complement the others, working in tandem to create a 3D, holistic view of Earth, from bedrock to the atmosphere,” NASA said.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic completed the first human spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico, the company said. The flight of VSS Unity which was released from the mothership VMS Eve with CJ Sturckow, as pilot-in-command, and Dave Mackay on board, sees New Mexico become the third US state to launch humans into space, the company said.

NASA is planning to send its robot rover Viper to the Moon in late 2023, the agency said, to search for ice and other resources on and below the lunar surface. The Viper data would help the agency map resources at the lunar South Pole that could one day be harvested for long-term human exploration at the Moon, NASA said. 

ESA creates the new position of Director of Commercialisation, Industry & Procurement. The new director is to elaborate and implement ESA’s industrial policy, represent the Director General in all relations with industry, elaborate and implement the agency’s procurement rules, negotiate and manage procurements, ESA said.

Astroscale drives its space debris removal technology with a partner funding by OneWeb under the European Sunrise program, Astroscale announced. The global satellite communications network OneWeb signed a €2.9 million funding award with Astroscale “to mature their technology and capability towards a commercial service offering by 2024”, Astroscale said.

Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based provider of launch vehicles, spacecraft, and in-space services, will launch its Blue Ghost lunar lander on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in 2023, the company said. Blue Ghost will be carrying ten payloads for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, together with other commercial payloads.