Digital transformation company Atos, and the European multi-national space technology company OHB, have been awarded a contract by the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support to supply the "Space Situational Awareness Center Expansion Stage 1" to the German Federal Armed Forces. 

After an earlier issue with delays of gaseous nitrogen supply required for tanking preparations and resolving an issue with malfunctioning fans that caused the first wet dress rehearsal to come to a halt, the second attempt had to be cancelled halfway through as well. The Artemis I team ended Monday's attempt after partially loading liquid oxygen into the Space Launch System’s core stage tank.

Amazon announced it signed launch service contracts with three commercial launch companies, ArianeSpace, Blue Origin and ULA (United Launch Alliance) for 83 launches altogether over a five year period.  Arianespace will perform 18 Ariane 6 launches for Amazon’s Project Kuiper over a period of three years under the contract.

Lockheed Martin has released an open-source, non-proprietary interface to help standardize on-orbit docking. The company published the Mission Augmentation Port (MAP) interface standard online to support industry approaches to on-orbit servicing and mission augmentation, Lockheed said.

Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) has signed a £22 million contract with Defence Equipment and Support on behalf of UK Space Command for a 150 kg satellite based on SSTL’s Carbonite+, SSTL said. The project is named TYCHE and it is the first satellite procurement for the MINERVA programme.

Polaris has secured a pre-series-A investment from the newly created Polaris Space Ventures (PSV) investment company, Polaris said. The investment enables the firm to increase the number of employees, as well as enlarge company facilities, and to prepare for rapid upscaling. 

SpaceX launched its Transporter-4 mission carrying 40 spacecraft, including CubeSats, microsats, picosats, non-deploying hosted payloads, and an orbital transfer vehicle to deploy spacecraft at a later time. The rideshare mission was the rocket booster’s seventh successful mission.

The Space Café WebTalk “33 minutes with Laura Anne Edwards - Thoughts on the Future of Space and Earth” took place on Tuesday, 29th March. Laura is an innovation catalyst, named a 2021 Top 50 Leader in Space Tech. Laura is a NASA Datanaut, a core member of the Oxford Space Initiative, TED Resident,

The 3rd Cassini Hackathon will focus on preserving Europe’s tourist destinations and the way we access them. Participants will be challenged to develop ideas that support sustainable travel, and promote thoughtful exploration of nature. The aim is to uplift the tourism industry with “resilient and sustainable digital solutions”.

The Portuguese Space Agency has just celebrated its third anniversary of existence. The agency is proud that it remained faithful to “making sure that Space can, and does, contribute to the Portuguese population’s economic growth and social well-being.”