Finnish Kuva Space raised € 4.2 million (US $4.85 million) to establish a constellation of commercial hyperspectral CubeSats, Kuva announced. The seed round brought investments from Voima Ventures and Nordic FoodTech VC, ESA Φ-lab’s InCubed programme and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The funding enables the company to build

Rocket Lab USA announced it has been selected to launch NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System satellite, (ACS3), on an Electron rocket. The ACS3 technology relies on a combination of materials with different properties. Lightweight booms will deploy from a 12U CubeSat designed and built by NanoAvionics of Columbia, to support a solar sail.

Thomas Pesquet became commander of the ISS this week, taking over from JAXA astronaut and fellow Crew-2 member Akihiko Hoshide. Thomas will hold this role until before Crew-2 return to Earth in November. He is the fourth European and the first French commander of the ISS. Pesquet accepted his new position during a traditional ceremony of a key being handed over to him by Hoshide.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is targeted to launch on 23rd November aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, NASA announced. The mission will be an evaluation of technologies for preventing a hazardous asteroid from impacting Earth. DART will be the first demonstration of the kinetic impact deflection technique.

Russian actress Yulia Peresild, 37, and film director Klim Shipenko, 38, arrived at the ISS on Tuesday after a smooth take-off from Baikonur Cosmodrome. They are on a 12-day mission filming the first movie in orbit. The crew travelled in a Soyuz MS-19 spaceship and docked behind schedule.

Warpspace has closed Series A round with Japanese leading venture capitals, such as SBI Investment and Mizuho Capital, the company said. This brings the total amount of funding to over USD 9 million since the company was founded in 2016. With Mizuho Capital on board, three large Japanese banks are now listed on the company’s list of investors.

Honda Motor is entering the small satellite launch business and is aiming to launch a test rocket by 2030, the Japanese car company announced. As the car industry shifts to electric vehicles and the demand for satellites grows, they will apply their automotive technologies to space. Honda claims that their satellite launch costs will be small due to reusable rockets.

Star Trek Actor William Shatner and Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s Vice President of Mission and Flight Operations, will fly on board New Shepard NS-18, Blue Origin announced. A Russian actress, and a film producer will launch towards the ISS today along with a cosmonaut, to film segments for a movie.

World Space Week, a UN-declared celebration of space is held annually, every October from 4th to 10th. The dates commemorate two events. The first is the launch of Sputnik 1, the first human-made satellite on 4th October, 1957. The second is the signing of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activites of States in the

The Shiyan-10 satellite suffered an abnormal function and the spacecraft was lost after a normal flight, Xinhua News Agency reports. The satellite launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre on a Long March 3B rocket. The reasons for the anomaly and loss of spacecraft are still unknown, investigation of what happened exactly is still ongoing.