Engineering company BlueHalo, has been awarded a US $1.4 billion contract by the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, a direct reporting unit of the U.S. Space Force, BlueHalo said. The award covers the Satellite Communication Augmentation Resource (SCAR) program including full lifecycle development from initial design through full rate production.

Stratolaunch debuted its structurally complete Talon-A test vehicle, TA-0, that will validate the Roc aircraft’s release system and characterize the separation dynamics of the Talon vehicle, the company said. The pylon, comprising a mini-wing and adapter, will be used to carry and release the Talon-A hypersonic vehicles.

General Dynamics Mission Systems and global mobile voice and data satellite communications network Iridium Communications, have been awarded a contract by the Space Development Agency (SDA) in the amount of US $324,516,613. This includes a base amount of US $162,954,122 and US $161,562,491 in options,

Global nanosatellite IoT (Internet of Things) network operator Astrocast, has signed an agreement to acquire Hiber, a Netherlands-based IoT-as-a-service provider, Astrocast said. Astrocast will acquire all of Hiber’s shares in exchange for the issuance of new Astrocast shares, representing 16.5% of its share capital.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced progress on collaboration for human and robotic lunar missions while confirming their commitment to include a Japanese astronaut aboard the lunar Gateway outpost as well as part of NASA’s Artemis program to land on the Moon.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has joined the Digital IF Interoperability (DIFI) Consortium to further promote scalability and flexibility across the space industry, AWS said. The company has already been helping customers build and launch satellites, and make use of cloud-powered ground infrastructure.

OneWeb and Astroscale announced that together they will seek to safeguard the satellite economy with new spacecraft technology, ELSA-M, enabled by an investment of €14.8 million. Astroscale’s ELSA-M demonstrator launch is scheduled for the end of 2024, with plans to deliver a debris removal service to satellite operators.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the selection of the 2022 AWS Space Accelerator’s 10 participants. The finalists were judged based on the innovative and unique nature of the projects, the overall value to the space industry, the creative application of AWS technology, and the team’s ability to deliver on an identified opportunity, AWS stated.

SpaceX has launched the Transporter-5 rideshare mission carrying several dozen payloads to low Earth and sun-synchronous orbits. This time the first stage touched down at Landing Zone-1 at Cape Canaveral. This was the eighth launch of booster 1061 and the one-hundredth launch of a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket.

High-resolution greenhouse gas monitoring company GHGSat, has joined ESA’s prestigious Third Party Mission Programme, ESA said. The company will share data from its fleet of commercial satellites with Earth science and climate change researchers free of charge.