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.”

The United Nations adopted a provision to phase out the use of mercury as a satellite propellant by 2025 during the Fourth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, Zero Mercury said. Public interest NGOs (non-governmental organizations) welcomed the ban. Canada and Switzerland played vital roles in having the ban put in place.

Euroconsult announced the launch of its latest summit, Asia Satellite Business Week (ASBW), gathering the global space and satellite industry’s key players in Asia for an opportunity to exchange views, share industry perspectives, and secure partnerships. The event will be co-organized with B2B information provider Informa Tech.

QuadSAT has worked alongside teams from the ESA’s ESOC mission control centre to complete a measurement campaign of large antennas at Kiruna Earth Station, QuadSAT said. This was the first time that a drone-based system, QuadSAT UAS, was used to measure a 15-metre antenna along with performing tracking tests with it.