Historic Environment Scotland (HES) withdrew its objection to plans for the proposed space centre in Unst following the preparation of a revised scheme of works and discussions with those behind the plans. HES originally objected due to the “extensive and adverse” impact on the cultural significance of Skaw radar station.

Rocket Lab has announced the date for its first Electron mission in 2022, which will be a dedicated mission for BlackSky through global launch services provider Spaceflight. Electron is scheduled to launch the “Without Mission A Beat” from New Zealand on 4th February.

The European Space Agency (ESA) completed its astronaut selection, moving on to the next stage with 1391 applicants invited to a full day of testing. The candidates were selected from over 23 000 European applications, ESA said. The agency had issued the call for new astronauts in March last year.

Airbus and Loft Orbital signed a contract for Airbus to supply more than fifteen satellite platforms stemming from Arrow, the foundational platform of OneWeb. There are currently 394 such platforms in orbit for the OneWeb constellation with a further 254 under production. The contract signals start-up Loft Orbital’s intention of implementing the Airbus Arrow service business model.

Virgin Orbit deployed seven cubesats for three customers on LauncherOne’s third successful operational flight that took off from air-launch platform Cosmic Girl, a Boeing 747 aircraft. The rocket carried the satellites into low Earth orbit, at an inclination of 45 degrees.

Aerospace engineering startup, Hypersonix Launch Systems, has signed a Master Research Collaboration Agreement with the University of Sydney to research and manufacture the components of a zero emissions, hypersonic spaceplane capable of deploying small satellites into low earth orbit, the University said.

SpaceX successfully launched 105 spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 launch vehicle yesterday during its third dedicated smallsat rideshare mission, Transporter-3. The rideshare program was announced in 2019, offering small satellite operators to launch for a combined price of US $1M. Transporter-3 carried CubeSats, microsats, PocketQubes,

SpaceX is to launch the Transporter-3 rideshare mission later today, with Brazilian newspace startup, Pion Labs’ PION-BR1 satellite on board, Pion announced. The launch will make history in the Brazilian space sector. PION-BR1 is a 1P pocketqube satellite measuring only 5x5x5 cm, the smallest Brazilian satellite developed to date.

Euroconsult, the space consulting and market intelligence firm, estimates the Earth Observation (EO) manufacturing market to grow to US $76.1B in revenue by 2030. The data were released in the company’s ''Earth Observation Satellite Systems Market'' report. Between 2011-2020, 65% of EO satellite launches were commercial but only captured a negligible 4% of the market value.

Airbus Crisa, an affiliate company of Airbus, has signed a contract with Northrop Grumman to develop the Power Management and Distribution (PMAD) system for the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), Airbus announced. The contract worth over US $50M marks Airbus’ first contribution to the Lunar Gateway, part of NASA’s Artemis program.