News

The NISAR (NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite – a joint NASA-Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Earth-observing mission – is nearly complete, and a launch readiness date will be determined at the end of April. The spacecraft will subsequently launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India’s southeastern coast.

GITAI USA Inc. (GITAI) has announced the successful completion of all planned tasks in an external demonstration focusing on in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM). These tasks are crucial for on-orbit satellite servicing and were accomplished using a 1.5-meter-long autonomous dual robotic arm system (S2) outside the International Space Station (ISS). This milestone marks GITAI’s second successful demonstration, following an earlier demonstration inside the ISS in 2021.

The European Space Agency (ESA)'s Gaia space telescope has discovered two surprising streams of stars that formed and wove together over 12 billion years ago. The two streams, named Shakti and Shiva, helped form the infant Milky Way. Both are so ancient they likely formed before even the oldest parts of our present-day galaxy’s spiral arms and disc.

Hanwha Phasor, a UK-based satellite communications company, has announced it will release its land antenna, for mobile communications, the Phasor L3300B, to the market in Q3 of 2024. The Phasor L3300B is an active electronically steered antenna (AESA) which has been developed for commercial and military use.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to conduct a trade study on its capabilities to rapidly launch Firefly's Elytra vehicles and support missions beyond Geosynchronous Orbit, referred to as xGEO. Once complete, the trade study will provide the groundwork for up to two Firefly demonstration missions that will advance the DoD's responsive access to xGEO.

Bengaluru-based deeptech EO analytics and platform company SatSure, along with its subsidiary KaleidEO, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ReOrbit. This partnership aims to develop innovative full-stack solutions to meet the future market demands in the Earth Observation (EO) segment. As a part of this partnership, KaleidEO will provide the bleeding edge of future-ready payload technology meant for sub-meter imaging capability. Meanwhile, SatSure’s downstream solutions and analytics stack will support businesses needing last-mile connections.

Outer space presents myriad concepts for jointly creating inspiration and opportunity as well as challenges. With over 8,000 satellites currently in Earth orbit, reliance on satellite services for communications, imaging, and navigation has become ubiquitous to enhancing the quality of life on Earth. In fact, satellite communication has been deemed a public good since the early 1960s, which has enabled public reliance on space-based telecommunications. Other key satellite applications include weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and navigation support for global transportation.

SWISSto12, a satellite and Radio Frequency product manufacturer, has announced its continued global expansion, securing additional production space at its headquarters in Switzerland, almost doubling the size of its existing site to 5,700m2. In addition, SWISSto12 has welcomed several new Satcom engineering experts to its growing team, which has increased by 25% since the start of 2024 to over 125 employees working across its facilities in Switzerland, Europe and the USA.

ESA has signed contracts with several European companies for an overall amount of € 233 million to develop Genesis and a LEO-PNT demonstrator, two new missions within the FutureNAV program that will keep Europe at the forefront of satellite navigation worldwide.

Kongsberg NanoAvionics ("NanoAvionics") has selected Neuraspace’s space traffic management (STM) solution, based on artificial intelligence, for its own end-to-end small satellite mission services. As a result, NanoAvionics will make Neuraspace’s STM system for collision analysis, maneuver planning, and improving space sustainability part of its LEOP (launch and early orbit phase) and operations package.