News

The space SPAC market took a breather in April, with no announced transactions, but we did have a traditional IPO (remember those?) by MDA in Canada. SpaceX and OneWeb also helped pick up the slack and together raised more money than last month’s three SPAC transactions combined, without even counting Astranis’s US$250 million round.

Following complaints by competitors, the U.S. space agency NASA suspended SpaceX’s work on the Human Landing System (HLS). Pursuant to protests of Blue Origin and Dynetics to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), NASA “instructed SpaceX that progress on the HLS contract has been suspended”, NASA said.

Luxembourg, 3 May 2021. – Lithuania becomes an Associate Member of the European Space Agency (ESA), the agency announced. The Association Agreement between ESA and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania builds on “the successful results achieved under the previous frameworks of cooperation and will enter into force for a duration of seven years”, ESA said.

Luxembourg, 3 May 2021. – Brazil will launch on Virgin Orbit, the company announced. The Brazilian Space Agency (Agência Espacial Brasileira; AEB) and the Brazilian Air Force (Força Aérea Brasileira, FAB) selected Virgin Orbit “to bring orbital launch capability to Brazil, a country which has never successfully completed a domestic launch to orbit”, the company said.

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China has successfully launched the core element of its new space station, officials and media reported. The 16.6 meters long core called Tianhe (which means “harmony of the heavens”) was successfully deployed in low Earth orbit. It is the core element of China's T-shaped new space station.

Much more than a renaming: The European Union strengthens one of its main pillars to execute on its €14.88 billion space programme that the European Parliament approved on Tuesday. It transforms the European Agency for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GSA) in Prague into the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA).

A 100 day track record: “In just the first 100 days of their administration, President Biden and Vice President Harris have expressed strong support for NASA’s goals and missions – and have laid out a vision that will guide the agency for the years to come,” said acting NASA Chief of Staff Bhavya Lal.

The maritime geolocation startup Unseenlabs raised €20 million to build its maritime geolocation fleet, the French company said. The series B funding round is "cementing its status as a European leader in the interception of radiofrequency signals from space”, the company said.

The entrepreneur and investor Max Polyakov acquired a majority stake in the South African startup Dragonfly Aerospace, Polyakov announced. Dragonfly Aerospace was founded in Stellenbosch, South Africa, by a team of five satellite engineers led by Bryan Dean, a global specialist in microsatellites and high-resolution cameras.