News

The sub-meter resolution satellite imagery collection company Satellogic announced it has completed its business combination with CF Acquisition Corp. V, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald. Satellogic’s Class A ordinary shares and warrants trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbols “SATL” and “SATLW,” respectively.

Space logistics company, D-Orbit, announced it is combining with Breeze Holdings Acquisition, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, to become publicly listed. The transaction estimates the company has an enterprise value of about €1.13 billion. Breeze Holdings and D-Orbit are partnering with The Charles F. Bolden Group as well.

Israel signed onto Artemis Accords to land astronauts on the Moon and establish a long-term human presence there as a base for future Mars missions, the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology announced. The Artemis program establishes principles of cooperation, sustainable human presence on the lunar surface and space exploration in general.

SpaceX launched its first interplanetary mission in February 2015 and after having travelled too far to have enough fuel to return to Earth or to escape the gravity of the Earth-Moon system, the spacecraft stayed on a chaotic orbit. According to sky observers, the defunct Falcon 9 second stage is now going to impact the Moon.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the U.S. sued to block Lockheed Martin’s proposed acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne, the supplier of missile propulsion systems for $4.4 billion, the FTC said. Lockheed, and its competitors in this area - Raytheon Technologies, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing - act as missile system contractors to the U.S. Department of Defense.

SayariLabs, the first Kenyan space start-up to provide satellite services and space-based solutions, and software-defined nanosatellite and space services provider, EnduroSat, signed a commercial agreement to launch TAIFA-1, the first Kenyan 3U nanosatellite.  East Africa has experienced heavy droughts and wildfires, causing water crisis, and damage to agriculture and local food supplies.

Launch service provider Isar Aerospace announced it has won the European Commission’s EIC Horizon Prize “Low-Cost Space Launch” award, receiving €10M in prize money. The prize was awarded to Isar for its launch service solution using the two-stage launch vehicle, Spectrum. The rocket offers flexible and cost-efficient access to space for small and medium-sized satellites and constellations.

Europe has to accelerate the development of its space assets and architectures to “weigh in on the global stage”, the European commissioner for internal market, Thierry Breton, said. The commission will therefore launch the European Space Launcher Alliance, the "first ever" Space Partnership and a European Space & Defence Strategy, he said.

ArianeGroup develops the concept of a new European launcher family with a reusable first stage and a new mini launcher called Maia, the company said. The family consists of a mini launch vehicle with a reusable first stage, a medium-heavy launch vehicle, a heavy launch vehicle and a super-heavy launch vehicle that uses the first stage of the mini launch vehicle as a booster, ArianeGroup said.

Former fighter jet pilot, Eytan Stibbe, is scheduled to become the second Israeli astronaut and the first to go to the International Space Station (ISS) in March this year. The Rakia mission will bring 35 scientific and technological experiments into space, based on their potential and possible economic impact.