News

HawkEye 360 receives additional funding of $145 million from Insight Partners and Seraphim Space, the space data company said. The series D round was led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners and Seraphim Space Investment Trust, the world’s first listed space tech fund, HawkEye said.

NASA SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts docked to the ISS more than 30 minutes ahead of schedule, less than 24 hours after launching from the Kennedy Space Center. NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer arrived aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance. The Crew-3 mission had a smooth launch on 10th November on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The Earth imaging company Planet acquires the Haarlem/ Netherlands based ag data specialist VanderSat, Planet said. Planet acquires VanderSat, a leading provider of advanced earth data and analytics, for approximately $28 million, in a mix between $18 million in Planet Labs PBC shares and $10 million in cash, the company said. 

The UK Space Agency has awarded almost £650,000 to Northumbria University to continue developing the first commercially available laser-based inter-satellite communications system, the University reports. Northumbria is one of eleven leading UK organisations to have been awarded a share of the UK Space Agency’s £7M funding under the National Space Innovation Programme.

Virgin Galactic reported a strong interest in suborbital flights from customers as the company sold approximately 100 tickets for US $450,000 each after reopening ticket sales in August. This makes the total number of bookings about 700. Virgin Galactic said the new customers had previously paid a deposit of US $1,000 to be the first in line when ticket sales resumed.

During this week’s SpaceCafé, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening got the chance to speak with Professor Gérardine Goh Escolar, a diplomat lawyer, First Secretary of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and Adjunct Professor at the National University of Singapore.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Prof. Pascale Ehrenfreund, President of the International Space University, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. A conversation with the new ISU president - live from the Space Tech Expo in Bremen.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts safely splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft, NASA reported. The agency’s second long-duration commercial crew mission set the record for the longest spaceflight by a U.S. crewed spacecraft. 

NASA announced that due to the challenges and progress of their lunar exploration plans, the first human landing under Artemis will be delayed by a year. A safe and quick return of astronauts to the Moon in more than 50 years is still a priority for the agency.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 40th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast: Luc Piguet, ClearSpace or how to solve an impossible mission. Luc Piguet is co-founder and CEO of Clear Space, a Swiss-based startup that cleans up space debris. ESA's hottest attempt is to develop a solution to a global problem.