Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has launched its 45th Electron rocket, successfully deploying a fourth synthetic aperture radar satellite to Synspective’s Earth-observation constellation. "Owl Night Long", a dedicated mission for Synspective, launched from Pad B at Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The mission delivered a single spacecraft, the StriX-3 satellite, to a 561km Sun Synchronous Orbit, where it joined Synspective’s growing constellation.

There’s been no shortage of recent attempts at clarifying what the problems are with the definitions of success or failure for a Moon mission. Bearing in mind the pressure applied on CEOs, leadership, and crews of many a lunar-aiming venture business, and equally knowing perfectly well how challenging is to land on the Moon, it is nevertheless important for the insiders of the sector  to develop considerations worthy of lunar stakeholders as they sort out their concerns.

Airbus Defence and Space SAS ("Airbus") and mu Space and Advanced Technology Co, Ltd ("mu Space") have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on potential future Thailand small satellite missions. This MoU outlines the terms and conditions for their cooperation and the key principles that would govern their relationship for the establishment of the Project. Both parties consequently believe that their combined expertise can lead to successful collaboration in the field of advanced space technology.

On 07 February 2024, we attended a review of the space economy hosted by Space Capital’s Chad Anderson and Justus Kilian. This follows the publication of their Q4 2023 report back in January 2024, which readers can download here. We have covered previous interventions by Chad Anderson at space conferences here and here.

Astroscale Japan Inc., a subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc., has successfully launched its commercial debris inspection demonstration satellite, Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J), from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, on Sunday, February 18, at 2:52 pm UTC. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) selected ADRAS-J for Phase I of its Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration program. Astroscale Japan is responsible for the design, manufacture, test, launch and operations of ADRAS-J.

Intuitive Machines is gearing up for a soft landing on the moon. This mission comes at a crucial stage after the Peregrine failure and Japan's SLIM mission. The risk and the pressure from a commercial point of view is very high, making this landing crucial for private players in the commercial space economy. Our Editor in Chief Dr Emma Gatti spoke about the interesting advances in lunar landing technology, highlighting the use of methane and liquid oxygen engine.

2024 is off to a strong start for space-tech startups raising capital in the VC space, with over $475m USD (442m EUR) raised in January alone. At this pace, however, the annual space tech investment ecosystem projects to an annual $5.8b, a contraction versus 2023 levels of approximately $7.1b. Across 25 deals, and an average of $19m per deal, just under half of deals were located in the United States (7) and United Kingdom (5) with strong presence in Europe coming from France (3) and Italy (3).

Astroscale Japan Inc., a subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc., will launch its commercial debris inspection demonstration satellite, Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J), on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, on Sunday, February 18 UTC. Furthermore, the Company has shipped ADRAS-J from its headquarters in Tokyo, and final preparations for launch are underway at Rocket Lab’s facilities, in addition to operational control testing from the Mission Control Center in Tokyo.

Pale Blue Inc. has received a grant from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) under the Small and Business Innovation Research 3 (SBIR-3) program to develop and demonstrate key technology for space debris mitigation. The grant is worth up to USD 27 million (JPY 4 billion) and will enable the development and demonstration of a miniaturized water-based ion thruster and a water-based hall-effect thruster by fiscal 2027.

ispace, inc. (ispace) has signed two memorandums of understanding related to payload services and strategic cooperation with mu Space and Advance Technology Co., Ltd., (mu Space) a satellite manufacturer and satellite communication service provider. The collaboration marks the first step towards future lunar missions between the two companies.