India

OneWeb confirmed the successful deployment of 36 satellites launched by ISRO and NewSpace India (NSIL), from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC- SHAR) in Sriharikota, India, OneWeb said. This is the first ever commercial launch of LVM3 with a heavy payload to low Earth orbit (LEO).

The very existence of human life on earth today is dependent on space-based services. From banking and money transfers to streaming online content and using maps, the internet and other technological capabilities are being widely used by everyone across the world. From the individual level to the international level, space-based services play a crucial role. However, there are still many challenges and threats within the space domain, that need to be addressed at the national, regional, and global levels. All these imply the fact that space is both a competent and vulnerable domain in the contemporary world.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reported that its ground stations have lost communication with its Mars orbiter spacecraft, Mangalyaan (MOM). MOM may have run out of propellant or battery power but it is also possible that an automated maneuver cut communications.

Ground network services provider KSAT, has joined forces with Earth imaging technology company, Pixxel, to support its work building the world’s highest resolution hyperspectral imaging satellite constellation, KSAT said. The company will provide access to its global ground network to enable Pixxel’s constellation to reveal key data about Earth’s health.

So far seven Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) have been signed at the 7th Edition of Bengaluru Space Expo 2022, organised in association with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACE) and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).

Indian space-tech startup Skyroot Aerospace, raised US $51 million during a Series-B funding round led by global investment firm, GIC, Skyroot said. To date, this is the largest funding round in the Indian private space-tech sector. In addition to monetary investment, GIC India Direct Investment Group’s Managing Director, Mayank Rawat, will join Skyroot’s Board.

Global professional services company Accenture, has made a strategic investment in Pixxel, an Earth imaging technology company, as part of Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, the company said. Project Spotlight is an engagement and investment program aiming to fill strategic innovation gaps, and helping startups harness human creativity.

The Indian Space Reasearch Organisation (ISRO) said the launch of the country's first manned space flight, the Gaganyaan mission, cannot happen until at least 2024 as the agency wants to ensure that all safety systems are in place.  ISRO stated that tests were being conducted cautiously with regard to safety.

In the latest Space Café “Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland”, Host Steven Freeland, Emeritus Professor of International Law at Western Sydney University, Sydney and Professorial Fellow at Bond University, Australia, and Co-Host Torsten Kriening, SpaceWatch.Global’s Publisher, welcomed Ranjana Kaul and Kai-Uwe Schrogl at a wonderful picnic at the India Gate in Delhi, India.

Several pieces of suspected space debris fell onto the rural parts of western India, Indian media reported. The time of the incident suggests these could be Chinese rocket parts re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.  The objects crashed into the ground in Gujarat within a 15-km radius, accompanied by a loud noise.