North America

Iceye signed a contract in the U.S. with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to participate in the evaluation of commercial remote sensing companies operating synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, the company said. It will focus on modeling and simulation and also support NRO’s detailed assessment of imaging modes, image quality, geolocation accuracy and coverage.

NASA will launch a mini asteroid scout mission called NEA Scout with the uncrewed first Artemis testflight in spring, the agency said. The target is 2020 GE, a near-Earth asteroid that is less 18 meters in size; asteroids smaller than 100 meters have never been explored up close before, NASA said. NEA stands for near Earth asteroid.

Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE), co-founded by Elena and Dmitry Lesnevsky, producers of Tom Cruise’s coming space movie, announced plans to attach an Axiom-built film studio and sports arena to the ISS, CNBC reports. SEE-1, the new module, will be attached to Axiom Station, the first commercial module of the ISS, in December 2024.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Dr. Jan Frohloff, lawyer and independent practitioner advising on dispute resolution and corporate matters in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. Space Disputes – Phantom Menace or Return of Justice?

Satellogic announced that private equity firm, Liberty Strategic Capital, led by former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, is investing US $150M into Earth imaging company Satellogic. The funding will help to close a delayed merger with CF Acquisition Corp. V., a special purpose acquisition corporation for the company to go public.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris charged the National Space Council to focus on the rules and norms governing space, leveraging space to tackle the climate crisis, and building a diverse space and STEM workforce, NASA said. The agency also announced a “strategic, first-of-its-kind partnership" with the European Space Agency (ESA) to observe Earth, its climate and changing environment.

Radian Aerospace (Radian), announced that the company recently closed US $27.5M in seed funding. The round was led by venture capital fund Fine Structure Ventures, with investment from EXOR, The Venture Collective, Helios Capital, SpaceFund, Gaingels, Explorer 1 Fund, Type One Ventures among others.

Rocket Lab has announced the date for its first Electron mission in 2022, which will be a dedicated mission for BlackSky through global launch services provider Spaceflight. Electron is scheduled to launch the “Without Mission A Beat” from New Zealand on 4th February.

Governments around the world spent $6.6 billion on government telecommunications programs in 2021, Euroconsult said. European countries spent over $2 billion on satcom, with France, the UK and Germany as leaders. Over the decade, governments worldwide are forecasted to invest over $70 billion in both civil and defence satellite communications systems.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 10 - 16 January 2022 ”. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Space News Roundup! I’m Jean Deville, joined as always by my co-host Blaine Curcio.