North America

A glimpse in the cleanroom: Airbus plans to demonstrate the European Service Module for NASA´s Orion missions to the Moon. The company invited media to join a virtual visit to the cleanroom on Wednesday, 6 October, watch the delivery of ESM-2 and look at ESM-3. The modules are key parts of Europe’s contribution to NASA´s Artemis missions to the Moon.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Michael Byers, co-director of the Outer Space Institute (OSI), in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. Outer Space Institute’s International Open Letter on Kinetic Anti Satellite (ASAT) Testing.

Lucy, NASA’s first spacecraft to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids is being prepared for launch on 16th October, NASA said. By studying these asteroids, scientists hope to learn more about how the planets of the Solar System formed. NASA’s Lucy team have been preparing the spacecraft for flight in the past eight weeks.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has cleared Virgin Galactic to resume launches, Virgin Galactic said. The FAA carried out an investigation as the rocket plane deviated from its course while descending during July’s flight. The FAA barred Virgin from flying SpaceShipTwo until the investigation to determine the issues would not affect public safety was over.

by Luisa Low During this week’s Space Café, which was broadcast live from the United Nations’ 2021 Outer Space Security Conference in Geneva, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening and SpaceWatch.Global event coordinator Chiara Moenter had the chance to sit down with the new United Nations Director of the Institute for Disarmament Research, Dr Robin Geiss

During the third Space Café Canada event, host Jessica West of Project Ploughshares sat down with Dr. Samantha Lawler, an orbital modeler and observational astronomer at the University of Regina to talk about the risks posed by light pollution and other environmental impacts of mega-constellations in outer space.  

Two out of four: Blue Origin announced that New Shepard’s 18th mission, NS-18, will carry four astronauts to space, including Dr Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries. Dr Boshuizen is a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Planet Labs while de Vries is the co-founder of Medidata. The two other astronauts will be announced at a later date.

Rocket Lab has been awarded a contract for $24 million with the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) to develop the upper stage system of the Neutron launch vehicle, Rocket Lab announced. The funding will support improvements in support of national security and defence requirements.

Isotropic Systems raised $37 million in its latest series B funding round to accelerate the development of its multibeam antenna terminal and its launch next year, the company said.   The financing round was led by Seraphim Space Investment Trust – the world’s first listed space tech fund – in the first significant investment since its IPO on the London Stock Exchange in July, Isotropic said.

Small satellites at large: The nanosat provider Terran Orbital is planning to build “the world’s largest” spacecraft facility in Florida, the company´s CEO Marc Bell and Florida`s Governor Ron DeSantis announced. Terran Orbital will invest $300 million into a 660,000 square foot facility which will create 2,100 new jobs.