North America

Astrobotic has launched its Peregrine Lunar Lander aboard United Launch Alliance (ULA)'s inaugural Vulcan-1 rocket from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex-41. The Peregrine Lander mission represents the US's first soft landing on the lunar surface since the Apollo missions. Likewise, for ULA, the launch serves as the launcher's first certification mission first of two certification launches that the Vulcan rocket has to complete before it can be put under consideration for national security space missions. Other than Astrobotic's lander, Vulcan also launched Celestis Memorial Spaceflight's deep space Voyager mission, the Enterprise Flight.

Space Systems Command (SSC) has renewed its partnership with the Microsoft Corporation to apply the latest commercial innovations to Space Force missions. The Integrated, Immersive, Intelligent Environment (I3E) is a follow-on to the Immersive Digital Facility (IDF) prototype successfully developed earlier this year. The I3E contract is worth $19.8 million and has a one-year period of performance starting Dec. 1 and reserved scope for an additional three years.

NASA has modified agreements for two funded commercial space station partners that are on track to develop low Earth orbit destinations for NASA and other customers as the International Space Station retires in 2030. The changes add new technical milestones and reallocate existing funding to allow the agency to accelerate efforts as part of NASA’s goal to foster a commercial low-Earth orbit economy.

Maxar Space Systems has announced that the Ovzon 3 satellite has successfully launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and is performing as expected after launch. Maxar Space Systems manufactured the satellite for Ovzon at their Palo Alto, California, facility using its modular architecture platform. The satellite launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Jan 3, 2024.

Maxar Intelligence has announced the receipt of a contract to provide the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) with a Precision3DTM Data Suite bundle covering 160,000 square kilometers within the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility. As a result, the commercial 3D data from Maxar will support the work of NGA’s Office of Geomatics, which maintains accurate 3D GEOINT products in support of a diverse group of military and civilian customers.

Sidus Space, a multi-faceted Space and Data-as-a-Service company, has announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has granted it a Tier 1 remote sensing license to include Panchromatic (PAN) and Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) imaging capabilities. This approval includes Sidus’ upcoming LizzieSat scheduled for launch in March 2024, as well as subsequent LizzieSat satellites.

EchoStar Corporation has announced the completion of its acquisition of DISH Network Corporation ("DISH Network"). A wholly-owned subsidiary of EchoStar merged with and into DISH Network, with DISH Network surviving the merger as a wholly-owned subsidiary of EchoStar. As a result of the merger, each share of DISH Network Class A Common Stock and DISH Network Class C Common Stock converted into 0.350877 shares of EchoStar Class A Common Stock, and each share of DISH Network Class B Common Stock converted into 0.350877 shares of EchoStar Class B Common Stock.

Terran Orbital Corporation has announced that it has received a payment from Rivada Space Networks pursuant to the Company's previously announced contract with Rivada. The amount was for the completion of a program milestone, and as a result, Rivada is current on all outstanding invoices. The Company expects to receive additional milestone payments in 2024 and continues to expect to meet its delivery obligations under the Rivada Contract on schedule in 2025 and 2026.

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a Govt. of India company under the Department of Space and the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has announced a launch partnership with SpaceX and the Falcon Heavy rocket. As a result, SpaceX will launch NSIL's 2nd Demand-driven communication satellite mission involving GSAT-20 [renamed as GSAT-N2], a high throughput Ka-band Satellite, during the 2nd quarter of 2024. 

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has selected DCUBED as its first choice for space pin pullers for the critical Space Qualified Rover Lidar (SQRLi) Support project. The SQRLi project is a LIDAR engineering test unit with a 35m or greater range sensor array to provide a 40×40 field of view and operate under poor lighting conditions for rover-based missions and autonomous exploration of extreme environments like permanently shadowed lunar craters.