North America

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has collected the first sample of Martian rock, a core from Jezero Crater slightly thicker than a pencil, NASA reported. The core is currently awaiting retrieval in an airtight titanium sample tube with serial number 266. The rover had failed to collect samples on its first try just last month.

NASA announced it will grant US $146 million to five US companies to conduct studies for future lunar lander concepts. This will enable a “steady pace of crewed trips to the lunar surface under the Artemis program,” NASA said. The five companies and their awards are Blue Origin: US $25.6M, Dynetics: US $40.8M, Lockheed Martin: US $35.2M, Northrop Grumman: US $34.8M and SpaceX: US $9.4M.

Spire Global and exactEarth Ltd. announced their agreement for Spire to acquire exactEarth for approximately US $161.2 million in cash and stock. After the merger, exactEarth will be fully owned by Spire and will become a subsidiary operating from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. The combined company will accelerate Spire’s customer base by over 75% and will ensure cross-selling opportunities.

SpaceX is launching four civilians into space on Wednesday, 8:00 pm ET from launch pad 39A, at NASA's Kennedy Center, Reuters reports. The three-day mission marks the first time to enter Earth orbit with exclusively private citizens. The news comes after billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos both conducted few-minute space flights during the summer.

Space Café "Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland" will analyse current space developments with a legal focus. It will, at the same time discuss and ‘demystify’ the law for everyone. In this next episode 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...

A consortium of three South Korean companies invests US $50 million in American rocket start-up Relativity Space, News Naver reported. The three companies are Hanwha Aerospace, NH Investment & Securities and Consus Asset Management. The investment is part of the US $650 million Relativity Space raised in the Series E funding round in June, Maeil Economic Daily said.

NASA has selected SpaceX to launch the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U (GOES-U) mission, the U.S. space agency said. The total cost for NASA to launch GOES-U is $152.5 million, which includes the launch service and other mission-related costs, NASA said. The mission is targeted to launch in April 2024.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) increased Lockheed Martin’s contract for the Blackjack program by US $25.3 million, the agency announced. The Blackjack project is aimed at validating high-speed military communication, navigation and missile warning capabilities of small satellites.

This Space Café Canada will feature Dr. Samantha Lawler, an orbital modeler and observational astronomer at the University of Regina, in conversation with Dr. Jessica West, Senior Researcher at Project Ploughshares and a friend of SpaceWatch.Global. Blinded by the light. The night sky as we know it could be lost forever. What should Canada do to prevent this?

Yahsat has chosen SpaceX to launch its Airbus Defence and Space-built Thuraya 4-NGS next-generation mobile connectivity satellite, the companies announced. The terms of the contract have not been disclosed by either side. Yahsat selected Airbus to develop Thuraya 4-NGS last year. The preliminary design review in June found that the development of the satellite was on schedule.