North America

The Luxembourg Future Fund (LFF) will be investing in NorthStar Earth & Space, building on the partnership between Luxembourg’s Ministry of the Economy and the Canadian-based company. NorthStar claims to be the first commercial service aiming at monitoring space via a constellation of satellites.

NASA and the ESA have rescheduled the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for 24th December due to a communication problem between the spacecraft and ground equipment. JWST was placed on top of Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket over a week ago as part of launch preparations.

Kepler Communications will use Spire Global´s system as a test bed for its Aether network service, the Canadian telecommunication provider said. The initial test aboard a Spire satellite is due to launch in the fourth quarter 2022, Kepler said. Before, Kepler will conduct in-orbit testing of Aether onboard two new Kepler satellites.

SpaceWatch.Global has been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts by Steven Freeland. This is “What Sort of Space “Race” Should We Be Pursuing?”, originally published 15 December 2021 at Australian Institute of International Affairs by Steven Freeland. If a war in space does take place, the devastation would be long-lasting and perhaps irreversible.

The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs announced that five new countries joined the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) with the approval of the UNGA. Angola, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Panama and Slovenia took the number of member countries to 100.

Rocket Lab acquires the space solar power firm SolAero for $80 million, the company said. SolAero is a supplier of space solar power products and precision aerospace structures for the global aerospace market. The strategic acquisition will see Rocket Lab add the world’s largest production line of high-performing space solar cells to its growing space systems business, Rocket Lab said.

Blue Origin conducted its third space flight on Saturday, after high winds forced a delay on the Thursday launch. The roughly 11-minute trip on the reusable, automated capsule carried four paying customers and two guests just beyond the Kármán line. The four paying customers were space industry executive and philanthropist Dylan Taylor,

The data analytics provider Spire Global received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to fly its Adler-1 satellite on Virgin Orbit’s upcoming, the company said. The satellite, which was integrated at Virgin Orbit’s Long Beach facility in the U.S. within 36 hours, will fly as the third customer in the “Above the Clouds” mission,

No SPAC mergers with space companies in November, but a blockbuster round of US$1.4 billion for Sierra Space. We also had ‘traditional’ public listings by Telesat and Mynaric (of ADSs). It was also an interesting month on the M&A front with deals including Redwire / Techshot, Inmarsat / Viasat, Planet / VanderSat, and Rocket Lab / Planetary Systems Corp

In this session of Space Cafè “Moriba’s Vox Populi 08” Dr. Moriba Jah talked about the Russian Anti-Satellite Test - What are the intended and unintended consequences? with Alex Fielding, Artem Mokhnatkin, Holger Krag, Michael Byers, Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, Col. Scott Brodeur, Victoria Newberry,