North America

NASA, on behalf of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), has awarded a delivery order under the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV (Rapid-IV) contract to Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio for the QuickSounder spacecraft. Furthermore, the total value of the order is $54 million, with the period of performance beginning Wednesday, Oct. 25, and scheduled to run until May 2029.

Lockheed Martin has awarded Terran Orbital Corporation a contract to build 36 satellite buses for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 2 Transport Layer (T2TL) Beta constellation. Terran Orbital will consequently deliver the buses to Lockheed Martin, which will conduct payload integration and jointly operate the satellites with SDA.

Varda Space Industries and Southern Launch have announced a partnership to conduct re-entry operations at the Koonibba Test Range, with the goal of making South Australia a hub for an in-space manufacturing industry. As a result, Southern Launch will support Varda Space Industries in conducting high-cadence re-entry operations at the Koonibba Test Range to meet a wide range of Varda’s customer needs.

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Aaron Addison, incoming Executive Director of the World Geospatial Industry Council, at the Intergeo 2023 in Berlin. WGIC's Role and Growth: Aaron highlighted the significant growth in the geospatial and space sectors, emphasizing the successful experience at Intergeo. He introduced the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC) as a trade association aiming to unite various facets of the geospatial industry globally. The organization recently rebranded to reflect its diverse membership, which now includes traditional geospatial companies and newer entrants like satellite and ocean data companies.

International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) bioastronautics researcher and payload specialist Kellie Gerardi will represent the Institute on the ‘Galactic 05’ research spaceflight with Virgin Galactic, IIAS announced.

HawkEye 360 Inc. has announced the second and final close of the company's Series D-1 funding round with an additional $10 million, bringing the total Series D-1 to $68 million. Investors for the second close included Lockheed Martin Ventures, the venture arm of Lockheed Martin Corporation, and company insiders.

CesiumAstro, engineer and manufacturer of communication modules, payloads, and satellites, announced on the 18th of October it has been awarded a contract by NASA. Under the contract CesiumAstro will perform a wideband satellite communications capability study to further the agency’s long-term goal of a smooth transition to fully commercialised communications services for near-Earth users. 

Cognitive Space has announced raising $4M in seed+ funding during the second quarter of 2023 towards developing its intelligent space automation. The investment round saw participation from esteemed venture capital firms York IE, Draper Associates, and Dolby Family Ventures. 

The Space Development Agency announced on the 17th of October that they awarded SpiderOak, US-based software company focused on satellite cybersecurity, an Other Transactional Authority agreement.

Capella Space Corp. has announced that it has Frank Backes as its chief executive officer (CEO), with Backes assuming the new role on October 23. As a result, Banazadeh will continue serving the company in his role as Board Director.