North America

Back in the 70’s, the Japanese space agency JAXA run an experiment called the Japanese Cat's Whisker Experiment. It took place aboard Skylab between May 1973 and February 1974, the same year Pink Floyd released “The Dark Side of the Moon”. Contrary to what you might think, it did not involve cats.

Astrobotic announced on the 25th of July that the company won a $34.6M NASA Tipping Point partnership to demonstrate power transmission on the lunar surface. The award will result in a demonstration on the Moon called LunaGrid-LIte, which will transmit power from a lunar lander to a tethered rover. 

The US Space Force announced on the 24th of July that it has selected 16 companies that will compete for low Earth orbit satellite service contracts. The vendors will compete for up to $900 million worth of task orders over the next five years under an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract. Each contractor has been guaranteed $2,000. 

Impulse Space, Inc. has announced it has secured $45 million in its Series A funding round. The funding round saw participation primarily from RTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of RTX. The Series A funding round also included other participant investors, such as Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Airbus Ventures, and Space Capital.

Amazon has announced it will invest $120 million to build a satellite processing facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the company prepares to launch the first satellites for its Project Kuiper internet network. The facility is the latest long-term investment in Project Kuiper, a low Earth orbit satellite network that will provide fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world.

The United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) recently hosted closed meetings of the Legal Subcommittee’s Working Group on Space Resource Activity at its headquarters in Vienna. The Working Group has just completed the first year of its five-year mandate to review the regulation of such activity, including possible “additional international governance instruments”. Although it had planned to meet only during the Legal Subcommittee’s annual two-week session earlier this year, the Working Group failed at that time to agree on even a preliminary statement.

Telesat has announced the successful launch of its LEO 3 demonstration satellite aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket. LEO 3 was one of seven satellites in the rideshare mission that launched from Mahia, New Zealand.

Astranis, an American space-based internet startup, has signed a new deal to launch and operate a dedicated satellite for the Philippines which will provide enough bandwidth to connect up to 2 million people.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the international community are marking the 2023 edition of the international moon day Today. Every year since 2021, the global community marks international moon day on July 20 to commemorate the first moon landing that happened on July 20, 1969.

Rocket Lab, a launch and space systems company successfully launched seven satellites for NASA, Space Flight Laboratory, and Spire Global from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.