North America

Leaf Space, a ground segment service provider, is adding three stations to its global Leaf Line Network, the company based in Washington, D.C., said. The new stations will be installed in Sri Lanka, the Azores and Scotland, the company said, "enhancing Leaf Space’s capability to provide solutions and services to its growing list of customers".

The smallsat manufacturer LeoStella delivered its first satellite to Loft Orbital Solutions, a payload service company, for a rideshare launch on Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, the company said. LeoStella delivered the “Yet Another Mission-3” (YAM-3) satellite, the company said.

Paris, 28 June 2021. – Virgin Galactic obtained a license from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to allow it to fly customers to space, the company said. The FAA expanded Virgin Galactic’s license as a commercial space transportation operator to allow it to carry people – or ”space flight participants”, as it said. 

Paris, 28 June 2021. – NASA proceeds to repair the computer on board the Hubble Space Telescope, the U.S. agency said, but was not able, so far, the reboot the backup computer. NASA is continuing to diagnose a problem with the payload computer on the Hubble Space Telescope, the agency said, after completing another set of tests on June 23 and 24. 

Connecting sensors and soldiers: the U.S. Army has contracted Iridium to develop a smallsat GPS payload, the company said. The contract is worth up to $30 million. Iridium will develop a smallsat payload that supports navigation and GPS systems for the army, Iridium said.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Joint Air Power Competence Centre, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Looking for a Few Good Operators: Oppurtunnities for Space Force to Fulfil the Women, Peace and Security agenda” by Dr Kyleanne Hunter, originally published on the Joint Air Power Competence Centre website.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Joint Air Power Competence Centre, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “The Impact of Law on NATO's Space Power at the Speed of Relevance” by Mr Álvaro Martín Blanco, Col Dr Daniel Gallton, US Air Force, and Mr Dale Reding

During the second Space Café Canada event, host Jessica West of Project Ploughshares sat down with Tim Kopra, Vice-President of Robotics and Space Operations at MDA, to talk about the role of robotics in Canada’s space program and in the future of space exploration.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) finances SpaceX and Hispasat with more than $80 million, the bank announced. The bank’s board unanimously approved $80.7 million in EXIM financing to support launch services by SpaceX and U.S.-brokered launch and initial in-orbit insurances for Hispasat Canarias,

The World Economic Forum (WEF) and the European Space Agency (ESA) launched a new Space Sustainable Rating (SSR). The Swiss EPFL Space Center (eSpace) has been chosen to lead and operationalize the SSR, WEF said, it will begin issuing sustainability certifications to mission operators in early 2022.