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Viasat Inc. has confirmed that its Inmarsat-6 F2 (I6 F2) satellite, which launched on February 18, 2023, has suffered a power subsystem anomaly during its orbit-raising phase. At this stage, Viasat and Airbus, the satellite’s manufacturer, are working to determine the root cause of the anomaly and assess whether the satellite will be able to perform its mission.

The International Space University (ISU), Rice University, and NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) have announced the hosting of the 2024 Space Studies Program (SSP24) in Houston, Texas. The program, which will run from June 8 to August 3, 2024, will hold at Rice’s historic campus, a location deeply rooted in the annals of space exploration.

NASA has launched an international crew of four representing four countries into orbit following a successful launch to the International Space Station at 3:27 a.m. EDT Saturday, Aug. 26, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Agency’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission is the seventh commercial crew rotation mission for NASA.

Greetings, SpaceWatchers, and welcome to Summer Listening Week Four! Summer is upon us, and as our gaze shifts towards the stars during those warm, clear nights, SpaceWatch.Global brings you its third collection of the Summer Listening Series. Based on the vote by our newsroom, we have mapped out an interstellar journey across five categories. After the Moon, Climate - Space - Earth and Trendsetters, this week is the turn of  “Space Debris and Regulations.”

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has launched a dedicated Electron mission for Capella Space.. The mission demonstrated several significant milestones for Rocket Lab’s reusability program, including an ocean splashdown of the Electron rocket’s first stage and the successful flight of a previously flown Rutherford engine. The mission was also Rocket Lab’s 40th Electron launch since the Company began launches in 2017, further cementing Electron’s position as a competitive commercial small launch vehicle globally.

Mynaric has announced that the Space Development Agency (SDA) has selected it to contribute to an optical ground terminal demonstration. The research and development program’s mission, slated for 2025, is to demonstrate the successful connection between various space-based optical communications terminals (OCTs) and an optical ground station that Mynaric designed. 

Viasat Inc. has announced that Malaysia Airlines, the national carrier of Malaysia, has selected the company to outfit the airline’s new Boeing 737-8 fleet with its wireless In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system. In the pipeline, as part of its connectivity strategy, Malaysia Airlines will also introduce high-quality internet connectivity on its 737-8 aircraft.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has received information from the United States 18th Space Defense Squadron that it has detected new objects in the vicinity of the VESPA payload adapter. This adapter has remained in orbit following the 2013 launch of a Vega rocket from ESA’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Furthermore, it is a 113 kg, two-meter-diameter, conical upper portion of a payload adapter associated with the VV02 Vega launch that delivered the Proba-V, VNREDSat-1 and ESTCube-1 satellites into Earth orbit.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) has announced the awards of two prototype agreements with a total value of approximately $1.5 billion to build and operate the Tranche 2 Transport Layer (T2TL) – Beta variant prototype constellation. The constellation consists of 72 satellites and will form the foundation of Tranche 2 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.

Umbra has announced that AFWERX has selected it for an SBIR Phase II contract in the amount of $1.25 million. Furthermore, the contract focuses on Space-Based Moving Target Indication (MTI) to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). Umbra will consequently leverage its market-leading wide-bandwidth, affordable space systems, uniquely operating in paired flight, to develop and demonstrate Maritime and Ground MTI (MMTI and GMTI) capabilities.