North America

Iridium Communications announced the service introduction of Iridium Messaging Transport (IMT), a two-way cloud-native networked data service optimized for use over Iridium Certus. The technology is designed to make it easier to add satellite connections to both existing and new IoT solutions, the company said. 

NASA awarded a contract to Collins Aerospace, aerospace and defense company, Raytheon Technologies’ business, along with space exploration technology provider, ILC Dover, and global technology company, Oceaneering, to design, develop and demonstrate the next-generation International Space Station (ISS) spacesuit. Collins said this was its first task order under NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) contract awarded in May. 

California, Space robotics company, GITAI USA, has launched its full operations in the US, and has also secured its first purchase order from a local space company, GITAI USA said.

SpaceX successfully launched 54 of Starlink’s new generation of satellites into low Earth orbit on a record-setting 60th flight of the year and the eleventh launch and landing for the Falcon 9 first stage booster. SpaceX conducted 31 launches in 2021.

The US Senate has passed legislation that directs NASA to establish a program to remove orbital debris, the Orbital Sustainability, or ORBITS, Act.  The passing was via unanimous consent, and it was introduced by Sen. John Hickenlooper, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee’s space subcommittee, in September. 

AI and robotics company, Machina, Labs has welcomed new members into its executive team: manufacturing veterans Alex Huckstepp to serve as the new Vice President of Sales and Alexander Kwan as Vice President of Operations.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present: The Space Café Podcast #70: Jim Green - former chief scientist NASA about the past and future of space science and the agency’s secret sauce. James Green has served 40 years with NASA and sports some of its most prestigious missions. In the current episode of the Space Café Podcast, he talks about SLS, James Webb, Artemis, DART, space science and the future of the space industry. 

NASA’s Perseverance rover deposited its first titanium sample tube containing a rock sample on Mars’ surface. The sample is the first of 10 forming a depot of tubes that will be considered to be brought back to Earth by the Mars Sample Return campaign, the agency said.

NASA’s Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio installed a Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to augment power generation on the station’s port truss structure, NASA said. The extravehicular activity (EVA) lasted 7 hours and 8 minutes.

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to provide launch services for the Sentinel-6B mission. Sentinel-6B will continue the long-term global sea level data record begun in 1992 by Topex/Poseidon, followed by Jason 1, 2, 3, and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich. The mission is a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).