North America

Space launch systems operator Virgin Orbit (VO), and the Luxembourg Minister of Defence signed a Letter of Intent to begin the process towards developing responsive space capabilities inclusive of a Luxembourg-based mobile launch infrastructure available for NATO partners, and other Allies across the European continent, VO said. As part of the agreement, VO will assess how such a space capability could be based in the country and optimized for various needs. 

The Space Café Podcast #66: Melanie Stricklan - Slingshot Aerospace, how to get order in the chaos in low earth orbit. Melanie Stricklan has a captivating history in the United States Airforce and a powerful mission: with her company Slingshot Aerospace,

Firefly Aerospace, a launch, spacecraft, and in-space services company, has announced that its Alpha FLTA002 mission successfully reached orbit and deployed customer payloads and that former NASA Administrator James Bridenstine would be joining the Company’s Advisory Board.

PickNik Robotics, a robotics software and engineering service company, has won a SpaceWERX contract to work on robotics for the US Space Force. The company recently won a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract for continued work on supervised autonomy for space robotics, as well as a Colorado Advanced Industries Accelerator (AIA) grant for space robotics

Firefly Aerospace, a launch, spacecraft, and in-space services company, has announced the addition of Chris Emerson, a seasoned industry leader with decades of aerospace expertise, to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately

The US Space Command (Spacecom) tracks over 47,000 objects in space currently, which responsibility is planned to be transferred to the Department of Commerce, the US Department of Defence said. The transfer of responsibility will allow Spacecom to focus on what is happening in Earth’s orbits.

Space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) and Mission-as-a-Service (MaaS) provider Kleos Space, has been awarded a contract from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) as part of the Strategic Commercial Enhancements Broad Agency Announcement (SCE BAA) Framework, Kleos said.

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global Editor in chief Emma Gatti spoke with Anousheh Ansari, the CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation,  the first astronaut of Iranian descent in space, first Muslim woman in space, and one of the first private astronauts to go to space as well. Emma sat down with Anousheh at this years  4th Secure World Foundation Summit for Space Sustainability to discuss the goals of her foundation, the new frontiers she is trying to break to help humanity to thrive, and the deep meaning of Space exploration for all. 

Our Space Café WebTalk “33 minutes with Dennis Stone about the World Space Week 2022: An insight into space and sustainability” took place on Tuesday, 4th October. Dennis is a volunteer president of the World Space Week Association, the global coordinator of the UN-declared World Space Week

Zimbabwe and Uganda are preparing to launch their respective first satellites into space on 6 November 2022. The satellites, ZimSat-1, and PearlAfricaSat-1 are launching into space as part of the BIRDS-5 constellation which also includes a 2U CubeSat from Japan