North America

This year the 23rd AMOS (Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies) Conference, held in Hawaii from the 27th to the 30th of September 2022, hosted 1212 in-person attendees at the Wailea Beach Resort and 259 guests virtually. The conference sold-out way in advance. Maybe a sign of a post-Covid desire to travel, or maybe a sign that Hawaii never loses its exotic allure, nevertheless the enthusiastic attendance also reflected a growing interest in space sustainability and space commerce initiatives across all sectors, from national governments to private companies, from non-governmental entities to the science community.

ICEYE, a provider of natural catastrophe solutions and insights, has provided crucial flood insights over the past several months to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The company delivered its rapid flood extent and depth information through its partnership with New Light Technologies (NLT) and Bana Solutions (Bana).

Environment information services enterprise NorthStar Earth & Space, stated that the first three spacecraft of its 24-satellite constellation dedicated to commercial Space Situational Awareness (SSA) will be among space-to-cloud data and analytics company, Spire Global’s satellite payloads to be launched by Virgin Orbit in mid-2023.

The hard reality of energy dependency has since February hit the European continent, which has decided to give a decisive push to the search for alternative methods to generate green and independent energy. Space is part of this huge technological challenge, with Space Based Solar Panels (SBSP) being discussed more and more as a viable method to generate electricity directly from Space-based infrastructures. Needless to say, the technological, economical, political and environmental challenges are enormous.

Space sustainability company Privateer, is partnering with telescope manufacturer Celestron to crowdsource the transparency and predictability of space, Privateer said. Dr Moriba Jah, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist at Privateer ha been advocating for transparency, predictability, and accountability in space for years.

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