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Mynaric and SpaceLink join forces to use Mynaric’s laser communication product portfolio on SpaceLink’s data relay network. The cooperation has a volume of $20 million, SpaceLink said, and will help drive forward its satellite relay service, which provides secure, continuous, high-capacity communications between LEO spacecraft and the ground.

The quantum encryption technology specialist Arqit goes public and raises $400 million through a merger with the publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Centricus, the companies announced. The pro forma equity value of the business combination is approximately $1.4 billion, the companies said, and the pro forma enterprise value approximately $1.0 billion

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening met with space professional, author, scientist, analyst and millennial, Laura Seward Forczyk. Laura is the founder and CEO of Astralytical, a space science, industry and policy consultancy that provides space career coaching services, big-picture market trends,

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 27th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast: Bruce Damer - a new origin of life and how to mine an asteroid. Episode 027 features a special guest Bruce Damer. Bruce Damer is a versatile scientist who may be on the verge of rewriting the story of the origin of life.

Scorpio Shipmanagement equips its entire tanker and bulker fleet and connects its vessels with Marlink’s hybrid VSAT network solution, the company based in Oslo and Monaco said. The service extension will provide Scorpio with higher bandwidth services to meet an increasing level of business need for higher data rates and usage volumes.

Steve Jurczyk, who served as acting NASA administrator from the January to May 2021, will retire after more than three decades of service, NASA said. Robert D. Cabana, who has served as director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida since 2008, will serve as new associate administrator, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced.

One interesting development in the space sector is the rise of artificial intelligence. AI has long played an important role in space missions, and its role only continues to grow. But as AI becomes more central to humanity’s engagement with space, it raises legal and ethical challenges. Space law is well poised to respond to these challenges.

The Canadian Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC) will launch DOGE-1, “the first-ever commercial lunar payload" paid entirely with the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, to the Moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the company said. GSC will collaborate with SpaceX to launch a 40kg cubesat as a rideshare on a Falcon 9 lunar payload mission in Q1 2022, the company said.

The Japanese startup Space BD works for JAXA, the space agency, on a protein experiment on board the International Space Station (ISS). Space BD utilizes the microgravity environment of ISS to grow high-quality protein crystals that are difficult to achieve on the ground.

The Lithuanian smallsat bus manufacturer and mission integrator NanoAvionics partners with the IoT startup OQ Technology to build, integrate and operate a nanosatellite for the 5G IoT mission named Tiger-2. The satellite is scheduled to be launched this year, the companies said.