North America

Dawn Aerospace announced it is providing satellite propulsion systems to hyperspectral Earth imaging company Pixxel, who is building a health monitor for the planet through a constellation of hyperspectral imaging small satellites. The constellation will provide productivity and environmental data and will benefit industries such as agriculture, resources, energy, and sustainability.

Up to 40 of the 49 Starlink satellites launched last Thursday will re-enter, or have already done so, due to a geomagnetic storm, SpaceX reported. A coronal mass ejection hit Earth’s magnetic field two days before launch but the weak impact did not trigger remarkable geomagnetic activity.

E-Space announced it has closed the “largest seed funding round in space technology history” with a $50 million investment led by Prime Movers Lab. E-Space, the startup behind Rwanda’s filing for a constellation of 300,000 satellites is Greg Wyler’s latest space venture. He also founded O3b Networks and OneWeb previously.

In August 2021 Canada registered over 7,500 wildfires, burning more than 2.5 million hectares of forest. This is projected to double by 2050 due to climate change. Fire management agencies in this country invest between $800 million to $1.4 billion annually to prevent wildfires.

Israeli chickpea seeds will be sent to the ISS to carry out a series of experiments aimed at controlling growth of crops with the help of technology, Stanford University announced. The delivery is part of Northrop Grumman’s 17th commercial resupply services mission to the ISS.

NASA and SpaceX provided an update on the preparations of the Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Lindgren will serve as spacecraft commander, Hines will be the pilot, while Watkins and Cristoforetti are assigned as mission specialists.

The United States has refuted China’s diplomatic accusation that SpaceX’s Starlink satellites have endangered its crewed space station, in an official note verbale to the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs in Vienna. Beijing issued their note verbale in December to the same UN office.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening caught up with Berlin-based litigation expert and ‘space geek’ Dr Jan Frohloff. Having completed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Kings College in London,

Turion Space has selected NanoAvionics’ small satellite bus MP42 as the basis for its ‘Droid-1’ spacecraft. Droid-1 is designed for reconnaissance missions in low Earth orbit (LEO) and is to launch in Q1 2023. The satellite will be capable of taking extremely accurate measurements of space objects using its onboard sensors.

Rocket Lab USA announced it will open a new space systems complex in Littleton, Colorado to support growing customer demand for flight software, mission simulation, and Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) services. Rocket Lab set its foot in Colorado in October last year when it acquired aerospace engineering firm, Advanced Solutions (ASI).