North America

The Sultanate of Oman, Virgin Orbit, small satellite manufacturer and operator SatRevolution, AI data analytics specialists TUATARA, and technology innovator ETCO, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on Oman’s first mission to deep space. The consortium will also deliver additional small satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), including the first in Oman’s history.

n honour of this sacred experience and all of you who know me and have enrolled in this global vision, I, Moriba Jah have partnered with SpaceWatch.Global to run an exciting Space Café series: Moriba’s Vox Populi (Latin for “the people’s voice”) where I intend to choose topics of relevance

Israel signed onto Artemis Accords to land astronauts on the Moon and establish a long-term human presence there as a base for future Mars missions, the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology announced. The Artemis program establishes principles of cooperation, sustainable human presence on the lunar surface and space exploration in general.

SpaceX launched its first interplanetary mission in February 2015 and after having travelled too far to have enough fuel to return to Earth or to escape the gravity of the Earth-Moon system, the spacecraft stayed on a chaotic orbit. According to sky observers, the defunct Falcon 9 second stage is now going to impact the Moon.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the U.S. sued to block Lockheed Martin’s proposed acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne, the supplier of missile propulsion systems for $4.4 billion, the FTC said. Lockheed, and its competitors in this area - Raytheon Technologies, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing - act as missile system contractors to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The U.S. Air Force awarded a US $102M, five-year contract to SpaceX to demonstrate technologies and capabilities to transport military cargo and humanitarian aid on a heavy rocket, the U.S. Government announced. The contract is part of the rocket cargo program led by the Air Force Research Laboratory (ARFL).

Iceye signed a contract in the U.S. with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to participate in the evaluation of commercial remote sensing companies operating synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, the company said. It will focus on modeling and simulation and also support NRO’s detailed assessment of imaging modes, image quality, geolocation accuracy and coverage.

NASA will launch a mini asteroid scout mission called NEA Scout with the uncrewed first Artemis testflight in spring, the agency said. The target is 2020 GE, a near-Earth asteroid that is less 18 meters in size; asteroids smaller than 100 meters have never been explored up close before, NASA said. NEA stands for near Earth asteroid.

Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE), co-founded by Elena and Dmitry Lesnevsky, producers of Tom Cruise’s coming space movie, announced plans to attach an Axiom-built film studio and sports arena to the ISS, CNBC reports. SEE-1, the new module, will be attached to Axiom Station, the first commercial module of the ISS, in December 2024.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Dr. Jan Frohloff, lawyer and independent practitioner advising on dispute resolution and corporate matters in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. Space Disputes – Phantom Menace or Return of Justice?