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STEM and Space education is crucial for the future of our world. The workforce of the future need to be inspired and see a career in space as a viable opportunity. Seen as viable not just by young people but by parents, teachers and industry. Inspiration is key and the best way to inspire is to engage. That’s what STEM and Space education organisation One Giant Leap Australia does best.

Bellatrix Aerospace has achieved a significant milestone with the successful launch of its Rudra and Arka propulsion systems onboard ISRO’s PSLV C-58 launch vehicle on 1st January 2024. The company had earlier tested India's first privately developed Hall Effect Thruster (Arka) in 2021 and subsequently unveiled the nation's first High-Performance Green Propulsion system (Rudra) in 2022, representing significant milestones in Indian space technology.

Sequel to the investment agreement between Marubeni Corporation and D-Orbit from last November, D-Orbit has announced the successful first closing of its Series C funding round, raising about €100m with Marubeni Corporation leading the round. This consequently cements a long-term commercial collaboration between both parties that will potentially revolutionize the space logistics industry. Furthermore, it extends Marubeni agency mandate for D-Orbit to the entire Southeast Asia.

Voyager Space and Airbus have completed the transaction to create Starlab Space LLC, a transatlantic joint venture that will design, build, and operate the Starlab commercial space station. Alongside the joint venture execution, the Starlab team completed the station-level System Definition Review (SDR), a critical milestone assessing the technical and programmatic accountability of the program.

Sustainability reporting SaaS company Earth Blox has announced its availability on Google Cloud Marketplace. The company provides customers with a scalable and customisable platform to rapidly assess climate and nature-related risks and impacts for millions of assets and facilities worldwide. Google Cloud Marketplace lets users quickly deploy functional software packages that run on Google Cloud and allows customers to easily start up a familiar software package with services like Compute Engine or Cloud Storage, with no manual configuration required.

Orbex has announced the appointment of two technology and space sector experts as its new CEO and Executive Chair. Scale-up expert Phillip Chambers will consequently be joining Orbex as its new Chief Executive Officer, and Miguel Belló Mora will be leaving his post as Director General of the Spanish Space Agency to join as Executive Chair.

The possible cause of Peregrine spacecrafts's propulsion anomaly might be a valve between the helium pressurant and the oxidizer, which might have failed to reseal after actuation during inizialization, Astrobotic announced on their X channel. 

By nighttime stateside, early European/Middle East/Africa morning today, and mid-day in Asia, the successfully launched Astrobotic Peregrine lander was confirmed having run into problems terminally dooming Mission 1. Astrobotic’s confirmed the issue reporting on their social media and press releases. And like with any failure, let’s take a healing look at facts and lessons learned. The first lesson is the obvious one: yes, space is hard. 

NASA and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced plans for MBRSC to provide an airlock for Gateway, humanity’s first space station that will orbit the Moon. Under a new implementing arrangement expanding their human spaceflight collaboration with NASA through Gateway, MBRSC will provide Gateway’s Crew and Science Airlock module, as well as a UAE astronaut to fly to the lunar space station on a future Artemis mission.

Rivada Space Networks has partnered with Wiseband, an Emirati satellite services company, to bring secure connectivity solutions to the Middle East region. Based in UAE and operating across the Middle East and Africa, Wiseband provides customized private satellite networking solutions to meet high-performance and stringent security requirements. The company currently has connectivity projects in UAE, KSA, Kuwait and Egypt.