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Telesat, a Canadian satellite communications company, announced on the 11th of August that MDA Ltd., a space technology company, will build 198 advanced satellites for the Telesat Lightspeed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) program. Telesat also announced that Telesat Lightspeed is now fully funded through global service delivery, by the company’s own equity contribution, certain vendor funding, and aggregate funding commitments from its Canadian federal and provincial government partners. 

Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA) has signed a multi-year, multi-launch contract with INNOSPACE for orbital launches from the Australian spaceport. The agreement will consequently see the launch of several INNOSPACE rocket variants, each carrying between 50kg and 500kg payloads into low earth orbit from the Arnhem Space Centre (ASC) across five years until Dec 2028. ELA believes the signing of this contract has validated its business concept and development plans by securing INNOSPACE as the first commercial company to become a ‘resident launcher’ (long-term tenant and regular launcher) at the Australian spaceport.

The Republic of San Marino is entering the space economy by organising the “San Marino Aerospace”, the first international event dedicated to the aerospace and space economy hosted on Mount Titano. The event will take place at the Spazio Multieventi on October 25th and 26th. It will provide an opportunity for meeting and cooperation between institutions, laboratories, companies and startups. The Republic of San Marino will host conferences, panels, b2b meetings, demonstrations, workshops and insights, with the participation of Italian and foreign experts in the field of aviation and aerospace. 

SpeQtral, a leading quantum communication technology company, has chosen Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics) as the satellite bus provider for its upcoming SpeQtral-1 mission. Furthermore, the mission also has a second partner in Mbryonics, producing the satellite’s optical terminal. Using the technical expertise of NanoAvionics as a leading smallsat bus manufacturer and mission integrator and Mbryonics’s state-of-the-art optical terminal hardware, SpeQtral-1 aims to serve as a pathfinder commercial demonstrator, defining future quantum key distribution (QKD) services.

In this Space Café Radio -  SpaceWatch.Global's Dr. Emma Gatti spoke with Dr. Raji Pillai Rajagopalan, the Director of the Centre for Security, Strategy & Technology (CSST), based in Delhi, India. Today's episode is in partnership with the Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on the long-term sustainability of outer space and earth orbits, as well as space security and stability considerations.

The UK Space Agency announced on the 8th of August the recipients to receive the first phase of its £20 million International Bilateral Fund investments. These investments are intended to help UK organisations to link up with the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, India, Singapore, South Africa and form collaborations that will progress space research and investment in new technologies. The International Bilateral Fund is the Agency’s first fund dedicated to building and strengthening international relationships to help advance the UK’s goals in space. Some projects will focus on enhancing relationships to unlock future economic opportunities for the UK, and others will focus directly on science missions and technologies with strong commercial potential. 

LeoLabs, a commercial provider of Space Traffic Management (STM) and Space Situational Awareness (SSA) services has shared their support for the European Space Agency's (ESA) successful assisted reentry of Aeolus, an Earth observation satellite, over Antarctica on 28 July 2023.

Planet has acquired Sinergise, including Sentinel Hub, marking a significant step forward in its mission to make Earth observation (EO) data more accessible and impactful. The Company also welcomes Sentinel Hub users to the Planet community and is eager to accelerate investment in Europe, the development of EO data applications, and solutions for the planet.

Scout Space, a US-based space technology company, announced on the 10th of August that it has been selected by SpaceWERX for a $1.5M Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR). It is focused on “Robust Cross-Domain Optical Navigation with Space-Based Sensors” to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). Scout Space has been awarded the Phase II Orbital Prime STTR in collaboration with Stanford University’s Space Rendezvous Laboratory (SLAB).

Dr. Laura Nuttall is a renowned physicist who has dedicated much of her academic and professional life to the study of gravitational waves. As a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, her contributions have been pivotal in shaping our understanding of these cosmic phenomena. In this episode, host Markus sits down with Dr. Nuttall to delve into the intricacies of gravitational waves, the universe, and the groundbreaking tools and collaborations propelling the field forward.