Space Economy

Qosmosys has announced a seed funding round of US$100 million to expedite its strategic goals and fortify its position as a premier private player in the burgeoning Moon economy. As a result, the Company will leverage the funding for the development of its lunar transportation vehicle, ZeusX, along with complementary technologies aimed at serving a range of lunar applications.

A special moment took place at the SPACETIDE conference in early July 2023 in Tokyo and online. When Takeshi Hakamada and Masayasu Ishida sat down together to reminisce their humble beginnings, the sentiment was palpable. Both had come a long way: Hakamada-san, Co-Founder & CEO of iSpace (2010), recovering from a Moon hard landing, yet looking forward confidently to the success of their next lunar mission. And Ishida-san, Co-Founder, President & CEO, member of the Board of Directors of the SPACETIDE Foundation (2015) , taking stock of the Foundation’s growth experienced in less than a decade. 

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) and Axiom Space have signed an agreement to set out plans for the two organizations to work together to pursue a commercially sponsored UK astronaut mission. On this future flight, the UK astronauts would launch to space, spending up to two weeks in orbit to carry out scientific research, demonstrate new technologies, and participate in education and outreach activities.

ICEYE, a Finnish microsatellite manufacturer announced on the 26th of October a partnership with Suhora Technologies, an Indian software and geospatial intelligence company. The partnership will allow Suhora access to ICEYE’s satellite imagery of any location on the planet. It will play a role in providing Suhora’s users with advanced monitoring and analytical geospatial solutions. 

United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, plans to launch the inaugural flight of its Vulcan rocket on Christmas Eve, reports CNBC. Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA, spoke at the CNBC Technology Executive Council Summit where he shared that the target window will run from the 24th to 26th of December. Currently, ULA is working to build and qualify the upper stage of the rocket which is expected to be completed in November. If the December window is missed the launch will be moved to January. 

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has announced that it has received authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to resume Electron launches from Launch Complex 1. The authorization comes after Rocket Lab experienced an in-flight anomaly on September 19th during the Company’s 41st Electron launch and the FAA has now confirmed that Rocket Lab’s launch license remains active, which is the first step to enable launches to resume

NASA, on behalf of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), has awarded a delivery order under the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV (Rapid-IV) contract to Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio for the QuickSounder spacecraft. Furthermore, the total value of the order is $54 million, with the period of performance beginning Wednesday, Oct. 25, and scheduled to run until May 2029.

Lockheed Martin has awarded Terran Orbital Corporation a contract to build 36 satellite buses for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 2 Transport Layer (T2TL) Beta constellation. Terran Orbital will consequently deliver the buses to Lockheed Martin, which will conduct payload integration and jointly operate the satellites with SDA.

Kongsberg NanoAvionics announced on the 24th of October that Vytenis J. Buzas has stepped down from his role of CEO. He will maintain his involvement with NanoAvionics, serving as a member of the board. Under Buzas’ stewardship NanoAvionics originated as the first national satellite mission in Lithuania and has gone on to commercialise its technology. Žilvinas Kvedaravičius, previously the CSO, is taking on the role of Interim CEO. 

Varda Space Industries and Southern Launch have announced a partnership to conduct re-entry operations at the Koonibba Test Range, with the goal of making South Australia a hub for an in-space manufacturing industry. As a result, Southern Launch will support Varda Space Industries in conducting high-cadence re-entry operations at the Koonibba Test Range to meet a wide range of Varda’s customer needs.