Space Economy

Michèle Flournoy, former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense, has joined the Board of Directors of Rivada Networks, Inc. Flournoy was Under Secretary of Defense for Policy during Barack Obama’s first term, serving as principle adviser to the Secretary of Defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy, oversight of military plans and operations, and in National Security Council deliberations. I

OneWeb has announced that it signed a distribution partnership agreement with IP Access International to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband connectivity across the United States. Under this partnership, IP Access International will seamlessly blend OneWeb’s satellite services with all major terrestrial cellular providers in the U.S., providing resilient mobile communications through a single service plan and support center.

ARQUIMEA and Aerospacelab have announced the signature of a collaboration agreement at the 37th edition of the Small Satellite Conference at Utah State University. The new co-developed satellite will highlight optimized reliability and power management. Furthermore, it will deliver 1.5 kW of peak power and will be able to integrate payloads of 40 kg (~90 pounds). The satellite performance will also meet the demand for LEO missions, such as telecommunications constellations, synthetic aperture radar, Earth observation, and other applications requiring high reliability and onboard satellite processing capabilities.

EnduroSat and Vyoma have announced that they will be working together on Europe’s first commercial mission for in-situ space situational awareness (SSA). As a result, Vyoma will use in-orbit optical telescopes to observe space objects and map the orbital environment at a high frequency, thus providing SSA data and services with near-zero latency. On the other hand, EnduroSat will design and build the ESPA microsatellites, which will deploy in a low-Earth orbit.

Starfish Space announced on the 8th of August that it has been awarded $1.8 million by AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force, to support continued development of the Cephalopod software for satellite guidance, navigation, and control. 

Summer is upon us, and as our gaze shifts towards the stars during those warm, clear nights, SpaceWatch.Global brings you its second collection or the Summer Listening Series. Based on the vote by our newsroom, we have mapped out an interstellar journey across five categories. This week we are starting with “Climate, Space and Earth.”

Muon Space and Exolaunch have signed a multi-launch agreement (MLA) to deploy Muon Space’s first three constellation satellites during SpaceX Transporter missions. Muon Space’s first satellite, MuSat-1, launched in June via Exolaunch on SpaceX’s Transporter-8 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Charlie Ergen is consolidating his telecommunications empire, merging Dish Network and EchoStar, his satellite and broadband services in an all-stock deal, reports CNBC. The deal is reuniting two businesses that have been separate for about 15 years, after Ergen took EchoStar out of Dish Network in 2008. Echostar was founded in 1980, selling satellite dishes before launching its subscription satellite service in 1995. 

RIKEN, Japan’s largest research institution, Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, and Kongsberg NanoAvionics announced on the 7th of August their collaboration on the NinjaSat1 X-ray observation mission. The aim of this two-year mission in low Earth orbit (LEO) is to observe X-ray photons from bright X-ray objects in the universe. The NinjaSat team intends to observe black holes and neutron stars that brighten suddenly in X-rays and coordinate with on-ground optical observatories to study how matter accretes to these compact objects. 

DCUBED, the German NewSpace hardware manufacturer, has announced that it will demonstrate in-space manufacturing as part of a demonstration mission in Q1 2024. This demonstration will represent the first time any product would undergo manufacture in free space. The demonstration will consequently see the production of a roughly 30-centimeter high, 3D-printed truss structure. Furthermore, it intends to prove the efficacy of in-space manufacturing and highlight the game-changing potential that such capabilities promise to deliver for production in orbit.