Entrepreneurship

Dear SpaceWatchers, Access to space matters. The race to space that commenced in the 1950’s has accelerated at an unprecedented pace. Dozens of countries invest in space missions, launch capabilities, and sophisticated systems. Entrepreneurs pour billions into space travel, audacious satellite constellations, and missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. …

By Raphael Roettgen With approximately US$56 million of space-related funding rounds, July was slightly stronger than June 2020, but still on the weak side, and lacking any large rounds (except as noted below). On the positive side, the monthly rounds represent a good cross-section of geographies and subsectors. SpaceX is …

GomSpace Luxembourg SARL and the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a contract to continue development and implementation of the Juventas CubeSat, in support of the Hera mission. The contract value, approximately EUR 11,000,000, is focused on delivery of the Juventas spacecraft and its associated payloads for launch with Hera in …

Rocket Lab has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to resume launches this month, after identifying an anomalous electrical connection as the cause of an in-flight failure on July 4, 2020. With corrective measures underway, the next Electron launch has been scheduled for August from Launch Complex 1. …

by Thys Cronje Over the next decade, Earth Observation (EO) satellites will stop streaming simple image data to the earth. Instead, the instruments onboard the EO satellites will tell us more detailed information about what is happening below. In addition, these satellites will be able to take control of their …

Lunar services company ispace, revealed the final design of its lunar lander that will be used in the first mission of the company’s HAKUTO-R program, a multinational commercial lunar exploration program. HAKUTO-R’s ‘Mission 1’ also reached the final hardware design phase, known as the Critical Design Review (CDR). The HAKUTO-R …

The Association Agreement between ESA and the Government of the Republic of Latvia enters into force for a duration of seven years. Comprising 18 Articles and two Annexes, it orchestrates the strengthening of Latvia’s relations with ESA. Following its approval by ESA Council, meeting at ESOC in Darmstadt on 24 June, …

Acting as launch service provider for DEWC Systems, Southern Launch selected the T-Minus Engineering DART rocket to launch DEWC’s prototype payload on a parabolic trajectory into space, at the Koonibba Rocket Test Range later this year. “This exciting launch was triggered by a simple chat in early 2019 about the possibility …

Open Cosmos will build and operate a nanosatellite constellation for satellite communications operator Sateliot, enabling continuous global connectivity for Internet of Things (IoT) under a 5G architecture. Open Cosmos is already underway in the manufacturing, mission management and launch of the first satellites. There are one hundred planned for the full …

NeutronStar Systems and Krisol signed a cooperation agreement to foster innovative space technology development to address the future of space operations. At a time when the European funding powers appear to be attempting to curb investment in emerging high-power space technologies, this accord comes as a breath of fresh air. …