Entrepreneurship

UK-based space situational awareness specialists Northern Space and Security Limited (NORSS), and Australian Nominal Systems, have been awarded a contract to develop ARTSIM a spacecraft and missions simulator solution to support the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) future satellite operational plans, NORSS said. to provide a modular, data representative satellite simulation architecture.

Australian space company, Gilmour Space Technologies, announced that is has been selected to develop and launch a new sovereign surveillance satellite for the Department of Defence, as part of the government’s AU $7 billion investment in new space capabilities. The AU $15 million partnership is in line with Australia’s recently released Defence Space Strategy.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Air Force Research Lab and Aerojet Rocketdyne completed a free flight test of Lockheed Martin’s Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC).  The vehicle accelerated to and maintained a speed faster than five times the speed of sound after release from the carrier aircraft.

Chinese space startup LinkSpace, carried out a static fire test of its Reusable Launch Vehicle T6 (RLV-T6) equipped with new Fengbao-1 methane-fueled engines, the company said. The 14.5-meter tall rocket will be launched to the Kármán line (100 km) and then landed with the help of landing legs and grid fins.

During the sixth Space Café Canada event on April 29, 2022, host Jessica West sat down with Stephen Matier, President and CEO of Maritime Launch Services and Spaceport Nova Scotia, Canada’s first commercial space launch complex. In contrast to most other spaceports around the world, Spaceport Nova Scotia is intended to be fully commercial.

Vertically integrated geospatial company, Satellogic  announced that it has signed a multiple launch agreement with SpaceX to deploy 68 satellites. Satellogic builds and manages its own spacecraft, as well as markets the collected Earth observation data. This vertical integration reduces costs and enables the company to offer actionable data at a more affordable price.

Geolocation data service provider Unseenlabs, successfully launched its sixth and seventh satellites dedicated to locating vessels at sea. The first satellite was launched with SpaceX, while the second one was launched with Rocket Lab on their “There and Back Again” helicopter catch mission. Unseenlabs now has seven satellites in orbit.

The German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) has recently contracted Atos and OHB Digital Connect to supply the "Space Situational Awareness Center Expansion Stage 1” to the German Federal Armed Forces. The system will enable the monitoring of space and the protection of critical German infrastructure in orbit. 

Space data service provider EnduroSat signed a contract with high-precision space weather monitoring company, Mission Space. The partnership will deploy a constellation of sensors for monitoring space weather in low Earth orbit. The partnership will deploy a constellation of sensors for monitoring space weather in low Earth orbit.

Space4Impact, EPFL’s Space Center eSpace, E2MC Ventures, and Space Innovation joined forces to launch an online course on the New Space Economy. The program is available on edX as a free EPFLx course. Learners can watch more than 30 video lectures by space experts from various domains within startups, academia, the private sector, and public institutions in Switzerland.