Entrepreneurship

Rocket Lab has successfully deployed 34 satellites to orbit during its “There And Back Again” mission, which also included a mid-air capture of the Electron booster with a helicopter for the first time. This was the company’s 26th Electron mission. Rocket Lab has deployed a total of 146 satellites to orbit with the launch vehicle so far.

Cubesat and small satellite solutions manufacturer and supplier GomSpace, signed a contract with spacecraft and launch vehicles communication services provider KSAT, to develop, deliver and support the company’s mission control system that will be used to operate the Arctic Weather Satellite mission, GomSpace said.

Human spaceflight services provider and human-rated space infrastructure developer Axiom Space, signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) to fly a UAE professional crew member to the ISS on the NASA-SpaceX Crew-6 mission, Axiom said. The mission is expected to launch in 2023.

The second uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program launching Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is targeted for 19th May, Boeing said. During OFT-2, the company will test Starliner's and Atlas V’s capabilities from launch to docking and re-rentry operations.

Firefly says it has completed the Integration Readiness Review (IRR) of Blue Ghost M1, during which the team achieved key progress milestones across multiple areas. These include propulsion, core avionics, battery production, harness production, and facilities readiness to support lander integration.

Southern Launch has appointed Rob Baker to fulfil the newly created General Manager - Launch & Test role, the company said. Baker has 21 years of experience working for the Defence Science and Technology Group.  His expertise lies in weapons modelling and simulation,

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.

Axiom-1, the first all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS), successfully returned to Earth. American commander and former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, pilot Larry Connor, Israeli mission specialist Eytan Stibbe, and Canadian mission specialist Mark Pathy landed off the coast of Florida yesterday.

Sub-meter resolution satellite imagery collection company Satellogic, has signed an agreement with geospatial intelligence and data analysis company Geollect, to offer unrivalled maritime domain awareness capabilities, Satellogic said. According to the contract, Satellogic will make its maritime

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present: The Space Cafe Podcast #053: ESA director Géraldine Naja on the commercialization of ESA, the Russian absence, and why ESA might just be waiting for your job application. The European Space Agency (ESA) has set sail to begin commercial operations. But what does that mean?