Entrepreneurship

Only five months after it reached space in a test flight, Virgin Orbit successfully launched its first commercial mission, the company said. The mission called “Tubular Bells: Part One” was launched from Virgin Orbit’s modified Boeing 747, the “Cosmic Girl”, and with a two-stage rocket called LauncherOne

The Shetland Space Centre is changing its name to SaxaVord Spaceport, the center said. The rocket launch site and ground station, located in the UK’s most northerly island of Unst, Shetland, is the designated site of next year’s UK Pathfinder launch by Lockheed Martin and ABL Systems.

Rocket Factory Augsburg opened an office in Portugal near Porto, to increase its European footprint, the company said. With the inauguration of its Portugal offices, RFA signed a cooperation agreement with AICEP, the Portuguese Trade & Investment Agency, RFA said.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and the European Space Policy Institute, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and briefs. This is ESPI Briefs No. 51: ‘Quantum and Space: The ultimate solution to secured communications?’, originally published in June 2021.

The Australian launch services company Gilmour Space Technologies has secured a Series C funding round of €39 million from global investors, the company announced, bringing the company’s total funds raised to date to 87 million Australian dollars (€54 million), it said.

On the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts have increasingly relied on the support of CIMON, the astronaut robotic assistant, which was developed and built by Airbus for the German Aerospace Center Space Administration (DLR). The system, which has recently been updated with CIMON-2,

Leaf Space, a ground segment service provider, is adding three stations to its global Leaf Line Network, the company based in Washington, D.C., said. The new stations will be installed in Sri Lanka, the Azores and Scotland, the company said, "enhancing Leaf Space’s capability to provide solutions and services to its growing list of customers".

The smallsat manufacturer LeoStella delivered its first satellite to Loft Orbital Solutions, a payload service company, for a rideshare launch on Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, the company said. LeoStella delivered the “Yet Another Mission-3” (YAM-3) satellite, the company said.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 21 June – 27 June”. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! A special shout-out to our friends at SpaceWatch.Global

Strategic space marketing firm AstroAgency has been nominated for two awards from the British Interplanetary Society (BIS). The company’s virtual fortnightly networking event, SpaceBar, has been nominated for the Sir Arthur Clarke Education and Outreach Team Achievement Award, which recognises teams that have fostered informative, educational and inspiring online engagement