Entrepreneurship

Eutelsat raised its stake in OneWeb to 23%, the company announced, making it the second largest shareholder behind Indian Bharti with 30.0%. Eutelsat said it has exercised a call option on a portion of the latest OneWeb funding round subscribed by Bharti, for $165 million, taking its shareholding from 17.6% to 22.9%.

The U.S. startup Minerva Space Technologies secured $150 million to develop its satellite-based data and domain awareness network, the company said. The company founded this year expects to have $500 million in total to expand its core technology offerings.

Warpspace has closed Series A round with Japanese leading venture capitals, such as SBI Investment and Mizuho Capital, the company said. This brings the total amount of funding to over USD 9 million since the company was founded in 2016. With Mizuho Capital on board, three large Japanese banks are now listed on the company’s list of investors.

Honda Motor is entering the small satellite launch business and is aiming to launch a test rocket by 2030, the Japanese car company announced. As the car industry shifts to electric vehicles and the demand for satellites grows, they will apply their automotive technologies to space. Honda claims that their satellite launch costs will be small due to reusable rockets.

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 27 September - 3 October 2021”. A special shout-out to our friends at SpaceWatch.Global

by Maria Jahnke In the ongoing effort to increase market transparency by providing valuable, reliable and up to date insights of the fast-paced and emerging German NewSpace ecosystem, Capitol Momentum has compiled an interim Business Review Report for the first Half Year of 2021. For this Industry Update,

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has cleared Virgin Galactic to resume launches, Virgin Galactic said. The FAA carried out an investigation as the rocket plane deviated from its course while descending during July’s flight. The FAA barred Virgin from flying SpaceShipTwo until the investigation to determine the issues would not affect public safety was over.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 37th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast: Andrew Jones on China's Space endeavours. Episode 037 features a special guest Andrew Jones. The question of all questions: What are the Chinese up to? Money does not seem to play a role.

The Paris-based and listed satellite operator Eutelsat rejected an offer from the French telecoms and media tycoon Patrick Drahi. “The relevant governance bodies of Eutelsat Communications have unanimously decided not to engage in discussions based on the terms of this proposal,” Eutelsat said.

ArianeGroup and Devialet announced a new partnership that will allow experiencing the power of an Ariane 5 rocket taking off. The sound was recorded by a Devialet engineer over three days at Kourou in French Guiana in 2019. Both firms work on similar problems as rockets and speakers have a number of things in common.