Entrepreneurship

The space computing startup Ramon.Space has raised $17.5 million in Series A funding, the company based in Palo Alto, California, said. The funding will be used to continue development of the company's computing solutions, support its rapidly expanding US and Israel operations, and expand the team globally, the company said.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 28th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast: Mahsa Moghimi Esfandabadi, Space Architect. What our habitats on foreign shores will look like. Episode 028 features a special guest Mahsa Moghimi Esfandabadi.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Will Marshall, a scientist and the CEO and Co-Founder of Planet, the world’s largest Earth observation satellite network delivering a near-daily global dataset. It's at Planet where, for the past decade he has led the company in its development of advanced technologies

The number of space companies around the world exceeds 10,000, with more than half in the U.S., the magazine Forbes reported, based on a new analysis from SpaceTech Analytics. Competition has led the value of space companies to cross the $4 trillion mark, the report said.

NanoAvionics expands its U.S. manufacturing facilities and aims at taking “30 percent of the US market share in nano-/microsatellite manufacturing and mission provision services”, the company said. NanoAvionics existing facility Columbia will be used to produce “high-quantities of nano- and microsatellite buses, for both single and constellation missions”.

Iridium invests in the Scottish navigation service provider DDK Positioning, the Nasdaq-listed company said. Iridium has made a strategic investment in the Aberdeen, Scotland based provider of enhanced Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) accuracy solutions, the company said. DDK uses the Iridium network to provide global precision positioning services.

NASA builds a new Earth System Observatory to cope with climate change, forest fires and hurricanes and to support a “real-time agriculture”, the U.S. agency said. “With the Earth System Observatory, each satellite will be uniquely designed to complement the others, working in tandem to create a 3D, holistic view of Earth, from bedrock to the atmosphere,” NASA 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 17 May – 23 May 2021”. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! A special shout-out to our friends at GoTaikonauts!

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic completed the first human spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico, the company said. The flight of VSS Unity which was released from the mothership VMS Eve with CJ Sturckow, as pilot-in-command, and Dave Mackay on board, sees New Mexico become the third US state to launch humans into space, the company said.

ESA creates the new position of Director of Commercialisation, Industry & Procurement. The new director is to elaborate and implement ESA’s industrial policy, represent the Director General in all relations with industry, elaborate and implement the agency’s procurement rules, negotiate and manage procurements, ESA said.