Entrepreneurship

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced the 20 laureates it has selected for the 2023 Rising Star Award under the Rising Star initiative. ESA's commercialization services department is responsible for the Rising Star Initiative, which aims at listing the most promising European space startups and scale-ups in its ecosystem. 

GHGSat has completed its Series C1 funding round for a total of US$44 million in equity and debt, which consequently puts the Company's total raised funds to more than US$126 million since its inception in 2011. Equity participants in the funding round included Fonds de solidarité FTQ, BDC Capital, the investment arm of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), the Government of Québec through Investissement Québec, Climate Investment, and the Japan Energy Fund.

Terran Orbital have announced the launch of its Responsive Space Initiative. Under this initiative, the company aims to provide customers with satellite buses within 30 days and complete satellite systems with integrated payloads within 60 days. In addition, seven new satellite buses will be participating in the Responsive Space Initiative program.

LuxIMPULSE has awarded NorthStar Earth & Space a contract to accelerate Space Situational Awareness (SSA) services launching later in 2023. LuxIMPULSE is the national space program in Luxembourg for the promotion of research, development, and innovation. It is managed by the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) with the European Space Agency (ESA) to support companies established in Luxembourg. The contract has been funded by the Government of Luxembourg through an ESA contract.   

NuSpace announced on the 5th of September that it has successfully launched its Internet of Things (IoT) satellite, NuLIoN and deployed Oxford Space Systems’ deployable helical antenna. The small CubeSat represents NuSpace’s commitment to providing large-scale sensor-to-satellite connectivity throughout Southeast Asia aiming to provide IoT applications at any time. The mission is a step towards NuSpace’s ambitions to establish a global IoT constellation.

The 6th CASSINI Hackathon, titled “Space for International Development and Humanitarian Aid,” is gearing up to tackle pressing global issues with innovative solutions. The event hosted by N3XTCODER in Germany will take place from November 3rd to 5th across 11 locations in Europe. The Hackathon will focus on innovative solutions to advance international development and humanitarian aid. 

Astrobotic have begun work on two NASA Small Business Innovation Research contracts that will further research on lunar plume-surface interactions (PSI), a key area of risk and uncertainty for lunar landing. This testing will generate valuable new data about how lunar dust stirred up by a lander's rocket plumes will affect landing systems, onboard payloads, landing sites, and nearby surface infrastructure on upcoming missions. The first project, 'Floatinator,' aims to control and eliminate a significant testing variable – namely, Earth gravity – that has limited ground-based lunar PSI tests.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. announced it signed a multi-launch agreement with L3Harris Technologies [NYSE: LHX] for three dedicated launches on Firefly's Alpha vehicle in 2026. The agreement further encourages Firefly, a small-lift launch services company, to ramp up production of its Alpha vehicle to support the growing needs of both Government and commercial customers. Firefly will provide rapid launch capabilities for L3Harris to achieve direct access to low Earth orbit at a lower cost and support the responsive space needs of the U.S. Government. The three missions will launch from Firefly's SLC-2 launch site at the Vandenberg Space Force Base.

In August 2023, start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa region raised over $76 million through 18 deals, reports ArabNews. In the broader Middle East, Africa and Pakistan region $139 million has been raised across 46 deals in the same period according to venture data research firm MAGNiTT. 

Vodafone and Project Kuiper, Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite (LEO) communications initiative, announced a collaboration through which Vodafone and Vodacom plan to use Project Kuiper’s network to extend the reach of 4G/5G services to more of their customers in Europe and Africa. In addition, Vodafone and Vodacom plan to use Project Kuiper’s high-bandwidth, low-latency satellite network to bring the benefits of 4G/5G connectivity to areas that may otherwise be challenging and prohibitively expensive to serve via traditional fiber or microwave solutions.