Entrepreneurship

Persei, the upper stage of the failed Angara-A5 launch on 27th December, harmlessly reentered over the South Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, the U.S. Space Force reported. Roscosmos did not provide any details on Persei and its 2400-kg payload after the launch nor did they acknowledge its malfunction.

Satellogic, a vertically integrated geospatial company specialising in sub-meter resolution satellite imagery collection, announced it will be constructing a high-throughput satellite manufacturing facility in the Netherlands. The new facility in Berkel en Rodenrijs is expected to accelerate satellite manufacturing.

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 Dec - 2 January 2022 ”. Hello and welcome to the first episode of the Dongfang Hour China Space News Roundup, in 2022!

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 44th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast #044: Steven Freeland: Rethinking New Space. Episode 044 features a special guest Steven Freeland. In this episode, we take a bird's eye view on many things in the New Space scene. Steven Freeland teaches space law and hosts his own show, Space Cafe "Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland".

Space consulting and market intelligence firm Euroconsult has released its “Government Space Programs” report for 2021. The highlight of this year’s findings is an accelerated volume of governmental investment in the space sector. This is due to ambitious space exploration programmes and the militarization of space.

South-Korean Innospace and Norwegian Andøya Space signed a Memorandum of Understanding to launch into polar and sun-synchronous orbit from Norway, Andøya Space announced. Established in 2017, Innospace provides manufacturing and engineering services for aerospace and defence contractors.

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 Space News Roundup, 2021 Top Trends and Events”.

SpaceX is aiming to start the new year with a Falcon 9 rocket flight this Thursday deploying the company’s next cluster of Starlink satellites. The company’s 34th dedicated Starlink launch is carrying an undisclosed number of flat-panel satellites into orbit. The quarter-ton spacecraft use their krypton-fueled ion thrusters to maneuver to their operating orbits 540 km above Earth.

2021 finished strong, with another SPAC merger with a space-related (albeit not originally a space) company (Tomorrow.io), more fundraising by SpaceX, a few major private rounds, a couple of investments by Virgin Orbit (and hence yet further examples of a de-SPAC’d company deploying part of its cash towards investments) and even a small IPO (Sidus).

Elon Musk said during an interview on the Lex Fridman podcast that SpaceX could be transporting people to Mars in five years. According to the SpaceX CEO, the worst case scenario is that the Starship rocket is ready for taking humans to the planet in 10 years.  Starship, “the most complex and advanced rocket” as per Musk, has already undergone static fire tests.