Space

LEOcloud has announced entering into a Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Axiom Space Inc., the world’s first commercial space station developer, to develop and deliver Space-based cloud services. LEOcloud’s Space Edge™ Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) will enable scalable, resilient, highly reliable Space-hardened cloud edge computing services that seamlessly extend today’s terrestrial cloud services.

In this episode of Space Cafè Radio Editor in Chief Dr. Emma Gatti spoke with Dr. Valanathan Munsami, the Senior Advisor to the CEO of the Saudi Space Agency. This interview took place during the Connecting the World from the Skies forum, which was held in Riyadh from the 8th to the 10th of November 2022. The conference was hosted by the International Telecommunication Union and the Communications, Space & Technology Commission of Saudi Arabia with the theme being “connecting the unconnected”. Important indications of where Saudi Arabia wants to situate itself within the global Space economy, the directions it wants to follow, the vision it would like to cultivate, and the investment it intends to pursue, were showcased. 

Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) announced at Space Tech Expo Europe in Bremen that RFA will build and operate its own test stand at the DLR site in Lampoldshausen, Germany. There, RFA will test its Helix engine starting in mid-2023 to bring the European Union's first staged-combustion engine to serial production maturity.

SpaceX was awarded a NASA contract modification, Option B, to further develop its Starship human landing system to meet agency requirements for long-term human exploration of the Moon as part of the Artemis program, NASA said. According to the modification, SpaceX will conduct a second crewed landing demonstration in 2027 as part of the Artemis IV mission.

Satellite-based solutions provider Terran Orbital, successfully launched Moon-mapping satellite, LunIR (Lunar Infrared Imaging). This is the second Terran Orbital-developed lunar satellite to launch this year after CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment). CAPSTONE entered a Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit around the Moon just days ago after its launch in June. Both spacecraft support NASA’s Artemis program.

Spire Global, Inc., a leading global provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, has revealed a next-generation 16U satellite bus design at Space Tech Expo Europe. The satellite bus is tailored for customers with missions that require larger payloads and more power, volume, and data capabilities than a conventional 16U, such as Earth observation and space domain awareness missions

Propulsion systems provider Benchmark Space Systems, has almost tripled its team from 30 to 83 staff members and boosted its five-year production capacity to one-thousand engines to meet rapidly rising demand for its mission-proven thrusters, the company said.

In this episode of Space Cafè Radio Editor in Chief Dr. Emma Gatti spoke with Frank Salzgeber, the managing director of the Saudi Space Sector. This interview took place during the Connecting the World from the Skies forum, which was held in Riyadh from the 8th to the 10th of November 2022.

NASA successfully launched Artemis I, comprising its Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket in the world, with the uncrewed Orion spacecraft aboard, which is on its way to cislunar orbit as part of the Artemis program, NASA said. During its 25.5-day space trip, Orion will travel approximately 64,000 km beyond the Moon before returning to Earth.

Exobotics, the UK satellite firm, has won a multi-million-pound customer contract from advanced materials specialist Quantum Generative Materials (GenMat) to construct a high-precision, remote-sensing prospecting satellite. Exobotics will design, manufacture, and test a CubeSat satellite platform with a hyperspectral imaging payload to allow GenMat to canvas the natural environment anywhere on the planet