Space

SpinLaunch has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA according to which SpinLaunch will develop, integrate, and fly a NASA payload on the company’s Suborbital Accelerator Launch System. This will provide valuable information to NASA for potential future commercial launch opportunities.

Orbit Fab and Neutron Star Systems (NSS) established a cooperative agreement for co-development of satellite refuelling solutions with green propellants, NSS said. Under the agreement the companies will combine NSS’ propellant-agnostic electric propulsion technology with Orbit Fab’s refuelling interfaces and tankers. This will enable increasing the range of refuellable propellants.

The Indian Women in Space Conference is a first-of-its-kind gender minority-focused space conference taking place virtually in India. It is headlined by WoAA (Women of Aeronautics and Astronautics) India started in August 2020. The aim of the conference is to bring together women and gender minorities from diverse backgrounds of space art, engineering, astronomy, industry,

Astroscale received a funding award from ESA who have selected the company in the UK to lead a collision-avoidance study that is part of ESA’s Collision Risk Estimation and Automated Mitigation (CREAM) activities in the Space Safety Program.  The company's UK team will partner with GMV and OneWeb to develop methods and solutions for effective collision avoidance management

Launch and space systems company Rocket Lab USA, has announced that it will attempt a mid-air helicopter capture of the Electron launch vehicle for the first time during its next launch, a commercial rideshare mission scheduled for 19th April with a 14-day launch window.

U.S. Space Command and the United Kingdom Space Command signed a Memorandum of Understanding concerning Enhanced Space Cooperation (ESC MoU). The agreement was signed at the 37th Space Symposium by U.S. Army Gen. James Dickinson, USSPACECOM Commander, and Royal Air Force Air Vice-Marshal Paul Godfrey, Commander of UKSpaceCom.

Space4Impact, EPFL’s Space Center eSpace, E2MC Ventures, and Space Innovation joined forces to launch an online course on the New Space Economy. The program is available on edX as a free EPFLx course. Learners can watch more than 30 video lectures by space experts from various domains within startups, academia, the private sector, and public institutions in Switzerland.

Digital transformation company Atos, and the European multi-national space technology company OHB, have been awarded a contract by the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support to supply the "Space Situational Awareness Center Expansion Stage 1" to the German Federal Armed Forces. 

After an earlier issue with delays of gaseous nitrogen supply required for tanking preparations and resolving an issue with malfunctioning fans that caused the first wet dress rehearsal to come to a halt, the second attempt had to be cancelled halfway through as well. The Artemis I team ended Monday's attempt after partially loading liquid oxygen into the Space Launch System’s core stage tank.

Amazon announced it signed launch service contracts with three commercial launch companies, ArianeSpace, Blue Origin and ULA (United Launch Alliance) for 83 launches altogether over a five year period.  Arianespace will perform 18 Ariane 6 launches for Amazon’s Project Kuiper over a period of three years under the contract.