Space

Andøya Space is to receive US $42.9 million from the Norwegian government to build a small satellite launch base at Andøya in Northern Norway, the government announced. The project will add 150 new positions in the territory. It will also put Norway on the list of countries that are capable of launching satellites from their own land.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Editor-in-Chief Markus Payer met with Mike Simmons, a medical research scientist at the University of California turned avid astronomer whose passion for watching the universe has spanned over four decades.

Finnish Kuva Space raised € 4.2 million (US $4.85 million) to establish a constellation of commercial hyperspectral CubeSats, Kuva announced. The seed round brought investments from Voima Ventures and Nordic FoodTech VC, ESA Φ-lab’s InCubed programme and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The funding enables the company to build

Rocket Lab USA announced it has been selected to launch NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System satellite, (ACS3), on an Electron rocket. The ACS3 technology relies on a combination of materials with different properties. Lightweight booms will deploy from a 12U CubeSat designed and built by NanoAvionics of Columbia, to support a solar sail.

Eutelsat raised its stake in OneWeb to 23%, the company announced, making it the second largest shareholder behind Indian Bharti with 30.0%. Eutelsat said it has exercised a call option on a portion of the latest OneWeb funding round subscribed by Bharti, for $165 million, taking its shareholding from 17.6% to 22.9%.

Thomas Pesquet became commander of the ISS this week, taking over from JAXA astronaut and fellow Crew-2 member Akihiko Hoshide. Thomas will hold this role until before Crew-2 return to Earth in November. He is the fourth European and the first French commander of the ISS. Pesquet accepted his new position during a traditional ceremony of a key being handed over to him by Hoshide.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is targeted to launch on 23rd November aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, NASA announced. The mission will be an evaluation of technologies for preventing a hazardous asteroid from impacting Earth. DART will be the first demonstration of the kinetic impact deflection technique.

Russian actress Yulia Peresild, 37, and film director Klim Shipenko, 38, arrived at the ISS on Tuesday after a smooth take-off from Baikonur Cosmodrome. They are on a 12-day mission filming the first movie in orbit. The crew travelled in a Soyuz MS-19 spaceship and docked behind schedule.

The U.S. startup Minerva Space Technologies secured $150 million to develop its satellite-based data and domain awareness network, the company said. The company founded this year expects to have $500 million in total to expand its core technology offerings.

Warpspace has closed Series A round with Japanese leading venture capitals, such as SBI Investment and Mizuho Capital, the company said. This brings the total amount of funding to over USD 9 million since the company was founded in 2016. With Mizuho Capital on board, three large Japanese banks are now listed on the company’s list of investors.