Space

OHB LuxSpace, a subsidiary of the space and technology group OHB, has signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop the Triton-X Heavy microsatellite platform, OHB said. Triton-X is a new line of microsatellites with a launch mass of up to 200 kg aimed at enabling affordable satellite constellations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

The space computing startup Ramon.Space has raised $17.5 million in Series A funding, the company based in Palo Alto, California, said. The funding will be used to continue development of the company's computing solutions, support its rapidly expanding US and Israel operations, and expand the team globally, the company said.

The actual (r)evolution in the Outer-Space usage brings also a socio-economic change not sufficiently discussed in the community. In the discourse of risk in Outer-Space, the community keeps focusing mainly on risks resulting from space debris, and to some extent also discussing the potential impact from large constellations.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 28th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast: Mahsa Moghimi Esfandabadi, Space Architect. What our habitats on foreign shores will look like. Episode 028 features a special guest Mahsa Moghimi Esfandabadi.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Will Marshall, a scientist and the CEO and Co-Founder of Planet, the world’s largest Earth observation satellite network delivering a near-daily global dataset. It's at Planet where, for the past decade he has led the company in its development of advanced technologies

Isotropic Systems received a commitment of over €18.5 million from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency to push the development of its broadband terminal technologies, the company said. The development contract ensures oversight of ESA's experts and the technical integrity of Isotropic's path to product launch in early 2022, Isotropic said.

The number of space companies around the world exceeds 10,000, with more than half in the U.S., the magazine Forbes reported, based on a new analysis from SpaceTech Analytics. Competition has led the value of space companies to cross the $4 trillion mark, the report said.

OHB signed a subcontract with Thales Alenia Space to develop ESPRIT, the European module for the Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway. The subcontract with Thales Alenia Space as the program's prime contractor is worth EUR 58 million, OHB said. OHB will be responsible for the unpressurized structure and the thermal system of the ESPRIT module.

NanoAvionics expands its U.S. manufacturing facilities and aims at taking “30 percent of the US market share in nano-/microsatellite manufacturing and mission provision services”, the company said. NanoAvionics existing facility Columbia will be used to produce “high-quantities of nano- and microsatellite buses, for both single and constellation missions”.

The European commissioner for internal market, Thierry Breton, does not see Eutelsat involved in the European broadband satellite constellation due to its investment in OneWeb, the FT reports. “I do not see how, structurally, an entity can have stakes in two competing projects,” the FT quotes Breton.