Space

Last year was a record year for the space industry with the Seraphim Space Index showing continued momentum from global venture investors who increased their investment in the sector by 21%.

SES Government Solutions (SES GS) and Artel have teamed with Leidos to deliver vital connectivity solutions to Palmer Station, Antarctica, operated by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

GMV, the world's number-one independent supplier of commercial telecommunication satellite control centers, has signed a contract with Northrop Grumman for development and supply of the Satellite Operations Center for Space Norway HEOSAT's ASBM-1 and ASBM-2 satellites.

Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall was in Israel on 28 January 2020 to speak at the 15th Ilan Ramon International Conference, focused this year on the theme of the next decade in space.

Kinéis, a CLS Group spin-off, announced on 3 February 2020 it has raised 100 million Euros, achieving its target to finance a constellation of nanosatellites dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT).

Rocket Lab, the commercial small satellite launch company, successfully launched a small classified payload into low-Earth orbit (LEO) for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand on 31 January 2020.

The UK defence policy community is awaiting the 2020 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) and the National Security Strategy (NSS), which were last produced together in 2015.

2020 promises to be a big year in space, but not only for the well-known events you keep on hearing about, such as the expected crewed launches from U.S. soil on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and Boeing’s Starliner. In the background, thousands of new space entrepreneurs are executing on business plans that take advantage of the tremendous decrease of the costs of accessing space and operating in it. Many of these entrepreneurs have important milestones in 2020.

Virgin Orbit, the California-based small satellite launch company, has signed an agreement with ImageSat International (ISI), a global leader in space-based intelligence solutions, to develop an end-to-end responsive space service offering focused on national security customers.

SpaceX has launched a Falcon 9 satellite launch vehicle carrying its fourth batch of 60 Starlink satellites. The launch took place at 9:06 a.m. local time on Wednesday, 29 January 2020, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.