Satellite

Planetek Italia announced on the 20th of September its latest contract win in Saudi Arabia. It will collaborate with its Saudi partner, Geosystems Middle East (GeosystemsME) to provide monitoring services based on Earth Observation (EO) for afforestation initiatives in the Kingdom. 

The German Federal Government, through the federal cabinet, have approved a new space strategy. The new space strategy recognizes the increasing importance of space for society, focusing on current and future challenges. In addition, this new strategy places particular emphasis on advancing private-sector initiatives in space, known as New Space - the use of space applications to combat climate change and responsible and sustainable actions related to space.

The satcom landscape prepares for a transformative decade of growth as the market projects satellite capacity demand to surge from 3.6 Tbps (TeraBytes Per Second) in 2022 to 51 Tbps in 2032, representing a 31% CAGR (compound annual growth rate), with all data segments expected to observe exponential growth in the next 10 years.

In this episode of Space Café Radio, SpaceWatch.Global’s publisher Torsten Kriening, has an insightful conversation with Stewart Bain, Founder and CEO of NorthStar Earth and Space, during Euroconsult's 26th World Satellite Business Week in Paris.

During the World Satellite Business Week 2023 in Paris, players in the Earth Observation (EO) sector gathered together to look to the future. The “Leading EO Businesses Sharing Strategic Views” panel brought forth Brian O’Toole, CEO of Blacksky, Dr. Minda Suchan, VP of Geointelligence at MDA, Eric Even, Head of Sales at Airbus, Jon Love, VP at Maxar, Massimiliano Vitale, SVP Operations at Planet, and Paolo Minciacchi, CEO of e-GEOS to discuss their positioning within in the EOs sector, and how they are approaching various markets.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission have signed an agreement on the 21st of September to use space to help keep information secure. 

Sidus Space, a Space and Data-as-a-Service company, have confirmed its plan to reallocate two LizzieSats to launch on an upcoming Bandwagon mission with SpaceX.  In addition, the updated LizzieSat constellation configuration will advance cutting-edge Low Earth Orbit data collection and provide enhanced orbital flexibility for Government and commercial customers.

Sateliot, the first company to operate a low-Earth orbit nanosatellite constellation with 5G standards, extends its network range with a partnership with Comfone, a provider of mobile connectivity and roaming services. This operation enables over 480 MNOs and MVNOs worldwide to connect with a standard roaming agreement to Sateliot’s 5G NB-IoT nanosatellite constellation, paving the way to massive IoT adoption everywhere on the planet. Furthermore, with the agreement between Sateliot and Comfone, MNOs and MVNOs will be able to cover the entire plane.

Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Assured Access to Space (AATS) Directorate awarded a $2.25 million contract to Astroscale US to advance Space Mobility and Logistics (SML) capabilities. Space Systems Command awarded the contract in collaboration with the Space Development Corps’ Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC).

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. announced that the company experienced an issue during the launch of its 41st mission. Following lift-off from Launch Complex 1, the rocket successfully completed a first-stage burn and stage separation as planned before it experienced an issue at around T+ 2 minutes and 30 seconds into flight, resulting in the end of the mission. In addition, Rocket Lab's telemetry data, which the company provided during the livestream of Tuesday's launch, showed the velocity of the rocket's upper stage decreasing shortly after its single Rutherford engine was supposed to kick on.