Satellite

Space Café "Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland" will analyse current space developments with a legal focus. It will, at the same time discuss and ‘demystify’ the law for everyone. In our next Space Café “Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland”, Host Steven Freeland, Emeritus Professor of International Law at Western Sydney University, Sydney and Professorial Fellow at Bond University, Australia, and Co-Host Torsten Kriening, SpaceWatch.Global’s Publisher, welcome Ann Vandenbrouke and Martin Reynders.

LeoStella and Hera Systems have signed a strategic manufacturing alliance to mitigate supply chain risks, increase the reliability of production and delivery schedules and maintain competitive pricing for small satellite constellations. The parties introduced the collaboration through a common manufacturing proposal for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 2 Transport Layer.

HEO, formerly known as HEO Robotics, has announced the successful completion of its Series A funding round, securing $12 million AUD in investment. Airtree Ventures, an Australian venture capital firm popular for its strategic investments in high-growth technology companies, led the round. Additional and returning investors include Salus VC, Y Combinator, In-Q-Tel, David Harding and Steve Baxter.

Viasat Inc. has confirmed that its Inmarsat-6 F2 (I6 F2) satellite, which launched on February 18, 2023, has suffered a power subsystem anomaly during its orbit-raising phase. At this stage, Viasat and Airbus, the satellite’s manufacturer, are working to determine the root cause of the anomaly and assess whether the satellite will be able to perform its mission.

Greetings, SpaceWatchers, and welcome to Summer Listening Week Four! Summer is upon us, and as our gaze shifts towards the stars during those warm, clear nights, SpaceWatch.Global brings you its third collection of the Summer Listening Series. Based on the vote by our newsroom, we have mapped out an interstellar journey across five categories. After the Moon, Climate - Space - Earth and Trendsetters, this week is the turn of  “Space Debris and Regulations.”

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has launched a dedicated Electron mission for Capella Space.. The mission demonstrated several significant milestones for Rocket Lab’s reusability program, including an ocean splashdown of the Electron rocket’s first stage and the successful flight of a previously flown Rutherford engine. The mission was also Rocket Lab’s 40th Electron launch since the Company began launches in 2017, further cementing Electron’s position as a competitive commercial small launch vehicle globally.

Viasat Inc. has announced that Malaysia Airlines, the national carrier of Malaysia, has selected the company to outfit the airline’s new Boeing 737-8 fleet with its wireless In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system. In the pipeline, as part of its connectivity strategy, Malaysia Airlines will also introduce high-quality internet connectivity on its 737-8 aircraft.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has received information from the United States 18th Space Defense Squadron that it has detected new objects in the vicinity of the VESPA payload adapter. This adapter has remained in orbit following the 2013 launch of a Vega rocket from ESA’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Furthermore, it is a 113 kg, two-meter-diameter, conical upper portion of a payload adapter associated with the VV02 Vega launch that delivered the Proba-V, VNREDSat-1 and ESTCube-1 satellites into Earth orbit.

In this third episode of Space Economy Insights, Kevin O’Connell interviewed Dr. Zolana Joao, Director General of the Angolan National Space Office and Architect of Angola’s Space Strategy.  Dr. Joao has a background in electrical engineering and a doctorate in engineering management from George Washington University, with a focus on productivity and efficiency in large, complex space projects.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) has announced the awards of two prototype agreements with a total value of approximately $1.5 billion to build and operate the Tranche 2 Transport Layer (T2TL) – Beta variant prototype constellation. The constellation consists of 72 satellites and will form the foundation of Tranche 2 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.