Space Missions

The Hague Institute for Global Justice has introduced The Washington Compact on Norms of Behavior for Commercial Space Operations, marking a historic milestone for the global space industry. The unveiling happened at the Metropolitan Club, D.C., on 7 February 2023. As a result, the Washington Compact demonstrates the international community's commitment to the sustainable commercial use of outer space for the benefit of all humankind.

Exotrail has raised USD 58 million to scale up and pursue its ambitions for space mobility worldwide. The funds will enable the company's scale-up of its products like spaceware electric propulsion systems and spacestudio mission design software. Likewise, it will fuel the introduction and growth of Exotrail’s new products, spacetower operations software and its space logistics service spacedrop and the expansion of Exotrail’s international presence, with a strong focus on the US and Asian markets.

Ploughshares Senior Researcher Dr. Jessica West spoke with Brian Gallant, the founding and current CEO of Space Canada, an association established in March 2022 to represent Canada’s outer space innovators and allied industries. Nine companies originally came together to found Space Canada (https://space-canada.ca), with the aim of “strengthen[ing] the Canadian space ecosystem.”

KSAT is currently installing four new antennas in Antarctica, expanding its capacity in the U.S. by adding multiple antennas in Hawaii, Alaska and the Southeast, and also expanding its footprint through partner networks. These antennas will add to KSATs current network with systems that will meet its new entrants and legacy operators' unique needs. Expanding Ka-band systems will also provide increased flexibility for missions requiring high-bandwidth communications.

HENSOLDT has partnered with the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Frequency Physics and Radar Technology FHR to transform the technology demonstrator GESTRA (German Experimental Space Surveillance and Tracking Radar) into a series-production ready, operationally deployable system called Custodian. As a result, HENSOLDT has acquired the necessary licenses from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and concluded a cooperation agreement.

NASA has invited U.S. and Indian space agencies dignitaries and media members to see the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)’s science payload in a Jet Propulsion Laboratory clean room. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar is an Earth science satellite that NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are jointly building. NASA invited the dignitaries to get a look at it before shipping it out to its last stop in Southern India before launching it into orbit. 

NASA has selected veteran astronaut Joe Acaba as chief of the Astronaut Office at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. As a result, Acaba will take the place of NASA astronaut Drew Feustel, who spent two years as deputy chief and has been acting chief of the office since NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman left the post late last year.

Space BD has announced the deployment of the CubeSat OPTIMAL-1 into space from the Japanese experimental module Kibo on the International Space Station (ISS) at 6 pm (JST) on Friday, January 6, 2023. Space BD provided all support for the deployment of the OPTIMAL-1. However, ArkEdge Space Inc., Pale Blue Inc., Seiren Co., Ltd., the University of Fukui, the School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation developed the CubeSat.

Spacemind, the space division of the Italian company NPC, has successfully launched three Italian nanosatellites, DanteSat, Futura-SM1, and Futura-SM3, into orbit. The successful launch has also validated the operation of the new SMPod CubeSat deployer, onboard equipment, and a larger version of the Artica deorbiting sail.

The first Lockheed Martin LM 400, a flexible, mid-sized satellite customizable for military, civil, or commercial users, rolled off the company’s digital factory production line and is advancing toward its planned 2023 launch. The agile LM 400 spacecraft bus design enables one platform to support multiple missions, including remote sensing, communications, imaging, radar, and persistent surveillance.