CENTENNIAL, Colo. (United Launch Alliance PR) — Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) have accepted the company’s new three-year contract offer. This concludes the 2022 contract negotiation process that began several weeks ago.

The new contract covers more than 600 bargaining unit employees from District Lodges #75 and #166, which includes Locals #44, #610 and #2786 performing work on the Atlas V, Delta IV and Vulcan Centaur product lines at both East and West Coast ULA launch sites and the Decatur, Alabama, manufacturing facility. The contract became effective at 12:01 a.m. on May 2. Negotiations on the new contract officially started April 11 and ended April 21, and the May 1 ratification vote was held in all geographical locations covered by this contract. 

Contract for robotic interfaces another important milestone as company brings full suite of commercial space products to market

BRAMPTON, ON (MDA Inc. PR) – MDA Ltd. (TSX: MDA), a leading provider of advanced technology and services to the rapidly expanding global space industry, today announced the first commercial sale of its Canadarm3 technology to Axiom Space. The contract is for the delivery of 32 external robotic interfaces for Axiom Space’s Axiom Station which is now under construction and on schedule to be the world’s first commercial space station in orbit.

UltiSat to offer Cobham Satcom tracking systems to provide US and NATO defense organizations enhanced SATCOM capabilities

CONCORD, Calif. (Cobham Satcom PR) — Cobham Satcom, a leading global provider of land and maritime satellite communications solutions to the Government and Enterprise sectors, and UltiSat, Inc., a global provider of end-to-end communications for government, humanitarian-aid, and critical infrastructure, have announced that they have signed a strategic distributor and integrator agreement.

BORDEAUX, France (HyPrSpace PR) – HyPrSpace, a startup specializing in the design of space launchers, has announced that it has raised €1.1 million from the Geodesic fund, the French Tech Seed fund managed on behalf of the French government by Bpifrance as part of France 2030, and private investors. This funding will allow the startup to strengthen its teams to accelerate the development of its OB-1 reusable launcher, and to offer a fast, economical, sovereign and more environmentally friendly orbiting service!

Founded in 2019 by Alexandre Mangeot, Sylvain Bataillard and Vincent Rocher, HyPrSpace aims to develop a launcher using a propulsion technology that facilitates access to space: Hybrid propulsion. This technology is reliable, inexpensive and has a lower carbon footprint, but until now it has suffered from a technological lock-in that makes the engines unusable for launch applications.

VILNIUS, Lithuania, 28 April 2022 (NanoAvionics PR) – Satellite operator Prométhée has contracted mission integrator NanoAvionics to build the first nanosatellite for the French company’s planned constellation of Earth observation nanosatellites and image analysis platform.  “ProtoMéthée-1” will be based on NanoAvionics’ flight-proven 16U nanosatellite bus M16P.

In addition to the satellite with onboard camera and propulsion, NanoAvionics will also provide Prométhée with full mission services – testing, integration, launch, licensing, and initial satellite operations. The “ProtoMéthée-1” satellite is intended to be launched towards the end of 2023 in low Earth orbit (LEO). The company’s service demonstrator will be based on a high revisit rate constellation (20 times more passes per day) and offering hyper-reactivity through inter-constellation connectivity.

• Introducing new Mission-as-a-Service offering (MaaS), providing customers with the option for a dedicated and taskable RF reconnaissance mission
• Complements the Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) offering, and fulfils the growing demand for dedicated data collection capacity to meet individual intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mission requirements
• Kleos has just launched third cluster of four satellites (Patrol), and a fourth satellite cluster (Observer) is preparing for upcoming launch

LUXEMBOURG (Kleos Space PR) — Kleos Space (ASX: KSS, Frankfurt: KS1), a space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance Data-as-a-Service company (DaaS), announces a new product offering, access to dedicated, taskable RF Reconnaissance satellite capacity i.e. a Mission-as-a-Service (MaaS).

LONG BEACH, Calif., May 2, 2022 (Rocket Lab PR) — Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a leading launch and space systems company, has successfully launched its 26th Electron mission, deploying 34 satellites to orbit. Rocket Lab has now deployed a total of 146 satellites to orbit with the Electron launch vehicle.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

If the Grand Canyon were an animal, it would probably be a mountain lion that waits patiently for its prey to arrive before ambushing it with overwhelming force.

That’s what it feels to visit the South Rim. There’s a long drive from Flagstaff through high plains and lightly forested areas as mountains tower in the distance. The scenery isn’t much different from most of Northern Arizona. After paying the fee at the entrance gate, you drive threw a forest where deer are quietly feeding. Find a parking space, walk down the trail, and…

BOCA RATON, Fla. (Terran Orbital Corporation PR) — Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite solutions, primarily serving the United States aerospace and defense industry, today announced it shipped two next-generation satellites from GeoOptics, a global leader in remote Earth observation. Terran shipped the vehicles to Cape Canaveral for launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-5 mission.

After four days at the CubeSat Developers Workshop in beautiful San Luis Obispo, I am on a space-themed road trip. Now in Flagstaff, where I plan to visit the Lowell Observatory where Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. Tomorrow will be viewing the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater. Ultimate destination is Boca Chica to see SpaceX’s giant.

On Friday, April 29 at 5:27 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It was the quickest turnaround for a Falcon 9 first stage booster. Twenty-one days earlier, the stage had launched the privately funded Axiom-1 mission to the International Space Station aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft. It was the sixth launch […]

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA and its partners at the German Space Agency at the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) will conclude the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) mission, after a successful eight years of science. SOFIA will end operations no later than Sept. 30, 2022, at the conclusion of its current mission extension.