KENT, Wash. (Blue Origin PR) — Blue Origin today announced the sixth crew member joining New Shepard’s 20^th mission will be Blue Origin’s Gary Lai, New Shepard Chief Architect. Gary joins the previously announced crew, which includes Marty Allen, husband and wife duo Sharon and Marc Hagle, Jim Kitchen, and Dr. George Nield.

BOULDER, Colo. (Aquarian Space PR) — Aquarian Space, the world’s first high data rate internet service for the Solar System, announced today they have successfully raised a seed round led by notable Draper Associates, a leader in early-stage venture capital having funded companies such as SpaceX, Tesla and Coinbase. This raise will accelerate development plans for Aquarian Space’s SOLNET^TM, which will offer critical high-speed internet and communications for beyond-Earth operations.

High-speed internet drives communication on Earth; however, this fast and reliable network ends with the geostationary orbit. Above Earth’s orbit, current communication is reliant on technology dating back to the 1960’s, which makes downloading lunar and deep space data an extremely slow process. With the lunar economy in fast development, driven by NASA’s Artemis program, a lack of high-speed communication poses a serious bottleneck for lunar operations and future Mars exploration.

ITHACA, NY, MARCH 21, 2022 (Ursa Space PR) – Ursa Space, the global satellite intelligence infrastructure company, announced the first close of its Series C Round with $16 million in funding led by Dorilton Ventures. Existing investors who participated in the round included Razor’s Edge Ventures, RRE Ventures, Paladin Capital Group, and others.

Ursa Space will use the new investment to respond to a significant increase in customer demand for automated, scalable, analysis-ready satellite data. It will also expand its field sales organization to support newly emerging markets for earth observation data such as supply chain optimization, logistics, and insurance.

Technical testing and assessments validate LEO as a connectivity pathway, joining GEO, MEO and 4G/5G for high-demand applications

OneWeb Press Release

HOUSTON, Texas, 21 March, 2022 (OneWeb PR) – Speedcast, a leading communications and IT services provider, announced today that it will become a OneWeb Distribution Partner, integrating OneWeb’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity into Speedcast’s Unified Global Platform (UGP). 

OneWeb is set to enter customer trials in mid-2022, bringing in LEO service for Speedcast’s energy and enterprise customers followed by maritime mobility in 2023. The agreement will add OneWeb’s enterprise-grade, high-speed LEO connectivity to the Speedcast platform, which is one of the largest technology-agnostic networks in the world, seamlessly adding LEO as a connectivity pathway, joining GEO, MEO and 4G/5G for high-demand applications. 

REDMOND, Wash., March 21, 2022 (Kymeta PR) – Kymeta (www.kymetacorp.com), the communications company making mobile global, announced today the introduction of three new product brands for the u8 terminal including the Hawk ^TM u8, Goshawk ^TM u8, and Osprey ^TM u8. Along with unveiling the new Kymeta branding, the company announced the Osprey u8 product for the military is now shipping. In addition, the company introduced significantly lower pricing for the Hawk u8 that will open additional markets and vertical opportunities.

This follows last week’s news of $84 million in new financing for Kymeta to further evolve the company’s growth as it prepares to expand offerings for LEO and defense customers and evolve the u8 product line from the full Ka band into the Ku band in the future. In a landmark year for Kymeta, the company was also named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies and listed as number 5 on the 10 Most Innovative Space Companies of 2022 by Fast Company.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

OneWeb announced this morning that it will resume launches of its broadband satellite constellation with SpaceX, which is deploying its rival Starlink broadband satellite network. The agreement comes after OneWeb terminated a contract to continue launching on Soyuz boosters in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

SOLNA, Sweden (Swedish National Space Agency PR) — AI Sweden and the European Space Agency, ESA, will open a lab for advanced technology development, Φ-lab Sweden (pronounced as the Greek letter “phi”), for AI in new space applications and applications for Earth observation. The lab is first out as a spearhead lab within a major European collaboration on space innovation and will be inaugurated in the spring.

The lab brings together industry, investors and researchers to strengthen the European space research and space industry sector in what is known as Earth observation and AI. This work is complemented by the work that takes place in the Swedish Space Data Lab, which includes the Swedish Space Agency, Luleå University of Technology, RISE and AI Sweden.

What attracted ESA to Sweden is AI Sweden’s knowledge and the cluster that works with an AI technology called edge learning. The technology creates the opportunity to train AI models directly in e.g. satellites. This saves money and resources because you do not have to send the massive amount of data that the satellites collect down to earth.

As part of its effort to commercialize the nation’s space program, the Indian Space Research Organisation is looking to transfer a small satellite bus to the private sector. The notice for transferring the Indian Mini Satellite-1 bus is below. Interest Exploratory Note UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed small satellite platform which would enable low cost access to space by providing dedicated platform […]

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFRL) – A launch of a two-stage suborbital sounding rocket for the Air Force Research Laboratory/Air Force Office of Scientific Research’s BOLT II flight experiment is set to take place the evening of March 21 at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Live coverage of the launch will be provided on NASA Wallops YouTube channel. Officials at NASA Wallops project the launch to be visible anywhere from 10 to 120 seconds from parts of seven states: Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia as well as Washington, D.C.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AEB PR) — Started 20 years ago, the process of creating a spaceport — a facility that allows the launch and landing of vehicles and space modules, manned or not — is close to being completed in Brazil, said Colonel Carlos Augusto Moura, president of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), in an interview with the program A Voz do Brasil today (14 March).

WASHINGTON (AFNS) — Speaking separately at an influential gathering two blocks from the White House March 9, the Department of the Air Force’s highest ranking civilian and military leaders offered emphatic variations on a similar theme – the need to modernize faster, think faster, and nurture the cultures needed to confront potential threats and adversaries.

“I am focused on modernization,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said during a keynote address closing the 13th Annual Defense Programs Conference staged by McAleese and Associates.

WASHINGTON (Office of Space Commerce PR) — On March 17, 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued the following notice and encouraged its widest dissemination. Critical Infrastructure Partners,  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to help organizations protect their satellite communication (SATCOM) networks against possible cyber threats to U.S. and international networks. Critical infrastructure organizations and […]