The collaboration between Starburst and NASA will engage minority serving institutions in advancing Earth science missions and the fight against climate change

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Feb. 23, 2022 (Starburst Accelerator PR) — Starburst, the world’s first and only global aerospace and defense accelerator, today announced it is engaging Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to bring ideas for developing new information technologies that could advance goals for addressing climate change. The newly launched MSI Space Accelerator will be an ongoing partnership between NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD), its Minority University Research Education Project within the Office of STEM Engagement, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and Starburst Accelerator in Los Angeles.

CANNES, France (Thales Alenia Space PR) — Thales Alenia Space recently kicked-off two projects related to HydRON, being funded by the European Space Agency (ESA). The two contracts will allow Thales Alenia Space, and its partners, to develop its own vision demonstrating the potential of laser-based satellite communication.

The past years have seen a quick expansion of communications infrastructures fuelled by the unprecedented rise in the volume of data streams that circle the globe. This demand is also felt in the aerospace sector, where interconnection and integrative network concepts across orbits and across the globe are key to fulfil the demands of the future.

ANDOYA, Norway (Andøya Space PR) — Andøya Spaceport and INNOSPACE has signed a memorandum of understanding to launch into polar and sun-synchronous orbits from Norway.

• Commercial Service Remains on Track for Q4 2022
• Current Fleet Enhancement Program On Schedule to be Completed in Q3 2022
• Opened Ticket Sales to the General Public

TUSTIN, Calif. (Virgin Galactic PR)– Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) (“Virgin Galactic” or the “Company”) today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021 and provided a business update.

“We remain on track and on schedule to complete our enhancement program and launch commercial service later this year,” said Michael Colglazier, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Galactic. “We achieved many important milestones in 2021 that laid an essential foundation towards becoming a scaled, commercial operation. In recent weeks, we opened sales to the general public and launched our new global consumer brand. Demand for our one-of-a-kind experience remains strong, and we are currently building our operations to accommodate our growing customer base.”

TENERIFE, Spain (ESA PR) — ESA’s Izaña-1 laser ranging station in Tenerife, Spain, has recently undergone months of testing and commissioning, passing its final tests with flying colours. As it reached ‘station acceptance’, it was handed over to ESA from the German company contracted to build it, DiGOS. The station is a technology testbed and a vital first step in making debris mitigation widely accessible to all space actors with a say in the future of our space environment.

By Andrew Griggs
Senior Director
Mission Management & Assurance at Astra

Earlier this month, we launched for the first time out of Cape Canaveral. While this mission represented historic firsts for Astra, we experienced an anomaly during flight and were unable to deliver the payload to orbit. We deeply regret the loss of the mission and are working to investigate and identify the root cause of the issue. While our current investigation is ongoing, I wanted to share a little more about our process for investigating issues in flight.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Astra Space, whose first attempt to orbit satellites failed on Feb. 10, is facing class action lawsuits alleging that the small-satellite launch provider and its officers made false and misleading statements about the company’s capabilities. Astra Space went public last July in a merger with Holicity Inc., a blank check special purpose acquisition company.

HOUSTON, February 22, 2022 (Nanoracks PR) — The past several months have been very busy here at Nanoracks, and we have continued our momentum into 2022 with another cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Northrop Grumman’s 17th (NG-17) commercial resupply mission carried five Nanoracks customer payloads on board the Cygnus spacecraft. These experiments will help improve environmental research on Earth and demonstrate technology necessary for future in-space economies. Additionally, this mission includes the first two “space trash bags” which will be used to collect waste from inside the ISS and deploy it into a reentry burn orbit on behalf of NASA.

Satellite Vu will share a ride into space on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to green the planet.

LONDON, 21 February (Satellite Vu PR) – UK space firm, Satellite Vu, have signed a launch deal with Elon Musk’s renowned aerospace company, SpaceX, to launch the world’s highest resolution thermal imaging satellite in early 2023. 

Satellite Vu will be part of a rideshare launch on one of SpaceX’s Transporter missions aboard Falcon 9, which have proven to be the most reliable rockets to launch satellites into orbit in recent years. 

WASHINGTON (DOD PR) — The United States joins Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom in the joint release of the “Combined Space Operations (CSpO) Vision 2031” today.  CSpO is an initiative to address the overarching need to encourage responsible use of space, recognizing challenges to space sustainability, threats presented by technological advances, and the increasingly comprehensive and aggressive counterspace programs of other nation states. The “CSpO […]

INVERNESS, Scotland (Highlands and Islands Enterprise PR) — Ambitious plans to create hundreds of high quality jobs and business opportunities by developing a North Highland and Moray ‘space cluster’ have received a £38,000 [USD $51,672] boost from the UK Space Agency.

A strategy to develop the cluster, funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL), was published last September by Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership.

LUXEMBOURG, 16 February 2022 (OQ Technology PR) — OQ Technology, a global 5G IoT satellite operator, has been granted a patent for its IoT (internet of things) ‘wake-up’ technology by the US Patent and Trademark Office. It is the first out of the company’s six patent applications in the US and the EU.