CANNES, France, February 7, 2022 (Thales Alenia Space PR) – Thales Alenia Space, joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%) announced today that it has been awarded a contract by the French Space Agency CNES to develop a DFMC (Dual Frequency Multi Constellations) SBAS prototype in the frame of the next generation of SBAS, like EGNOS, the European navigation satellite system.

WASHINGTON, DC (NASA PR) — NASA has awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin Space of Littleton, Colorado, to build the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), a small, lightweight rocket to launch rock, sediment, and atmospheric samples from the surface of the Red Planet. The award brings NASA a step closer to the first robotic round-trip to bring samples safely to Earth through the Mars Sample Return Program.

Astra Space was forced to scrub the NASA-sponsored launch of four CubeSats on Monday after its Rocket 3.3 booster shut down just as its first-stage engines began to fire. Astra Space tweeted that a minor telemetry anomaly forced the automatic shutdown of the small-satellite launch vehicle. The booster will launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Astra Space has not announced a new launch date and time.

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski’s visit Friday, Feb. 4, to NASA Headquarters in Washington:

“It was a pleasure to welcome U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski to NASA last week.

EDMONTON, Alberta, February 7, 2020 (Wyvern PR) — Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), an arm’s-length foundation created by the Government of Canada to fund technologies with economic and environmental benefits, announced today a CAD $4M [USD $3.16 million] investment into Canadian satellite startup Wyvern. The investment is tied to a 3-year project that includes support from xarvio® Digital Farming Solutions a brand by BASF Digital Farming GmbH, Olds College, SkyWatch, Metaspectral, and Wild + Pine as consortium partners. This funding announcement comes just weeks after Wyvern’s recent announcement of USD $4.5M in funding and acceptance into the Y Combinator accelerator.

“Wyvern’s technology is addressing a major gap in the market,” said Leah Lawrence, President and CEO of SDTC. “Their imaging products are going to help farmers use less fertilizer, pesticides, and water and help produce bigger yields. SDTC is proud to support Wyvern in their mission to increase the productivity and sustainability of Canadian farmlands.”

NASA said it is investigating the lagging deployment of one of four main parachutes on two recent SpaceX Dragon flights, but the space agency does not believe the problem poses a safety threat to astronauts.

HAWTHORNE, CA, February 3, 2022 (Launcher PR) – Launcher, an industry-leading developer of highly efficient rockets and transfer vehicles, has signed a new multi-launch contract with SpaceX. The agreement adds three new missions to the expanding flight manifest of Orbiter, Launcher’s transfer vehicle. This addition of rideshare flights builds upon the first mission of Orbiter (SN1), scheduled to reach orbit no earlier than October 2022 on SpaceX’s Transporter-6 and shows the expanding demand for commercial and government orbit transfer services.

The NASA-funded mission includes three CubeSats built by universities and one CubeSat developed by NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

I will be on the The Space Show with David Livingston to discuss all the latest news on Tuesday evening. Please tune in and call in to chat. You can also listen to an archived version of the show beginning the next day. Tuesday, February 08 — 7 PM PST (9 PM CST; 10 PM EST): Doug Messier of Parabolic Arc returns with all that is happening in space news […]

PARIS (ESA PR) — The Moon is set to gain one more crater. A leftover SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage will impact the lunar surface in early March, marking the first time that a human-made debris item unintentionally reaches our natural satellite.

In 2015 the Falcon 9 placed NOAA’s DSCOVR climate observatory around the L1 Lagrange point, one of five such gravitationally-stable points between Earth and the Sun. Having reached L1, around 1.5 million km from Earth, the mission’s upper stage ended up pointed away from Earth into interplanetary space.

PARIS (CNES PR) — Several calls for projects and calls for applications have just been launched in the field of micro and mini-launchers to promote the emergence of French and European projects in this innovative segment, complementary to current launchers.

SWINDON, UK (UK Space Agency PR) — Ten space clusters across the UK have been given a boost, thanks to new UK Space Agency funding.

These regional hubs, known as space clusters, will support new and growing companies, building on local expertise and catalysing investment into the space sector.

Over £600,000 [US $812,267] will go towards supporting activities that create jobs and growth, including recruiting space cluster managers, to strengthen local space sector leadership groups and developing new business opportunities.

The funding comes as the Government is set to unveil its flagship Levelling Up White Paper later today (2 February 2022), setting out a plan to transform the UK by spreading opportunity and prosperity to all parts of it.