PARIS (ESA PR) — The next stage of ESA’s astronaut selection is underway, with around 1,391 applicants invited to a full day of testing at a facility in Europe.

DENVER (Atomos Space PR) — Atomos Space announces an investment from Cantos Ventures bringing the total capital raised in 2021 to $5M. Cantos, an experienced deep tech investor, joined this round with another undisclosed aerospace investor to realize the future of space mobility and logistics. Atomos Space, based in Denver, Colorado, is building orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) to help satellite operators get to their place in space. Founded by Vanessa Clark and William Kowalski in late 2017, Atomos has won and executed over $2M in contracts with NASA, the US Air Force, and US Space Force, and currently has over $200M of customer interest for in-space mobility.

While the barrier to entry for satellites to get to space has decreased significantly, many applications require orbits unavailable to satellites ridesharing with a larger payload. Enter Atomos’ OTVs. By capturing client satellites and transporting them to their target operational orbit, Atomos solves the last-mile problem in space at a fraction of the cost of dedicated launch. “Some customers need to procure multiple dedicated launches to deploy their constellation,” said Atomos co-founder and COO, William Kowalski. “Our services halve their launch costs.”

HERNDON, Va., Jan. 18, 2022 (HawkEye 360 PR) — HawkEye 360 Inc., the world’s leading commercial provider of space-based Radio Frequency (RF) data and analytics, has hired Kate Zimmerman as its first-ever Chief Data Scientist.

In this new role, Zimmerman will develop HawkEye 360’s analytics strategy, identifying and pursuing focus areas for analytics enhancement to further differentiate the company from its competitors. Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Zimmerman will develop leap-ahead capabilities to provide customers with more value from the company’s RF data.

• Global launch attempts reached a record 145 in 2021, exceeding 143 in 1967
• Successful launches globally totaled 134, breaking previous record of 128
• U.S. tallied highest percentage of global commercial launches with 32

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Jan. 18, 2022 (Space Foundation PR) — Space Foundation, a nonprofit advocate organization founded in 1983 for the global space ecosystem, today released “The Space Report 2021 Q4,” which looks back at the historic level of launch activity that took place globally last year and breaks down orbital launch attempts by each spacefaring nation.

Summarizing the latest edition, Space Foundation CEO Tom Zelibor commented, “The space ecosystem has been buzzing with excitement about an emergent space renaissance for several years. This edition unequivocally validates that we have reached a new high point. I always say, ‘There is no better time to be a part of the space economy,’ and with record-breaking growth in 2021 and so many promising new initiatives already underway in 2022, that has never been a truer statement.”

• Microcarb is a science satellite that will trace CO2 sinks and sources on a global scale.
• The requested performance for this launch planned in 2023 is 190kg on a sun-synchronous orbit at 650km.

EVRY-COURCOURONNES, France, January 18, 2022 (Arianespace PR) — Arianespace has been awarded a launch contract by ESA, on behalf of the European Commission, to launch Microcarb in 2023 on Vega C. Microcarb is a 190kg satellite developed by CNES that will be delivered into a sun-synchronous orbit, 650km above the Earth.

• Investment will support Satellogic as it scales its constellation, with the goal of weekly remapping of the entire Earth’s surface in 2023 and daily remapping thereafter, unlocking countless commercial, sustainability, and government applications
• Secretary Mnuchin to serve as Non-Executive Chairman of Satellogic Board of Directors
• Howard W. Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and CFV, to join Satellogic Board of Directors
• Satellogic satellites have the capacity to collect more images than the closest four satellite competitors combined, changing the way we see our Earth by delivering data that helps analyze and develop solutions for the world’s most pressing problems within a $140 billion TAM opportunity¹
• Total committed capital of $265 million; merger slated to close in Q1 2022

NEW YORK (Satellogic PR) — Satellogic, a leader in sub-meter resolution satellite imagery collection, currently 70 centimeters, and CF Acquisition Corp. V (Nasdaq: CFV) (“CFV”), a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald, today announced that they have secured an additional $150 million private placement commitment from Liberty Strategic Capital (“Liberty”), a private equity firm founded and led by former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin.

Industry-leading partners to construct ground-breaking satellite constellation enabling super-spectral imagery, scientific-grade data, and value-added analytics with daily global coverage.

VACOUVER, B.C., January 18, 2021 (EarthDaily Analytics PR) – EarthDaily Analytics Corp. (“EDA” or the “Company”), a vertically-integrated data processing and analytics company pairing cutting-edge Big Data tools with proven Space technologies, today announces the initial mission partners for the Company’s EarthDaily Constellation of 9 super-spectral satellites. The EarthDaily Constellation will provide unprecedented daily global coverage of the Earth’s land masses, significantly enhancing geospatial analytics capabilities to provide value-added insights in industries including agriculture, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), insurance, disaster prevention and recovery, commodities trading, and more by the end of 2023.

LUXEMBOURG, 18 Jan 2022 (OHB SE PR) – OHB SE (OHB), one of Europe’s leading space companies, its subsidiary LuxSpace, a provider of space systems, applications and services, and OQ Technology (OQ), a global satellite operator, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore opportunities in the Internet-of-Things (IoT) service sector.

The cooperation between LuxSpace, OHB and OQ will include satellite-based IoT upstream and downstream activities to enhance the portfolio of services available to customers in different markets, including, but not limited to, energy, agriculture, defence and the green economy.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (SpaceX PR) — SpaceX is targeting today, Tuesday, January 18, for a Falcon 9 launch of 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 7:04 p.m. EST (00:04 UTC on January 19). The booster supporting this mission previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, and six Starlink missions. Following stage separation, SpaceX […]

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — Within the framework of the planned program of launches of the Proton-M heavy class launch vehicles, the State Space Research and Production Center named after M.V. Khrunichev (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) has four rockets left to manufacture. Currently, ten Proton-M launch vehicles are in storage, and this year it is planned to complete the manufacture of the last four rockets. The Proton is being replaced by […]

TUCSON, Ariz., Jan. 17, 2022 (Paragon SDC PR) — Paragon Space Development Corporation (Paragon) is proud to announce that Northrop Grumman has finalized its contract with Paragon valued in excess of $100 million for the life support system of the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) program. HALO will be deployed in lunar orbit as the first crew module of NASA’s Lunar Gateway. HALO will serve as both a crew habitat and docking station for spacecraft that will routinely travel between the Earth and the moon.

DUBAI (Alpha Blue Ocean PR) — Alpha Blue Ocean, the family office founded by Pierre Vannineuse and financial partner of WISeKey (Tickers: SW: WIHN and US: WKEY), announces the new technological breakthrough of the Swiss group led by Carlos Creus Moreira. On January 13, 2022, WISeKey launched the audacious project to generate the first NFT from space…

On January 13, 2021, WISeKey launched its first WISeSat pico satellite via SpaceX’s (*) Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter 3 mission to generate the first NFT from space.

The NFT will be captured by the WISeSat satellite station in La Linea in south of Spain and minted on WISe.ART NFT Marketplace.