• Special meeting of stockholders of NextGen Acquisition Corp. II scheduled for December 28, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time
• Upon closing, Virgin Orbit will be listed on NASDAQ under the new ticker symbol “VORB”
• The boards of directors of Virgin Orbit and NextGen Acquisition Corp. II have unanimously approved the Business Combination

LONG BEACH, Calif. & BOCA RATON, Fla., December 08, 2021 (Virgin Orbit/NextGen Acquisition II PR) — NextGen Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ:NGCA) (“NextGen”) today announced that its Registration Statement on Form S-4 in connection with the previously announced business combination (the “Business Combination”) with Vieco USA, Inc., the parent company of Virgin Orbit (“Virgin Orbit” or the “Company”), the responsive launch and space solutions company, has been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

NextGen has set December 28, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time for a special meeting of stockholders to approve the proposals associated with the Business Combination. The proxy statement to its stockholders is available at:  https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001843388/000121390021063966/f424b31221_nextgenacq2.htm.

by Teddy Tzanetos
Ingenuity Team Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

December 9, 2021, Update: 

On Wednesday (Sol 285 in Perseverance’s mission on Mars) the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter relayed additional information on its status. The limited data that was received indicates power aboard the rotorcraft is excellent, which suggests it is in an upright stance, allowing its solar array to efficiently power its six lithium-ion batteries. However, the same line-of-sight issues the team believes impeded communications at the end of Flight 17 still prevented the majority of data packets (including imagery from the flight) to be relayed back to the rover – and then to Earth. The next opportunity for a data transfer is expected to occur sometime within the next several days.

KOUROU, French Guiana (ESA PR) — The Ariane 5 launch vehicle which will launch the James Webb Space Telescope was moved to the final assembly building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 29 November 2021.

Ariane 5 parts shipped from Europe to French Guiana, have been coming together inside the launch vehicle integration building. 

GREENBELT, Md. (NASA PR) — Although the chance of an asteroid impacting Earth is small, even a relatively small asteroid of about 500 feet (about 150 meters) across carries enough energy to cause widespread damage around the impact site. NASA leads efforts in the U.S. and worldwide both to detect and track potentially hazardous asteroids and to study technologies to mitigate or avoid impacts on Earth. If an asteroid were discovered and determined to be on a collision course with Earth, one response could be to launch a “kinetic impactor” – a high-velocity spacecraft that would deflect the asteroid by ramming into it, altering the asteroid’s orbit slightly so that it misses Earth. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will be the first mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection using a kinetic impactor. 

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Virgin Orbit is planning to launch five satellites using its LauncherOne rocket on Dec. 22, according to a U.S. Coast Guard Notice to Mariners.

LauncherOne will be dropped by the Boeing 747 Cosmic Girl over the Pacific Ocean near the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. The launch window will last from 2-5 p.m. PST, the notice said. Backup launch dates are Dec. 23 and January 8-10 from 2:15-5 p.m.

GREENBELT, Md. (NASA PR) — NASA plans to conduct additional ground tests on an engineering model of the Lucy solar array motor and lanyard prior to potentially attempting full deployment of one of the probe’s solar arrays.

The European consortium led by UNSEENLABS and EUROCONSULT has won a concept study for the European Commission aiming to leverage disruptive ideas for an innovative European broadband constellation.

PARIS WASHINGTON D.C., MONTREAL, YOKOHAMA, SYDNEY, December 9^th 2021 (New Symphonie PR) – New Symphonie, the recently established consortium of 22 European companies, has won the European Commission call for tenders entitled “New Space solutions for long-term availability of reliable, secure, cost-effective space-based connectivity”.

Selected for its exceptional innovation and familiarity with leading-edge technologies, the consortium led by UNSEENLABS and EUROCONSULT will be awarded a six month study contract for a total amount of 1.4m euros. Through the study, the consortium members will investigate and recommend to the European Commission the most optimal infrastructure for secure connectivity markets. The study aims at defining the secure connectivity requirements that could be addressed by a European multi-orbit satellite system to be conceptually designed with innovative technologies for an attractive business plan.  

PARIS (ESA PR) — From launchers and spacecraft to space habitats, private companies are invited to join Europe’s activities in Earth’s orbital neighbourhood and provide services in a rocketing market.

These commercial services would overlap with the end of lifetime of the International Space Station that is expected to stop operations most likely in the early 2030s.

• First satellite mission hosting a high-energy astrophysics payload by LANL in 20 years
• Dedicated nanosatellite mission to measure cosmic diffuse gamma-ray (CDG) background

COLUMBIA, Ill., USA, December 8, 2021 (NanoAvionics PR) – Smallsat mission integrator NanoAvionics US has received a mission contract by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world. The 12U (1U equals 10 × 10 × 10 cm³) spacecraft, about the size of a microwave oven, will host the Mini Astrophysical MeV Background Observatory (MAMBO) mission.

The goal of MAMBO is to make the best-ever measurement of the cosmic diffuse gamma-ray (CDG) background using its on-board, innovative gamma-ray detector. This will be the first satellite mission hosting a high-energy astrophysics payload developed by LANL in 20 years. The MAMBO detector utilizes Bismuth Germanate (BGO) scintillator detectors and silicon photo-multiplier (SiPM) light sensors arranged in a unique shielding configuration to achieve highly sensitive gamma-ray sensing from low-Earth orbit (LEO).

Anna Kikina will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a future SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, marking the first time a Russian cosmonaut will fly on the new American vehicle. In return, an American will fly aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. Roscosmos General Director Dmitry Rogozin made the announcement in a Twitter post on Wednesday. It will be the first spaceflight for Kikina, who is Russia’s only active female cosmonaut. […]

FORRES, UK, December 9, 2021 (Orbex PR) – Orbex, Europe’s leading private small satellite launch services provider, has today announced it has started construction of its first state-of-the-art Launch Platform, the first orbital space launchpad to be built in the UK for more than half a century.

Orbex has commissioned Motive Offshore Group, a leading Scottish company specialising in the design and manufacture of marine and lifting equipment, to fabricate and install the Launch Platform at a dedicated test site near Kinloss, close to the Orbex headquarters in Forres, Scotland.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — The 24^thSpaceX cargo resupply services mission, targeted to launch in late December from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carries scientific research and technology demonstrations to the International Space Station. The experiments aboard include studies of bioprinting, crystallization of monoclonal antibodies, changes in immune function, plant gene expression changes, laundering clothes in space, processing alloys, and student citizen science projects.