MATOSINHOS, Portugal (ESA PR) — Government ministers in charge of space activities in ESA’s Member States today met at an Intermediate Ministerial Meeting held in Matosinhos, Portugal.

The Council of Ministers unanimously adopted a Resolution to accelerate the use of space in Europe (the “Matosinhos manifesto”) to tackle the urgent and unprecedented societal, economic and security challenges faced by Europe and its citizens.

The Resolution defined three “accelerators” to bring Europe’s space ambitions to the next level, mandating the ESA Director General to develop their governance and funding concepts, in concert with the Member States.

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS RESOLUTION ON
Accelerating the Use of Space in Europe
(“The Matosinhos Manifesto”)
(adopted on 19 November 2021 in Matosinhos, Portugal)

The Council, meeting at ministerial level,

CONVINCED that in times of unprecedented challenges facing Europe and the world at large, it is the moment to contribute with bold, shared ambitions to solutions enabled by space, a sector that is ever more indispensable for our common future,

HAVING REGARD to the ESA Director General’s ‘Agenda 2025’ (ESA/C(2021)51) as a vision for Europe to maintain and expand its excellence in space, for the benefit of everyone on Earth and in Europe in particular,

The fourth time was a charm for Astra Space. The company succeeded in reaching Earth orbit for the first time with its Rocket 3 booster on Friday evening. The small-satellite booster put a mass simulator into orbit after liftoff from the Pacific Spaceport Complex — Alaska on Kodiak Island. The demonstration launch was sponsored by the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center as part of the Space Test […]

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, November 19th, 2021 (Maritime Launch Services/Nanoracks PR) – Maritime Launch Services, one of Canada’s leading aerospace firms and the owner of the country’s first commercial spaceport, announced that Nanoracks, a Voyager Space company and the leading commercial payload provider to the International Space Station (ISS), will serve as the company’s first client when Spaceport Nova Scotia’s operations go live in 2023. For this first mission, Nanoracks will deploy customer SmallSats and host spacecraft technology demonstrations.

Investment led by General Atlantic, Coatue and Moore Strategic Ventures, with participation from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock Private Equity Partners and AE Industrial Partners

• Sierra Space secures $1.4 billion Series A capital raise; represents largest aerospace and defense capital raise globally in 2021, second-largest private capital raise globally in the aerospace and defense sector ever
• Growth capital accelerates the realization of Sierra Space’s vision of enabling humanity to build civilizations in space, while enhancing life on Earth
• Sierra Space is building the first commercial business platform in space; investment accelerates development of the company’s revolutionary Dream Chaser® Spaceplane and expandable LIFE Commercial Space Station
• Dream Chaser Spaceplane, a family of vehicles for cargo, crew and national security applications, is in advanced stage of development and production and is under a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA to perform cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station starting late next year
• Sierra Space is uniquely positioned to drive and capitalize on rapidly expanding low-Earth orbit (LEO) economy via its differentiated and technologically advanced products

LOUISVILLE, Colo., November 19, 2021 (Sierra Space PR) – Sierra Space, a leading commercial space company with 1,100 employees, more than 500 missions and over 30 years of space flight heritage, announced today a $1.4 billion Series A investment of primary capital, the first capital raise for the company and the second-largest private capital raise globally in the aerospace and defense sector ever.

SAN FRANCISCO (Planet Labs PR) — Today, we are excited to share that our wholly owned subsidiary, Planet Federal, expanded our contract with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to provide the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community with continued access to Planet’s daily, unclassified satellite data. This contract modification expands NRO’s current access to now include monitoring over new areas of interest. 

The extension also includes continued integration efforts to make Planet’s deep archive – dating back to 2009 – and daily satellite data, available to NRO users through their Commercial GEOINT Integration (CGI) architecture. While Planet’s high-resolution SkySat data is already available through the CGI architecture, incorporating our medium-resolution PlanetScope data into the same system enables faster decision-making by providing users with data in a more user-friendly fashion. 

LONG BEACH, Calif., November 18, 2021 (Rocket Lab PR) – Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a global leader in launch services and space systems, today announced it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) to commercialize near and deep space capable small spacecraft telemetry and control radio technology. The Frontier-S by Rocket Lab software defined radio (SDR) enables affordable communications and radio navigation for planetary and other missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), as well as communications and radio navigation for missions in GPS-denied environments.

LAFAYETTE, Colo., November 15, 2021 (Blue Canyon Technologies PR) –Small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies LLC (“BCT” or “Blue Canyon”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies Corporation (NYSE: RTX), was selected by Ball Aerospace to develop a standardized X-SAT Venus ESPA-class microsatellite bus and several custom components to enable an upcoming one-of-a-kind mission with NASA for the Solar Cruiser project.

As the largest planned solar sail to date, the 18,000 square-foot sail is a third the size of a football field. The Solar Cruiser: “Sailing on Sunlight” mission is being led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center out of Huntsville, Alabama. Ball Aerospace will perform several mission-critical functions, including the integration and test of the satellite bus with the solar sail system that will form the completed “Sailcraft.”

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFRL PR) — The Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate awarded an $8.4 million contract to Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. to support the directorate’s Precise flight experiment projected for launch in 2024.

“The Precise flight experiment represents a new orbital regime for AFRL in Very Low Earth Orbit,” said Dr. Rachel Hock-Mysliwiec, Precise program manager. “This experiment builds on more than 50 years of AFRL investigation into the physics of the upper atmosphere.”

Hock-Mysliwiec elaborated that the experiment will study ionization processes in the region of ionized gas, between 90 and 600 kilometers altitude.

WASHINGTON, November 18, 2021—The Federal Communications Commission today granted a petition from French satellite company Kinéis to offer satellite services in the U.S. market. As detailed in the company’s application, the proposed constellation of 25 small, low-Earth orbit satellites would provide connectivity for Internet of Things devices, as well as enhancements to maritime domain awareness through monitoring of maritime communication. Kinéis petitioned the Commission for access to the U.S. market […]

Recently downlinked imagery of a September flight has allowed the rover imaging team to put together a video of rotorcraft performing to near-perfection.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — Video footage from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s 13^th flight on Sept. 4 provides the most detailed look yet of the rotorcraft in action.

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — Northrop Grumman’s uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station on Saturday, Nov. 20, more than three months after delivering nearly 8,000 pounds of supplies, scientific investigations, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo to the orbiting laboratory.

Live coverage of the spacecraft’s departure will begin at 10:45 a.m. EST on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app.