by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and top officials provided an update on the Artemis program on Tuesday, delivering the not unexpected news that the space agency will not meet its deadline of landing a man and the first woman of color at the south pole of the moon in 2024. Instead, the landing will be delayed until at least 2025.

MOJAVE, Calif. (Virgin Orbit PR) — Coming off flawless back-to-back launches, the Virgin Orbit team has settled into a steady flight preparation rhythm with LauncherOne. [Earlier today], the fully assembled rocket that will carry our next customers’ satellites to space has left our rocket factory in Long Beach and headed up to the bare concrete pad at the Mojave Air and Space Port that serves as all the spaceport we need. Already, the rocket has been mated to the customized 747 that serves as our flying launch pad, mobile mission control, and fully re-usable first stage all at once.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (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 the appointment of Andrew Bunker to the role of Vice President of Government Operations and Business Strategy, effective November 8, 2021.

Mr. Bunker will be primarily responsible for the development and execution of company’s federal, state, and local government strategy. Mr. Bunker will also play a leading role in strengthening Rocket Lab’s engagement with industry associations. The appointment comes as Rocket Lab expands its end-to-end ecosystem footprint with the acquisition of flight software company Advanced Solutions Inc in Colorado, and also narrows down potential locations for a new production facility and launch site for the reusable, medium-lift Neutron rocket.

SPRINGFIELD, Va. (NGA PR) – National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Vice Adm. Robert Sharp, in his role as the GEOINT Functional Manager, recently published the National System for Geospatial Intelligence Enterprise Commercial GEOINT Strategy 2021-2025, calling on the GEOINT community to leverage more commercial technologies and methods to help the enterprise move faster and grow stronger.

“By taking a community approach to commercial GEOINT – one that aligns with our overarching NSG strategic goals, we continue to pave a way forward that not only benefits and supports our global national security needs but expands our partnerships within the growing sector of commercial GEOINT – giving access to responsive and innovative tools and capabilities that will help us meet the challenges of the 21st century and beyond,” Sharp said.

SANTA FE, N.M., November 9, 2021 (Solstar Space PR) – Solstar Space, the company making persistent space-based communications available, announced that it has opened a new regulation crowdfunding campaign on WeFunder. Solstar is continuing the development and delivery of suborbital and orbital communications systems for humans, payloads, IoT sensors, and spacecraft. 

“As space becomes increasingly congested, space-based communications systems are crucial,” says M. Brian Barnett, Founder and CEO, Solstar Space. “Connectivity is challenging during suborbital and orbital missions. We are designing communications solutions that make using your smartphone in space as easy as it is on Earth. Connecting people and spacecraft to resources in space and on the ground is essential for safety, and for extending space exploration, space medicine, monitoring human performance, and on orbit communications. We are continuing the development and engineering of these important solutions,” explains Barnett. 

SAN FRANCISCO (Planet Labs PR) — Planet Labs Inc. (“Planet”), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, today announced that it will host a Virtual Investor Day on November 18th starting at 11:00 am Eastern Time / 8:00 am Pacific Time. Earlier this year, Planet entered into a definitive merger agreement with dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV (NYSE: DMYQ) (“dMY IV”), a special purpose acquisition company, to become a publicly traded company later this year.

UPPSALA, Sweden, November 9, 2011 (AAC Clyde Space PR) — AAC Clyde Space and its partners, have successfully completed the first phase of the xSPANCION project with a successful Preliminary Design Review, conducted jointly with the European Space Agency (ESA). Together with the partners, the company has agreed to accelerate the project by kicking off the Spacecraft Manufacturing Preparation Phase. To achieve this, a Phase 2 has been introduced to the project valued at 5.6 MEUR (approx. 57.3 MSEK), of which the UK Space Agency, through the ESA’s Pioneer Partnership Projects, will contribute 2.8 MEUR (approx. 28.7 MSEK).

The 3-year project, previously announced 18^th November 2020 by AAC Clyde Space aims to develop an innovative satellite constellation service. The total 19.7 M€ (approx. 201.7 MSEK) project is co-funded by the UK Space Agency, through ESA’s Pioneer Partnership Projects, with 9.9 M€ (approx. 100.9 MSEK).

Kymeta and Intelsat develop future 5G technologies for satellite-based communications with mobility with Fraunhofer IIS

REDMOND, Wash., and McLEAN, Va., November 9, 2021 (Kymeta/Intelsat PR) — Kymeta (www.kymetacorp.com), the communications company making mobile global, and Intelsat (https://www.intelsat.com), operator of the world’s largest and most advanced integrated satellite and terrestrial network, announced today the successful demonstration of satellite-enabled 5G services on Kymeta’s electronically steered flat-panel u8 antenna using Intelsat’s global integrated satellite and terrestrial network—the first test of its kind in a mobile environment.

Capella satellites will use laser communications from Mynaric to  rapidly send and receive data

SAN FRANCISCO, November 9, 2021 (Capella Space PR) — Capella Space today announced the company will become the first commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) supplier to demonstrate Optical Inter-Satellite Link (OISL) compatibility with the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA)’s new NDSA. SAR data is a highly valuable asset for the SDA and the U.S. Department of Defense. The next generation of Capella’s persistent SAR monitoring capabilities will leverage new technology that enables high delivery speeds and direct access to its 24/7 all-weather data for U.S. Government customers.

Capella Space will install optical communications terminals (OCTs) on its commercial SAR satellites, starting in late 2022. This will enable the company to utilize highly efficient laser communications technology to send and receive data to and from its satellites in low Earth orbit, relaying data to compatibly equipped government satellites and military operations on the ground. The integration of OCTs onto Capella’s SAR constellation will drastically reduce latency from image collect to download and ensure spaceborne data is quickly available to inform critical decision-making for terrestrial missions.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA will provide updated coverage of the upcoming launch and docking activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission, which will carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

This mission marks the third time the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft has transported a crew rotation of astronauts to the station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. It will be the spacecraft’s fourth flight for the program with astronauts, including the Demo-2 test flight.

Special Meeting of dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV Stockholders to Approve Business Combination, Scheduled for December 3rd, 2021

Upon Closing, the Combined Company’s Common Stock and Warrants are Expected to Trade on the New York Stock Exchange Under the Tickers “PL” and “PL WS”, respectively

SAN FRANCISCO, November 08, 2021 (Planet Labs PR)–Planet Labs Inc. (“Planet”), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, today announced that, on November 5, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) declared effective the Registration Statement on Form S-4 (“Registration Statement”) in connection with its proposed business combination (the “Business Combination”) with dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (NYSE: DMYQ) (“dMY IV”).

SEATTLE, Nov. 9, 2021 (Spaceflight Inc. PR) —Spaceflight Inc., the leading global launch services provider, announced today it will be launching 13 customer payloads, including four microsatellites and nine CubeSats to Sun Synchronous orbit (SSO) aboard the SpaceX Transporter-3 mission, scheduled to launch no earlier than January 2022 from Cape Canaveral. On this mission, which the company has dubbed ‘SXRS-6,’ Spaceflight will deploy customer spacecraft to two distinct orbits for the first time using its chemical propulsion orbital transfer vehicle (OTV), Sherpa-LTC1. Capping a momentous year for Spaceflight, this mission will be the third debut of a new class of Sherpa vehicles within 12 months.