WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (Purdue University PR) — As space enthusiasts line up to purchase suborbital and orbital flights, communities that want to be known as space tourism hubs have a great opportunity to plan for future developments on Earth.

Jonathon Day, an associate professor who specializes in sustainable tourism in Purdue University’s White Lodging-J.W. Marriott Jr., School of Hospitality and Tourism Management in the College of Health and Human Sciences, says community leaders and business owners should look at what makes their communities special as they prepare for tourists.  

“Space tourism is offering these communities and regions an opportunity for economic development,” Day says. “We know these activities are going to increase the number of visitors to these destinations. Now would be a great time for the community leaders to take a deeper look at things they will need for the future.”

SPRINGFIELD, Va. (NGA PR) – The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and University of Missouri–St. Louis are partnering to create a geospatial talent pipeline that supports student learning from kindergarten through college and beyond.

Under a new education partnership agreement, UMSL faculty and staff will work collaboratively with NGA professionals to develop academic courses and programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics that will provide students the knowledge and skills needed for careers in geospatial intelligence.

NGA Director Vice Adm. Robert Sharp and UMSL Chancellor Kristin Sobolik signed the agreement Wednesday during the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s 2021 Symposium, being held this week at the America’s Center Convention Complex.

LONG BEACH, Calif., October 12, 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 completed the acquisition of Advanced Solutions, Inc. (ASI), a Colorado-based aerospace engineering firm delivering mission proven space software, mission simulation and test systems, and Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) solutions, for $40 million plus the potential for an additional $5.5 million performance earnout based on CY 2021 results.

ASI’s industry-leading advances in flight software, mission simulation, and GNC significantly strengthen Rocket Lab’s Space Systems portfolio, which encompasses the Photon spacecraft line and a growing suite of spacecraft hardware solutions, including those brought to the portfolio through the acquisition of Sinclair Interplanetary in April 2020.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

The SaveRGV environmental group has filed a lawsuit alleging that repeated closures of an 8-mile stretch of beach adjacent to SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility violates Texas’ constitutionally guaranteed right to access public beaches.

KOUROU, French Guiana (ESA PR) — The James Webb Space Telescope has arrived safely at Pariacabo harbour in French Guiana. ESA in close collaboration with NASA will now prepare this once in a generation mission for its launch on Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport this December.

Few space science missions have been as eagerly anticipated as the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb). As the next great space science observatory following Hubble, Webb is designed to resolve unanswered questions about the Universe and see farther into our origins: from the formation of stars and planets to the birth of the first galaxies in the early Universe.

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA will provide complete coverage as three space travelers living aboard the International Space Station, including a Russian actress and her producer-director, return to Earth just after midnight on Sunday, Oct. 17.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos will be at the controls of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, flanked by Russian actress Yulia Peresild and Russian producer-director Klim Shipenko, for the spacecraft’s undocking from the station’s Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module Saturday, Oct. 16. The trio will make a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan a little more than three hours later, at 12:36 a.m. EDT (10:36 a.m. Kazakhstan time) Sunday, Oct. 17.

ALAMEDA, Calif., October 12, 2021 (Astra Space PR) – Astra Space, Inc. (“Astra”) (Nasdaq: ASTR) today announced a commercial orbital launch on behalf of the United States Space Force. The launch vehicle, LV0007, will carry a test payload for the Space Test Program’s second mission STP-27AD2. The launch window is divided into two segments: the first segment is open from October 27, 2021 through October 31, 2021, and the second is open from November 5, 2021 through November 12, 2021. LV0007 will launch from the Astra Spaceport in Kodiak, Alaska.

Inmarsat’s global ELERA network will enable Hiber to bring IoT solutions and services to more customers in the most remote locations across the globe.

October 12, 2021— Hiber, an IoT-as-a-service scaleup, announced that Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications, will provide the satellite connectivity backbone on which Hiber will continue to build Hiberband, its revolutionary low-cost, low-power network for Internet of Things (IoT) products. 

The agreement pairs Inmarsat’s recently unveiled ELERA network, the global satellite network for IoT, with Hiber’s IoT-as-a-service ecosystem to provide easy-to-use, low power, and cost-effective IoT solutions and services to transport, logistics, agriculture, mining, and other industries worldwide. 

HELSINKI, Finland, October 12, 2021 (ICEYE PR) – ICEYE, the global leader in persistent monitoring of the Earth with radar satellite imaging, today announced the signature of an agreement to become a Contributing Mission to the Copernicus Programme, the largest satellite Earth observation programme in the world. Copernicus services will now receive access to ICEYE’s synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imagery that can be used to enhance public safety, border control, security and maritime domain awareness.

The Copernicus Contributing Mission Activity, as part of the Copernicus Programme, is managed by the European Space Agency (ESA) on-behalf of the European Commission. The activity aims to provide very high resolution optical and SAR commercial satellite imagery from mission partners for use by the six Copernicus services and mainly by the Land, Emergency, Security and Marine services. These services are the primary users while other users, such as public authorities in Europe, can also benefit from the data. The new partnership with ICEYE will be funded by the European Commission and operated by ESA.

EDINBURGH, 12th October 2021 (Skyrora PR) — British rocket company Skyrora has agreed a multi-launch deal with the SaxaVord spaceport on Unst, the most northerly of the Shetland Islands, as it moves closer to launching its XL rocket in 2022. This is the first agreement Skyrora has made with a Scottish Spaceport. If successful, this could be the first rocket to go to space from the UK. The multi-launch agreement with SaxaVord will run for the next decade, giving Skyrora the ability to build towards their target of 16 launches a year by 2030. 

TOKYO (JAXA PR) — JAXA astronaut, Koichi Wakata, currently preparing and training for the ISS Expedition, has been decided to board the fifth operational Crew Dragon developed by SpaceX. The launch is scheduled for autumn 2022 or later. This is his fifth Space flight, marking the highest number of flights as a Japanese astronaut. The flight schedule will be announced when more details are available. Comment From Astronaut Wakata “It […]

FRASCATI, Italy (ESA PR) — The new heart of ESA’s Planetary Defence Office was inaugurated today, heralding a new chapter in the Agency’s work to protect Earth from dangerous near-Earth objects, aka asteroids.

For years, ESA has been dedicated to opening our eyes to hazards in space, and when it came to asteroids this meant ensuring Europe had the capability to detect, track and understand what’s out there.