Remember back in 2012 when Ashton Kutcher bought a ticket on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo? And how Richard Branson’s company made a big deal of it being the 500th ticket? And how commercial flights were only 12-18 months away? No? Well, don’t feel too bad. I forgot about it too, until this week. Mashable reports it ain’t going to happen. “I was booked on a flight to go to space and, […]

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — The Russian crewmembers of the 65th long-term expedition to the International Space Station are preparing the Pirs module for undocking from the Russian segment of the ISS. Given that the Proton-M carrier rocket launches with the Nauka module on July 21, 2021, Pirs undocking is scheduled for July 23.

HERNDON, Va. (BlackSky PR) — BlackSky Holdings, Inc.  (“BlackSky”), a leading technology platform providing real-time geospatial intelligence and global monitoring, today announced that it has hired Andy Stephenson to oversee the company’s global sales team as its Vice President of International Business Development. Mr. Stephenson will be based in the United Kingdom, where he will lead the expansion of BlackSky’s international sales efforts.

“With more than thirty years of experience as a sales leader in the defense and intelligence, technology, and information sectors, Andy is an ideal candidate to help BlackSky meet the increasing demand for geospatial intelligence worldwide,” said Brian E. O’Toole, CEO of BlackSky. “He will be instrumental in leading BlackSky’s international development activities to ensure customers around the world understand and have access to actionable insights that give them a first-to-know advantage.”

“dearMoon” – The first ever civilian lunar trip scheduled for launch in 2023. As MZ announced his search for 8 crew members to board the ship with him, 1,000,000 applicants from 249 countries and areas raised their voices to express their interest in this project. We are happy to share a compilation of some of the applicants who showed great passion and enthusiasm. * The videos collected for this highlight […]

PITTSBURGH (Astrobotic PR) — Astrobotic announced today that MoonRanger, an autonomous rover that will explore the lunar South Pole in 2022, passed NASA’s Key Decision Point (KDP) review and is in the final stage of the payload preparation phase, culminating in flight hardware fabrication.

• In the framework of the Ariane 6 Competitiveness Improvement Programme, the European Space Agency has appointed ArianeGroup as prime contractor for the development of a complementary stage for Ariane 6, the “ASTRIS” kickstage.
• ArianeGroup development activities are worth €90 million [US $106.2 million]
• Developed by ArianeGroup in Germany, ASTRIS is a true additional stage, called a “kick-stage”, that will further increase the versatility of Ariane 6 and enhance performance for new types of mission
• Powered by the BERTA engine with storable propellants, ASTRIS will increase the capability to inject satellites directly into geostationary orbit (GEO), allow electrically-powered satellites to reach their orbits in a few hours instead of in a few months, and facilitate missions to the Moon and deep space
• The first Ariane 6 mission equipped with the ASTRIS kick-stage is scheduled for 2024

BREMEN, Germany (ArianeGroup PR) — The European Space Agency (ESA), as part of its Ariane 6 Competitiveness Improvement Program, has chosen ArianeGroup to develop and build a complementary stage (kick-stage) for Ariane 6, called ASTRIS, which will enable Arianespace, operator of the new European launcher to place with even greater efficiency a larger number of payloads in different orbits, or to inject satellites into geostationary orbit (GEO).

LONDON (Seraphim Capital PR) — Seraphim Space Investment Trust plc, a newly established closed-ended investment company which will invest in a diversified international portfolio of early and growth stage Space Tech businesses, is pleased to announce that it has successfully raised gross proceeds of approximately £178.4 million [US $247 million] pursuant to the Initial Issue of its ordinary shares (“Ordinary Shares”) as described in the prospectus published by the Company on 22 June 2021.

• Series B funding closed at US$45M with the support of the Government of Québec through Investissement Québec, OGCI Climate Investments and Space Capital
• The investment will enable the company to triple the number of sensors deployed by 2023 as well as to expand its international commercial presence, particularly in Europe and the US

MONTREAL (GHGSat PR) – GHGSat, the global leader in high resolution greenhouse gas monitoring from space, has completed the second tranche of a funding round initiated in 2020, thereby closing its total Series B funding at US$45 million. The company has raised more than US$70 million since its inception in 2011.

LOS ANGELES (Omaze PR) — Omaze, the charity fundraising platform that offers the chance to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences and prizes, and Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic Founder, announced they will give away two seats on a Virgin Galactic commercial flight. The Omaze sweepstakes will support Space for Humanity, a nonprofit seeking to democratize space and send citizen astronauts of diverse racial, economic, and disciplinary backgrounds to space.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

So after more than a month of fevered speculation interrupted by rival Richard Branson’s suborbital hop on Sunday, Blue Origin has announced that the person flying with uber billionaire Jeff Bezos on Blue Origin New Shepard’s first crewed flight on July 20 is….an 18-year old physics student named Oliver Daemen from The Netherlands.

You did not see that coming, did you? Neither did I. Nobody did.

BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Roscosmos PR) — At the Baikonur Cosmodrome, active preparations are underway for the Proton-M carrier rocket launch with the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module, scheduled for July 21, 2021. Roscosmos publishes the logo of the new Russian module of the International Space Station and its description. The logo has a traditional look coherent with those of Russian crewed missions. Nevertheless, some of its elements might need additional clarifications. […]

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2021 (SEC PR) — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against special purpose acquisition corporation Stable Road Acquisition Company, its sponsor SRC-NI, its CEO Brian Kabot, the SPAC’s proposed merger target Momentus Inc., and Momentus’s founder and former CEO Mikhail Kokorich for misleading claims about Momentus’s technology and about national security risks associated with Kokorich. The SEC’s litigation is proceeding against Kokorich, against whom the SEC filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. All other parties are settling with the SEC, with terms including total penalties of more than $8 million, tailored investor protection undertakings, and the SPAC sponsor’s forfeiture of founder’s shares it stands to receive if the merger, currently scheduled for August 2021, is approved.