A Japanese company that competed in the Google Lunar X Prize is set to launch a private mission to land on the moon next week that will deploy an United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) rover and a transformable robot that will provide data for the design of a pressurized rover that astronauts might one day drive across the surface. A NASA lunar orbiter will also be aboard that will search for water ice.

It was a quiet week with only three launches, but it was an extremely loud one for those on Florida’s Space Coast as NASA returned to the moon with a spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts there.

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — On Saturday, Nov. 19, the Mission Management Team polled “go” for Orion’s outbound powered flyby past the Moon. NASA will cover the flyby live on NASA TV, the agency’s website, and the NASA app starting at 7:15 a.m. EST Monday, Nov. 21. The burn is planned for 7:44 a.m. Orion will lose communication with Earth as it passes behind the Moon from 7:25 a.m. through 7:59 a.m., making its closest approach of approximately 80 miles from the surface at 7:57 a.m. 

TOKYO, November 17, 2022 (ispace PR) — Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd. (“MSI”), a subsidiary of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc. based in Tokyo, Japan, has reached an agreement with ispace, inc. (ispace), a global lunar exploration company, to provide the world’s first “Lunar Insurance” policy that comprehensvely covers risks arising from ispace’s Mission 1, from the launch of the rocket to the lunar landing.    

Skyroot Aerospace made history on Friday when it became the first private Indian company to launch a rocket. The company reported that its suborbital Vikram-S rocket reached an altitude of 89.5 miles (55.6 miles) during its maiden launch.

SpaceRyde will launch four private commercial flights for ISILAUNCH on their proprietary RYDER rocket and FLYING SPIDER balloon launch system beginning in 2024. The deal confirms the increase in customer demand for affordable, dedicated launch services

TORONTO, November 16, 2022 (SpaceRyde PR) — SpaceRyde (https://www.spaceryde.com), the space transportation company building the interplanetary logistics infrastructure known as the Rocket Network, has today announced multiple launch agreements with ISILAUNCH (https://www.isilaunch.com), a launch services subsidiary of Netherlands based ISIS – Innovative Solutions in Space B.V. (ISISPACE) – with over 570 customer satellites, including Planet, brought to orbit.

ABL Space Systems’ second attempt to launch its RS1 rocket for the first time was aborted at the last second on Thursday.

After a short hiatus, Space Space Index is back.

SatixFy Stock Surges

The stock of the world’s newest space SPAC, SatixFy Communications (NYS: SATX), surged more than 96 percent on Wednesday for reasons that are not entirely clear. The stock opened at $25.21 before surging to $51.70 at the end of the trading day. The price declined to $51.01 in after-hours trading.

The reason in the sharp increase is unclear. The Florida-based supplier of satellite antennas, payloads and modems didn’t issue any press releases or make any filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission today.

TOKYO, November 17, 2022 (ispace PR) — ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company, plans to launch its Mission 1 (M1) lunar lander, part of the HAKUTO-R lunar exploration program, on Nov. 28, 2022, at the earliest, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Founder & CEO Takeshi Hakamada announced today at a press conference in Tokyo.

Updated 11/08/22, 1:05 PST: LunIR and NEA Scout statuses modified.

Seven of the 10 CubeSats launches as secondary payloads on NASA’s Artemis mission are reported to be functioning as designed. A Japanese spacecraft designed to land on the moon has been tumbling and unable to charge its batteries. And the status of a NASA CubeSat equipped with a giant solar sail and one other spacecraft are uncertain more than 24 hours after launch.

PARIS (ESA PR) — ESA’s Investor Network continues to grow, with Einstein Industries Ventures as its latest member via the signature of a collaboration agreement.

Over the next ten years, Einstein Industries Ventures’ management team targets a fund worth €300 million to invest in Europe’s leading growth-stage New Space downstream technologies, Earth observation and sensor technology.

Gravitics, a startup that promises to bring “high-quality shipyard-style fabrication” to the production of large space station modules, has raised a $20 million in a seed round.