STELLENBOSCH, South Africa, Feb. 16, 2021 (Dragonfly Aerospace PR) — Dragonfly Aerospace is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract for the development and delivery of high resolution electro-optical imagers for Pixxel’s planned satellite constellation. The constellation will follow the upcoming launch of Pixxel’s first satellite ‘Anand’, which also happens to be India’s first private earth imaging satellite. The planned constellation of satellites will provide global coverage every 24 hours enabling organisations around the globe to detect, monitor and predict global phenomena in near real time.

PARIS (ESA PR) — For the first time in over a decade, the European Space Agency (ESA) is seeking new astronauts to join humankind’s greatest adventure for the benefit of Earth.

Applications open 31 March 2021 and ESA’s Astronaut Selection webpage provides everything you need to know to prepare a strong application and apply. This site is the hub for all ESA astronaut selection content and will be updated throughout the campaign.

CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, Fla. — On Monday, February 15 at 10:59 p.m. EST, SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. SpaceX has now launched 1,145 Starlink satellites, with 1081 still in orbit. The company has received approval to launch nearly 12,000 satellites to provide broadband services around the globe. This was the sixth launch of this Falcon 9 booster, which […]

PITTSBURGH, February 16, 2020 (Astrobotic PR) — Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One (GM1) team has selected Agile Space Industries for Attitude Control System (ACS) thrusters and Frontier Aerospace for axial engines for their Griffin lunar lander. Astrobotic’s Griffin will deliver NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the South Pole of the Moon in late 2023. Upon landing, VIPER will map the presence of water ice on the Moon.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Momentus PR) — Momentus Inc. (“Momentus” or the “Company”), a commercial space company offering in-space infrastructure services, and Qosmosys, a new space venture founded in Singapore last year, announced today a service agreement to deliver two cubesats to low lunar orbit as early as 2024 via Momentus’ inaugural lunar mission.

The new contract builds and expands on the agreement announced in January 2021 for delivery of up to four cubesats in low Earth orbit by Momentus’ Vigoride service vehicle, starting in 2022. Qosmosys will expand its novel business ideas to the Moon using a specific bus named Zeus-MS, a version of its Zeus platform it has been developing in cooperation with NuSpace from Singapore, and made specific for lunar missions. Zeus-MS is the precursor to a series of multi-mission platforms that will allow organizations and businesses to host their payloads, and will offer individuals a bespoke, unprecedented line of services to the Moon on regularly scheduled flights.

• Capital will accelerate growth of workforce and development of world’s first commercial space station
• NASA selected Axiom to begin attaching its privately developed space station modules to the International Space Station as early as 2024
• Axiom recently revealed the first-ever private astronaut ISS crew, launching in January 2022

HOUSTON, TX, February 16, 2021 — Axiom Space, Inc., which is developing the world’s first commercial space station, has raised $130M in Series B funding. The round was led by C5 Capital and includes TQS Advisors, Declaration Partners (the investment firm backed by David M. Rubenstein), Moelis Dynasty Investments, Washington University in St. Louis, The Venture Collective, Aidenlair Capital, Hemisphere Ventures, and Starbridge Venture Capital.

Last week, I gave a Zoom lecture to the SpaceBase group in New Zealand. The topic was lessons learned from the space and rocket testing conducted here in Mojave. I really had time doing it. I want to thank Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom and Julia Rothman for setting up the session.

I will be a guest on The Space Show with David Livingston on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 7 pm PST (10 pm EST /0300 UTC). We’ll be talking about space news and policy and the near fatal accident that occurred on Virgin Galactic’s last suborbital flight. Listen live, call in or email your questions. The show is archived on The Space Show website the following day for anyone who can’t […]

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. (SpaceX PR) — SpaceX is targeting Monday, February 15 for launch of 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The instantaneous window is at 10:59 p.m. EST, or 3:59 UTC on February 16. The Falcon 9 first stage rocket booster supporting this mission previously flew on five missions: Dragon’s 19th and 20th commercial resupply missions to […]

MOSCOW (ROSCOSMOS PR) — The management of the Scientific Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (NIIMash, part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) and the South Ural State University discussed issues of expanding cooperation on the creation of a new space complex aimed at protecting the Earth from falling space bodies. Today Scientists from the State Rocket Center named after V.I. Academician V.P. Makeev together with engineers from SUSU and NIIMash. At present, SUSU […]

BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Roscosmos PR) — In accordance with the program of flights to the International Space Station, today, February 15, 2021, at 07:45:05 Moscow time, a successful launch of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with a transport cargo was performed from the launcher No. 6 of the site No. 31 of the Baikonur cosmodrome by the Progress MS-16 spacecraft. According to the received telemetry information, after 8 minutes and 48 seconds, the ship’s normal separation from the third stage of the carrier was recorded, solar panels and antennas were revealed.

• At least 32 people infected from illegal gathering that violated state and local restrictions
• Event held while Southern California ICUs were at full capacity
• Diamandis says he’s learned masks and social distancing really are important

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

On Saturday, I received an email from XPRIZE Chairman Dr. Peter Diamandis, holder of a medical degree from Harvard, about a super spreader event he held in Los Angeles last month that resulted in at least 32 people becoming infected with the deadly COVID-19. The email, sent to members of the Abundance 360 mailing list, was based on a blog post he had published the previous day.

I was impressed with how candid Diamandis was in admitting how his Abundance 360 Summit with nearly 100 participants had turned into a complete cluster expletive. Well, I was impressed until I found this MIT Technology Review story online only a short time later:

He started a covid-19 vaccine company. Then he hosted a superspreader event
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/13/1018374/peter-diamandis-covid-superspreader-a360-conference/