OTTAWA, CANADA, November 9, 2020 (Telesat PR) – Telesat and the Government of Canada announced today the completion of their agreement to ensure affordable, high-speed broadband connectivity across all of Canada with Telesat’s advanced, state-of-the-art Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation.

Following a Memorandum of Understanding signed in July 2019, this $600 million CAD (US $459.4 million) agreement enables Internet and mobility service providers to acquire Telesat LEO capacity at substantially reduced rates to bring universal broadband connectivity to rural, Northern and Indigenous communities across Canada. Telesat will be eligible to receive amounts under the agreement over a ten year period once the Telesat LEO constellation enters service.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) — Chief of Space Operations, Gen. John Raymond, unveiled Nov. 9 a seminal document that aims to cement the new service’s purpose and identity while also outlining specific management principles for guiding the Space Force’s development, future and success.

Entitled “Chief of Space Operations’ Planning Guidance,” the 16-page formal guidance carries far more weight, insight and significance than its title suggests. Raymond released the document as the nation’s newest and smallest military service approaches its first anniversary on Dec. 20.

“I expect all uniformed and civilian space professionals, and USAF personnel assigned to USSF units and staffs, to read and begin implementing this guidance immediately,” Raymond says in the document. To underscore the importance of that order he repeats it – virtually word-for-word – elsewhere in the document.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — Years of design, development, and testing have culminated in NASA officially certifying the first commercial spacecraft system in history capable of transporting humans to and from the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA completed the signing of the Human Rating Certification Plan Tuesday for SpaceX’s crew transportation system after a thorough Flight Readiness Review ahead the agency’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission with astronauts to the space station.

BUFFALO, NEW YORK, November 10, 2020 (Calspan PR) – Stratolaunch LLC, a leader in testing and development for the high-speed aerospace market, has chosen Calspan to build and test models of the fully reusable Talon-A autonomous, liquid rocket-powered Mach 6-class hypersonic vehicle. Under the contract, Calspan Systems, located in Newport News, Virginia will build the scale models, one of which will be tested in Calspan’s Transonic Wind Tunnel in Buffalo, NY.

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA released an independent review report Tuesday indicating the agency is now ready to undertake its Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign to bring pristine samples from Mars to Earth for scientific study. The agency established the MSR Independent Review Board (IRB) to evaluate its early concepts for a groundbreaking, international partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) to return the first samples from another planet.

• ADIO partners with Pure Harvest Smart Farms, FreshToHome and Nanoracks
• AED 152 million (US $41 million) incentives for ‘land, sea and space’ projects to increase AgTech capabilities for food production in arid and desert environments
• New partnerships part of ADIO’s AgTech Incentive Programme, established under Ghadan 21, Abu Dhabi’s accelerator programme

ABU DHABI, UAE, November 10, 2020 (ADIO PR) – Three innovative agriculture companies will develop cutting-edge projects in Abu Dhabi to boost the emirate’s agriculture technology (AgTech) capabilities across land, sea and space. The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) announced today individual partnerships with Pure Harvest Smart Farms (Pure Harvest), FreshToHome and Nanoracks that will see the companies receive financial and non-financial incentives totalling AED 152 million (US $41 million). The research and technologies developed by these companies will expand existing capabilities in Abu Dhabi’s AgTech ecosystem and promote innovation in the sector to address global food security challenges.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

It looks as if the Trump Administration’s goal of landing astronauts on the moon in 2024 is expiring at about the same time as the administration itself. The fatal blow is being struck by Congress, not the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has released a fiscal year 2021 funding bill that includes $1 billion for NASA to Human Landing System (HLS) that will take astronauts to and from the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program. The amount is far short of the $3.2 billion that NASA has said is needed for HLS to keep the 2024 landing on schedule.

Stratolaunch is getting closer to a second flight test from the Mojave Air and Space Port. The first and only one was in April 2019.

Paris, France/Luxembourg/Beijing China (ThrustMe/Spacety PR) – ThrustMe and Spacety announce that the BEIHANGKONGSHI-1 satellite, carrying the world’s first iodine electric propulsion system on board, was successfully launched into space on a CZ-6 Long March 6 rocket from Taiyuan in China on the 6th of November at 04:20 a.m. (Paris time).

Video Caption: Relativity successfully completed our Aeon 1 engine Mission Duty Cycle (MDC) test at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Our fully integrated Aeon 1 engine hotfired running at full power for 187 seconds, meeting the full duration required for the launch of our Terran 1 first stage. A Mission Duty Cycle test is a pinnacle milestone in engine development, as it proves that all key engine components (turbopumps, […]

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 17 U.S. companies for 20 partnerships to mature industry-developed space technologies for the Moon and beyond through the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s 2020 Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO).

The selected proposals are relevant to technology topic areas outlined in the solicitation, including cryogenic fluid management and propulsion; advanced propulsion; sustainable power; in-situ propellant and consumable production; intelligent/resilient systems and advanced robotics; advanced materials and structures; entry, descent, and landing; and small spacecraft technologies.

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected  17 U.S. companies for 20 partnerships to mature industry-developed space technologies for the Moon and beyond. The NASA and industry teams will design a 3D printing system for NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program, test a simple method for removing dust from planetary solar arrays, mature a first-stage rocket recovery system for a small satellite launch provider, and more.

Various NASA centers will work with the companies, ranging from small businesses and large aerospace companies to a previous NASA challenge winner, to provide expertise and access to the agency’s unique testing facilities. The partnerships aim to accelerate the development of emerging space capabilities.