Welcome to Biz Briefs! In this edition, Hawkeye 360 and Benchmark Space Systems raised new funds, Ball put its aerospace unit up for sale, Rocket Lab snagged a launch contract, China’s LandSpace made history, and much more.

Rocket Lab completed its first launch from U.S. soil as an Electron rocket roared off its launch pad in Virginia and placed three signal collection satellites into orbit.

Rocket Lab (NAS: RKLB) has postponed its first Electron launch from U.S. soil and lowered its revenue guidance for the fourth quarter.

Effort will support Army’s modernization initiatives for Multi-Domain Operations 

HERNDON, Va. (HawkEye 360 PR) — HawkEye 360 Inc., the world’s leading commercial provider of space-based radio frequency (RF) data and analytics, today announced its two-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC). Under the CRADA, HawkEye 360 will develop and demonstrate new commercial overhead RF-sensing capabilities that could provide relevant tactical support for the warfighter. SMDC will assist in the testing of these capabilities in relevant exercises to evaluate the utility to the tactical warfighter.

Expanded constellation supports up to 16 collections per day across client regions 

HERNDON, Va. (HawkEye 360 PR) — HawkEye 360 Inc., the world’s leading commercial provider of space-based radio frequency (RF) data and analytics, today announced its Clusters 4 and 5 satellites have started operations. The two newest clusters have doubled on orbit capacity to empower customers with actionable global insights. The expanded constellation can collect over a region of interest up to 16 times per day with an average revisit of 1.5 hours using enhanced payloads, additional ground stations, and optimized satellite management and data processing.

Facility will expedite innovation of state-of-the-art RF satellites and geospatial intelligence

HERNDON, Va. (HawkEye 360 Inc. PR) — HawkEye 360 Inc., the world’s leading commercial provider of space-based radio frequency (RF) data and analytics, announced today the grand opening of its Advanced Technology and Development Center in Herndon, Virginia. The 19,000 square-foot data processing, software development, and satellite manufacturing facility continues HawkEye 360’s investment in Fairfax County to support U.S. government and allied government needs.

Cluster 5 expands company’s capacity to meet high demand for RF analytics

HERNDON, Va. (HawkEye 360 PR) — HawkEye 360 Inc., the world’s leading commercial provider of space-based radio frequency (RF) data and analytics, today announced that its Cluster 5 satellites have successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on May 25. Once Cluster 5’s on-orbit checkout is complete, the recent launches in 2022 will have doubled capacity and revisit rates, expanding HawkEye 360’s constellation to 15 satellites. This significantly boosts the constellation’s ability to serve global customer demand and to monitor activity across places such as Ukraine.

HERNDON, Va. (Space Industry for Ukraine PR) — Leaders of the space community today announced the Space Industry for Ukraine (SIFU), an initiative designed to fund and execute efforts that provide immediate humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine. The initiative will be run by a steering committee, which includes HawkEye 360, National Security Space Association (NSSA), ABL Space Systems, ARKA, BlackSky, Capella Space, ICEYE, Insight Partners, Leidos, LeoLabs, Maxar, Raytheon Intelligence & Space, Rebellion Defense, Relativity Space, Riverside Research, Rocket Lab, Velos and Viasat. The steering committee will fundraise, select and monitor the execution of critical humanitarian projects throughout Ukraine and its neighboring countries. Additional participating donor companies include The Aerospace Corporation, Cognitive Space and Shield Capital.

New analytic capabilities pinpoint dark maritime activity not seen by AIS

HERNDON, Va. (HawkEye 360 Inc. PR) — HawkEye 360 Inc., the world’s leading commercial provider of space-based Radio Frequency (RF) data and analytics, released a new maritime association analytics capability which analyzes RF signal geolocations and third-party global AIS maritime geolocations to provide insight into potential dark ship activity in key areas of interest (AOI) across the world. The maritime insights enable organizations to understand anomalies in the maritime domain and more effectively employ other collection and surveillance modalities to gather intelligence. This capability will allow coast guards, navies, law enforcement, fisheries, and non-profit organizations to increase maritime domain awareness and quickly identify RF activity that cannot be attributed to publicly identifiable maritime activity.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Rocket Lab PR) — Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a leading launch and space systems company, today announced it has been selected by Virginia-based HawkEye 360 to launch three Electron missions for the radio frequency geospatial analytics provider. The first of the three missions is scheduled to be Rocket Lab’s inaugural Electron mission from Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, ushering in an era of Rocket Lab launches from U.S. soil from no earlier than December 2022.