200,000 light years away, a rotating black hole seven times more massive than our Sun is busy devouring its companion main-sequence star. Scientists have detected polarized photons emerging from the black hole system, housed in the satellite dwarf galaxy LMC X-3, for the first time, researchers from India announced recently.

This year’s Small Satellite Conference in Logan, Utah was the largest and best attended in history. But, is it about to get a lot larger as the space industry grows around the world? And what underrepresented country could boost attendee numbers the most? Let’s take a look.

India launched its second mission to land on the Moon on Friday, July 14, as a LVM III rocket roared off the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre with the Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander aboard.

India’s second mission to land on the Moon and a Chinese company’s attempt to fly the world’s first methane-powered rocket headline this week’s Launch Roundup.

Welcome to Biz Briefs! In today’s edition, India is in talks with Blue Origin to use the Orbital Reef space station, ArianeGroup fired a reusable rocket stage with a reusable engine, Spaceport Nova Scotia plans its first launch, Venturi Group reinvents the wheel for lunar rovers, 2022 was a record year for commercial satellites, and much more.

In this week’s Launch Roundup, SpaceX will launch a new space telescope, India will send a spacecraft to land on the moon, and Europe will say goodbye to a venerable launch vehicle during the first half of July. In the meantime, the world is closing in on 100 launch attempts as the first half of 2023 comes to a close on Friday.

Western manufacturers used to rolling satellites off assembly lines in large numbers could soon be facing some low-cost competition from India’s Azista BST Aerospace (ABA).

Long dominated almost exclusively by the government, the Indian space industry is set for potentially explosive growth under a new national policy issued last month that opens the door for private companies to pursue virtually any business related to space.

OneWeb said it can now offer global broadband service following the launch of 36 satellites aboard an Indian LVM III booster on Sunday. Relativity Space looked on the bright side following the failed maiden launch of its new Terran 1 booster. And a new Chinese rocket is set to debut this week.

Japan is set to launch its H3 rocket for the first time and a trio of spacecraft are headed to the International Space Station (ISS) in the weeks ahead. India is also hoping the second launch of its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) will succeed where the first failed.