Welcome to Biz Briefs. In this edition, Maxar is going private, a consortium of aerospace heavyweights will bid for Europe’s Starlink rival, Seraphim Space selects nine companies for its next business accelerator, ESA funds a study for a reusable heavy-lift launcher, Lockheed and Raytheon teams win defense contracts, AeroVironment receives a Mars helicopter contract, CesiumAstro to provide Raytheon with antennas, NASA awarded contracts for a weather satellite, and Thales Alenia Space conducted a cybersecurity demonstration with an active satellite.

Lots of raises, contracts, grants and more as we powered through the second week of 2023. Let’s take a look.

Partnership

Voyager Space and Airbus Defence and Space are partnering to develop and operate Starlab, a free-flying space station set for launch in 2028 that will serve NASA and a global customer base of space agencies and researchers. Airbus will provide technical design support and expertise for the Starlab station.

WRIGHT PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OH. (AFRL PR) — Air Force Research Laboratory research sponsorship recipient, United Semiconductors, LLC (USLLC), is one of eight companies selected to work on a three-year, $21 million NASA contract to manufacture tools in space.

HARTFORD, Conn. (Joseph Saveri Law Firm PR) — The Joseph Saveri Law Firm, one of the country’s leading antitrust firms, filed a class action complaint Friday against Pratt & Whitney and other aerospace companies, alleging those companies entered and maintained no-poach hiring agreements for nearly a decade, if not longer. Pratt & Whitney is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies Corporation.

No-poach agreements are agreements between otherwise competing employers not to recruit or hire one another’s employees. No-poach agreements are usually kept secret, creating information imbalance, and preventing employees from negotiating higher salaries and more favorable employment terms. For these reasons and others, no-poach agreements are inherently illegal under United States antitrust laws. They are detrimental to labor markets as they suppress employee compensation and reduce job mobility for workers.

LAFAYETTE, Colo., October 20, 2021 (Blue Canyon PR) — Small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies LLC (“BCT” or “Blue Canyon”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, delivered the first of four 6U CubeSats to NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The CubeSats will support a technology demonstration called Starling. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the demonstration. Under the current contract agreement, in addition to designing and manufacturing the spacecraft buses, BCT will also provide engineering and support to Starling mission operations for the four flight-qualified 6U CubeSats.

“The delivery of CubeSats will allow Ames to continue with payload integration and testing of the integrated flight unit,” said Stephanee Borck, senior program manager at Blue Canyon Technologies. “A lot of hard work from both teams has gone into making it thus far in the project. We look forward to delivering the next three CubeSats and seeing what the technology demonstration can do on-orbit.”

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (SEKR Engineering PR) — Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held SEAKR Engineering, Inc., a leading supplier of advanced space electronics. Closure of the acquisition is subject to the completion of customary conditions and regulatory approvals. SEAKR Engineering will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies and will report into Raytheon Intelligence & Space upon closing.

“Our investment strategy accelerates our agility in meeting a higher standard of performance ― the space standard ― and expands our core space business with new applications that are shaping our world,” said Roy Azevedo, president of Raytheon Intelligence & Space. “With SEAKR Engineering, we are enhancing our capability to provide qualified systems faster. SEAKR’s culture of forward-thinking innovation will complement our ability to solve our space customers’ hardest problems.”

• $2.6 million contract to provide life support systems for an undisclosed customer
• Leveraging existing technologies for commercial use will enable greater space travel

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Aug. 23, 2021 (Collins Aerospace PR) – Collins Aerospace has been awarded a $2.6 million contract by an undisclosed customer for Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) that will support a mission to establish a privately owned and operated orbital outpost in low Earth orbit.

The ECLSS is a suite of technologies that enable livable conditions as low as 250 kilometers above Earth’s surface. The ECLSS includes air revitalization and pressure control systems made up of cabin fans, heat exchangers, carbon dioxide removal, trace contaminant control, valves, regulators and smoke detection. Additionally, it includes an active thermal control system to maintain optimal temperatures in space.

The new eight-acre campus will support spaceflight, host Houston’s first space incubator

HOUSTON, May 19, 2021 (Collins Aerospace PR) – Collins Aerospace, a unit of Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX), and Houston Airports, which manages and operates Houston Spaceport at Ellington Airport, EFD, announced plans for a new eight-acre, 120,000 square-foot campus that will support spaceflight and host Houston’s first spaceflight incubator.

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has awarded the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Evolution and Development (EED)-3 contract to Raytheon Company of Riverdale, Maryland. The maximum ordering value of this cost-plus-award-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task order contract is $275 million. The contract has a five-year ordering period from the effective date of the contract. The purpose of this contract is to acquire services for the continued improvement, reliability, availability, […]

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected L3Harris Technologies Inc. of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Raytheon Company of El Segundo, California, for the Geostationary and Extended Orbits (GEO-XO) Imager (GXI) Phase A Study contracts. The GXI Phase A Study requirement will provide services to help meet the objectives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GEO-XO program.

The total value of each of these one-year firm-fixed price contracts is approximately $6M. The work will be performed at the contractors’ facilities in Indiana and California.