🛰️ MANUFACTURING AND OPERATIONS

🇺🇸 Amazon expands satellite processing facility
Amazon is investing $19.5 million to expand its satellite processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, to mitigate delays in deploying its 3,200-strong Project Kuiper broadband constellation.
The company said Aug. 22 the investment will support a secondary, 3,900-square-meter support facility at the site, which would help accelerate launch cadence amid a looming regulatory deadline to deploy half the constellation by July 2026.
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🇺🇸Scout Space partners with Dawn Aerospace for VLEO object observation
Scout Space has signed an agreement with Dawn Aerospace to demonstrate the ability to observe objects in very low Earth orbit (VLEO) from an aircraft operating in suborbital space. 
Under the deal announced Aug. 22, Scout will install its space domain awareness sensors aboard Dawn Aerospace’s Mk-II Aurora uncrewed suborbital spaceplane for a test flight targeted for November at the Tāwhaki National Aerospace Centre near Christchurch, New Zealand.
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🇩🇪Tesat Spacecom opens new manufacturing facility to handle production ramp-up
Tesat opened a new production facility in Backnang, Germany, to manufacture the company’s laser terminals.
Tesat is ramping up for industrialized production of its laser terminals, which were selected to support the Telesat Lightpseed constellation, built by MDA Space. Tesat will supply 792 of its SCOT80 optical communications terminal under the deal. 
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💰️ FINANCE, FUNDING AND M&A

🇨🇳 Deep Blue Aerospace concludes series B3 financing
Deep Blue Aerospace has reportedly completed its Series B3 financing round, with major contributions from Zhengyue Investment and the Zhenghe Yunfan Fund. This funding round also received support from Xiamen City and Jimei District, positioning the company to advance its commercial aerospace initiatives.
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🛰️ CORE SERVICES

🇺🇸 NASA contracts 3 Orbital Transfer Vehicle companies for VADR contract
NASA announced Aug. 22 that it selected Arrow Science and Technology, Impulse Space and Momentus Space for its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract. That selection allows them to compete for task orders for launching specific missions, typically small satellites willing to accept higher levels of risk in exchange for lower launch costs.
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🇺🇸 NASA extends contract with Teledyne Brown Engineering for a key component of the SLS
NASA plans to extend the contract for the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter (LVSA) of the current version of the Space Launch System with options that suggest the agency is protecting against multi-year delays in future missions.
Teledyne Brown Engineering is the prime contractor for the LVSA under a contract awarded in 2014. The contract, valued at about $200 million, was scheduled to end in September.
NASA, in an Aug. 14 procurement filing, announced its intent to extend that contract to at least September 2026. That would allow Teledyne Brown to complete work on the third and final LVSA “as well as to ultimately conclude LVSA activities” under the contract.
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🇸🇪 Swedish Space Corporation signs up for Ovzon 3’s services
Ovzon recently received an initial limited order for Ovzon SATCOM-as-a-Service using the newly operationalized Ovzon 3 satellite from partner Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) — the service was delivered within 24 hours of being requested.
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🇺🇸 Northrop Grumman selected for second Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability Program
The U.S. Space Force awarded a $200 million contract to Northrop Grumman to construct a radar site in the United Kingdom to monitor objects in outer space. This initiative is part of the AUKUS security alliance involving Australia, the U.K. and the United States.
The contract, announced Aug. 23, is for the second site of the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) program, which aims to create a global network of three advanced radar systems — one in each of the AUKUS partner nations. The first DARC site is currently under development in Western Australia, expected to be operational by 2026, while a third site is being planned in the United States.
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🇺🇸 Viasat awarded contract for engineering support services
The Defense Information Systems Agency awarded Viasat a $153.5 million contract for engineering support services for the U.S. Army Blue Force Tracker-2 system. 
The award announced Aug. 22 is a non-competitive, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost contract with a one-year base period of performance with four one-year options. The contract is funded by fiscal 2024 other procurement Army funds.
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🇨🇭 🇨🇦 MDA Space awards on-board computer contract to Beyond Gravity
MDA Space has selected Beyond Gravity to supply on-board computers for its Aurora satellite supply chain, including for the Telesat Lightspeed constellation. Beyond Gravity will provide 252 on-board computers with integrated navigation receivers and antennas. 
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🛰️ PRODUCT, PARTNERSHIPS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

No product announcements today!

🚀 LAUNCH CONTRACTS AND MISSIONS

🇮🇳 India’s SSLV executes its third mission
India successfully launched its third SSLV Thursday, placing an Earth observation satellite EOS-08 into orbit and completing the solid rocket’s development process.
The rocket carried the experimental Earth observation EOS-08 spacecraft and a nanosat demonstration satellite from startup Space Rickshaw
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🌎️ CUSTOMERS OF THE SPACE INDUSTRY

🇫🇮 🇺🇸 Axiom Space to work with Nokia for space suit communications tech
Axiom Space is working with Nokia to adapt terrestrial wireless technologies to provide high-speed communications for the Artemis spacesuits Axiom is developing.
The two companies announced a partnership Aug. 21 to develop 4G/LTE communications technologies, called the Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS), for the suits Axiom is developing for NASA for use starting on the Artemis 3 mission no earlier than late 2026.
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🇫🇷 🇭🇳 Eutelsat renews broadcast contract with Cable Color
Eutelsat Group signed a multi-year renewal with Cable Color for satellite capacity to continue broadcast services in Latin America. Cable Color, based in Honduras, is a longtime customer of Eutelsat’s. The deal announced Aug. 22 continues service on the Eutelsat 117 West A satellite.
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📜 REGULATORY & GOVERNMENT

🇳🇴 Andoya Spaceport receives operating license its Government
Andøya Spaceport announced Aug. 22 that it received a license from Norway’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries that allows it to conduct launches from the site, located on the island of Andøya north of the Arctic Circle.
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🇺🇸 Outpost wins developmental contract from U.S Air Force
Outpost won a $33.2M STRATFI contract from the Air Force to develop its technology for hypersonic testing and reentry missions, the company announced yesterday.
The award will fund four missions for Outpost’s smaller Earth return vehicle, Ferryall, with enough funds left over to support the development of Outpost’s larger Carryall vehicle, which can carry up to 10 tons of cargo back to Earth.
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🇺🇸 Nine space technology companies won a new round of contracts from SpaceWERX
The following nine companies received a total of $146 million in Small Business Innovation Research funds, $155 million in additional government matching funds, and $217 million in private matching funds. 

• American Lithium Energy, a company that specializes in advanced lithium-ion battery technology.

• Apex Technology, a satellite manufacturing company 

• Impulse Space, a developer of orbital transfer vehicles that move satellites from low to high orbits

• Inversion Space, a startup that develops autonomous reentry vehicles that can deliver cargo from space to precise locations on the ground

• K2 Space, a manufacturer of large satellite buses

• Outpost Space, a developer of space vehicles capable of returning payloads to Earth with high precision. 

• Portal Space Systems, a startup that developed a maneuverable satellite bus called Supernova

• Turion Space, a startup focused on in-space mobility and non-Earth imaging

• Wildstar, a technology company that specializes in next-generation narrowband antennas for satellite communication.

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