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July 15 2024 Space Industry Round-up

Indian SpaceTech contracts aplenty

Newsletter #20

Welcome to Wormhole, a daily newsletter curating space industry news from all over the world.

Every newsletter is curated into 7 specific categories of space industry ‘contracts’:
manufacturing and operations, financial events, core services, product partnerships & announcements, ‘customers of the space industry , launch missions & contracts, government & regulatory contracts

The newsletter also contains a free news intelligence tool (scroll to bottom) featuring Wormhole’s unique taxonomy to help you extract basic intelligence from curated public information.

write to us at news@getwormhole.space

 🛰️ MANUFACTURING AND OPERATIONS

🇺🇸 SpaceX says it will not be able to recover the 20 Starlink satellites left in a very low orbit after a malfunction of a Falcon 9 upper stage on a July 11 launch.
In a statement July 12, the company said that the 20 satellites on the Group 9-3 launch have been unable to raise the orbit because the electric propulsion systems on the spacecraft cannot counteract the high atmospheric drag the satellites encounter in their very low orbits.
Article

🇺🇦 🇰🇷 SETS has signed a contract with the South Korean producer of satellite electric power systems EPS Tech.
According to the contract, SETS will build two ST-25 Hall Thrusters for EPS Tech in the coming months
Article

🇨🇭 Beyond Gravity has released its net zero roadmap in conjunction with its sustainability report, outlining its strategy to achieve a net zero footprint within its operations by 2026
Article

💰️ FINANCE, FUNDING AND M&A

🇪🇸 A group of Spanish banks have backed PLD Space with a 31.2 million euro ($34 million) loan to fund the company’s Miura 5 space launch program. Banco Santander and EBN Banco are co-lead banks for the syndicated loan, which includes participation from the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO). 
This financing is earmarked for the Miura 5 smallsat launch vehicle, including developing technology, expanding the company’s industrial capabilities, and building associated infrastructure
Article

🇮🇳 Space tech start-up GalaxEye has raised around ₹8.3 crore in funding from publicly listed drone company IdeaForge in return for a minority, non-controlling stake. The partnership follows the companies’ common aim to develop tech products for the armed forces in the drone and satellite services segment. 
Satellite imaging start-up GalaxEye has raised around ₹8.3 crore (USD 990,000 approx) in funding from publicly listed drone company IdeaForge in return for a minority, non-controlling stake. The partnership follows the companies’ common aim to develop tech products for the armed forces in the drone and satellite services segment. 
Article

🛰️ CORE SERVICES

🇺🇸BAE Systems and strategic partners L3Harris Technologies and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) have been selected as one of three teams to mature technologies in support of NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) mission concept.
Together, the team will conduct a two-year research effort called the Ultra-stable Large Telescope Research and Analysis Program – Critical Technologies (ULTRA-CT). The program is meant to close gaps in the performance of large space telescopes through the advancement of ultra-stable optical systems
Article

🇮🇱🇲🇦 Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) recently signed a $1 billion contract with a foreign customer, purportedly Morocco — no in-depth details have been released about this substantial contract for the delivery of advanced, intelligence satellites to that nation.
Two intelligence gathering satellites will, allegedly, be built, using the IAI’s OPTSAT 3000 series and these spacecraft will supposedly replace two, older, lower resolutions satellites in operation by Morocco.
Article

🇦🇺 🇮🇳 The iLAuNCH Trailblazer project builds on original work from The Australian National University and Boswell Technologies that launched to space in 2023. The Bogong Thruster is a box containing naphthalene (mothballs) which is a propellant that goes directly from a solid to a gas when heated. By emitting naphthalene gas into space, you create thrust, pushing your spacecraft forward in the opposite direction.
iLAuNCH is partnering with Indian company Azista Industries to integrate the thruster into a CubeSat to demonstrate space flight heritage on orbit. Successful demonstration of this thruster will open it up for commercialisation into the CubeSats and SmallSats that Azista is developing.
Article

🛰️ PRODUCT, PARTNERSHIPS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

🇺🇸 Moog is rolling out a new space computer designed to support the next-generation of on-orbit computing needs. The company announced the Moog Cascade Single Board Computer (SBC) on July 9. It is a radiation-hardened space computer for multi-mission, bus/payload applications for all orbital regimes.
Article

🇸🇦 SARsatX Introduces its SAR Airborne Sensor SSX-1, designed and developed in Saudi Arabia in collaboration with King Saud University (KSU) and supported by the National Technology Development Program (NTDP).
Article

🚀 LAUNCH CONTRACTS AND MISSIONS

no launches or launch contracts today!

🌎️ CUSTOMERS OF THE SPACE INDUSTRY

nothing to see here today!

📜 REGULATORY & GOVERNMENT

🇺🇸 The Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security released a study July 15 titled “Modernizing Space-Based Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications” that recommends steps to protect space-based elements of the U.S. nuclear command, control and communications (NC3) system. The report comes amid growing concerns about Russia’s development of space-based nuclear weapons and the vulnerability of critical military satellites.
Article

🇨🇦🇺🇸Spire Global was awarded a CA $1.41 million contract by the Government of Canada (GoC) for the provision of global automatic identification system (AIS) ship tracking data. The one-year contract includes options for two additional years, extending the total potential contract value to nearly CA $4.23 million.
Under the contract, Spire will share its real-time global ship tracking data, providing unparalleled visibility in both open oceans and high-traffic zones. The Company will also provide historical AIS data as well as its AIS position validation capabilities, which leans on its expertise in radio frequency geolocation to determine the true location of a ship even when its signal is manipulated.
Article

🇮🇳 Indian Spacetech startup Dhruva Space has become one of the first private players in the country to get authorisation from Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Center (IN-Space) to provide ground stations as a service (GSaaS)
Article

🇮🇳🇺🇸 SatSure, an Indian SpaceTech decision intelligence company's case study was featured by IFC - International Finance Corporation in a report that highlighted space solutions supporting the assessment of climate impact on agricultural sector for financial institutions.
The case study outlines SatSure's collaboration with one of India’s largest private sector banks to develop a customized agricultural lending decisioning framework by combining satellite imagery with artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide insights for banks to assess agroclimatic risks.
Article

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