🛰️ MANUFACTURING AND OPERATIONS

🌎️ Global Satellite Operators Unaffected by Microsoft Outage
A number of major satellite operators said they were unaffected by the Microsoft outage on July 19 that created IT issues in multiple industries around the world and grounded flights. 
Intelsat, Eutelsat Communications, SES, Telesat, and Iridium Communications said in statements they were not impacted by the Microsoft outage. 
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💰️ FINANCE, FUNDING AND M&A

🇺🇸 Launch Vehicle company Astra exits the public markets
Astra Space ended more than three years as a public company July 18 by completing a deal to take the company private at a tiny fraction of what it was once valued at.
The company announced before the markets opened that it had closed a deal announced earlier this year with the company’s co-founders, Chris Kemp and Adam London, to take the company private at 50 cents per share. Shares had closed at 53.9 cents July 17.
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🛰️ CORE SERVICES

🇫🇷 Thales Alenia Space Awarded Contract For Capture and Inspect Mission
France has awarded a Thales Alenia Space-led group a contract to capture and inspect a small satellite in a demonstration mission slated toward the end of the decade.
Supported by undisclosed funding from French space agency CNES and state-owned investment bank Bpifrance, the mission would use a pair of spacecraft due to launch before the end of 2028 as part of the European Robotic Orbital Support Services (EROSS) program.
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🛰️ PRODUCT, PARTNERSHIPS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

🇺🇸 SpaceX and NASA Reveals U.S De-Orbit Vehicle Details
NASA and SpaceX officials provided new details about the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) spacecraft NASA selected SpaceX to build June 26 under a contract worth up to $843 million. At the time of the announcement, neither the agency nor the company described the design of the spacecraft or its specific capabilities.
The USDV will be based on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft but with a redesigned, larger trunk section with more Draco thrusters. The spacecraft will have 46 Draco thrusters, 16 for attitude control and 30 to perform the maneuvers needed to lower the station’s orbit at the end of its life, said Sarah Walker, director of Dragon mission management at SpaceX.
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🇬🇧 Goonhilly Upgrades Product Line Through Restructuring
Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd has now organized their services into three, dedicated divisions: Commercial Satcom, Defence and Security, and Lunar and Deep Space Communications.
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🚀 LAUNCH CONTRACTS AND MISSIONS

🇮🇳 ISRO Tests Air Breathing Propulsion System
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully carried out the second experimental flight for the demonstration of Air Breathing Propulsion Technology.
The Propulsion systems were symmetrically mounted on either side of a RH-560 Sounding rocket and launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The flight test achieved satisfactory performance of the Sounding Rocket along with successful ignition of the Air Breathing propulsion systems. Nearly 110 parameters were monitored during the flight to assess its performance.
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🇩🇪 🇬🇧 Hyimpulse Secures Sub-Orbital Launch Funding  
The UK Space Agency has awarded £5 million (5.94 million) in new funding to HyImpulse for its Sustainable Hybrid: Accelerated Rocket Programme (SHARP)
HyImpulse will partner with Cranfield University, Birmingham University and the AVICON Partnership for the SHARP project. It aims to conduct a launch of the German rocket builder’s SR75 sounding rocket from UK the SaxaVord Spaceport. This launch will aid in the project’s final goal which is for HyImpulse to finish building the second stage of its SL1 rocket which will be capable of deploying payloads into orbit.
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🌍️ New Launch Vehicle Ariane 6 Contracted For Crewed Missions
The European Space Agency has awarded Arianespace a contract to explore potential options for enabling crewed missions to be launched aboard the Ariane 6 rocket.
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🌎️ CUSTOMERS OF THE SPACE INDUSTRY

🇬🇧 Rolls Royce Pioneers Development Of Space Nuclear Power
Rolls-Royce has secured funding from the UK Space Agency under the National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP), which adds more support for the development of its space nuclear power technology.
The new £4.8m award from NSIP Major Projects will help to significantly advance the development and demonstration of key technologies in the space nuclear Micro-Reactor.
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📜 REGULATORY & GOVERNMENT

🇰🇷 Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA)
South Korea recently launched its new central space agency, Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA).
KASA will serve as the control tower for national space affairs and international cooperation,” with the goal of creating an aerospace economy in South Korea. That work will be focused on space transportation, satellite, space exploration and aviation. KASA has long-term goals, he added, of sending a robotic lander to the moon in 2032 and another to Mars in 2045.
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🇪🇺 European Space Agency’s Space Environment Report 2024
Since 2016, ESA’s Space Debris Office has published an annual Space Environment Report to provide a transparent overview of global space activities and determine how well these and other international debris-reduction measures are improving the long-term sustainability of spaceflight.
The 2024 report.

🇸🇦 NEO Space Group wins Saudi Arabia’s First Space Regulatory Approval
The Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has announced that the Neo Space Group has won the competition for obtaining a permit to provide Earth Observation Platform Service.
The permit also allows the establishment and operation of an electronic platform for collecting and processing Earth Observation data from satellites such as images of monitoring the Earth’s natural terrain, environmental pollution, and weather.
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