🛰️ MANUFACTURING AND OPERATIONS

🇩🇪 Morpheus Space Expands Production
Morpheus Space is ramping up electric propulsion production in its new Dresden, Germany, factory.
In the 1,260-square-meter factory, Morpheus will initially produce 100 GO-2 Field Emission Electric Propulsion-based propulsion systems per year. With additional personnel and equipment, Morpheus could produce 500 GO-2 units annually.
Morpheus executives decided to expand production after hearing current and prospective customers complain of waiting a year for propulsion deliveries
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🇺🇸 Sierra Space Conducts Successful Test Of Key Module
Sierra Space has completed a second full-scale burst test of an inflatable module that the company is developing for the Orbital Reef commercial space station and its own efforts.
The company announced July 25 that it conducted the “ultimate burst pressure” test in June at the Marshall Space Flight Center. In the test, the 300-cubic-meter module was pressurized until it burst to test its strength and compliance with safety margins.
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💰️ FINANCE, FUNDING AND M&A

🇺🇸 L3 Harris Reports Second Quarter Financial Results
L3Harris Space segment saw flat sales in the second quarter of 2024, while the Aerojet Rocketdyne acquisition contributed to revenue growth company-wide. L3Harris reported its second quarter results on July 26. 
Company-wide, revenue was up 13% year-over-year, primarily due to the Aerojet Rocketdyne acquisition. Revenue in the Space segment was flat year-over-year at $1.7 billion.
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🇺🇸 Iridium Reports Second Quarter Financial Results
Iridium Communications increased revenue by 4% in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous year with higher commercial revenue and higher government engineering revenue.
Also during the quarter, Iridium repurchased $96.6 million of its shares, equal to 3% of company shares. 
Iridium reported total revenue of $201 million during the quarter. Net income was $32.3 million, compared to net loss of $30.7 million in the same time last year. Operational EBITDA was $114.0 million, a 2% year-over-year decrease. 
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🛰️ CORE SERVICES

🇦🇺🇳🇿SmartSat CRC Announces Research Projects With New Zealand Government
Australia’s SmartSat CRC is joining forces with the New Zealand Government to bring four new joint research projects under the Australia-New Zealand Collaborative Space Program.
The four initial research projects, commencing in August 2024, include research into monitoring methane emissions, enhancing real-time monitoring of greenhouse gases, managing free space optical communication nodes across Australia and New Zealand, improving the tracking of space objects, and developing a joint AUS-NZ concept for maritime domain awareness. SmartSat CRC announced the new initiative July 24.
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🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 Orbit Fab Lands Multiple Government Contracts
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) awarded Orbit Fab a £1.3 million ($1.7 million) Major Project grant under their National Space Innovation Programme. This grant will fund the design of a high-pressure variant of the RAFTI (Rapidly
Separately, Orbit Fab has secured additional contracts, including £165,000 ($213,000) with the European Space Agency (ESA) via City University London, and a £500,000 ($646,000) contract as the prime for the phase 1 design of a mission to refuel a future UK Active Debris Removal spacecraft.
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🇺🇸 Interlune Receives NASA Contract For Lunar Soil Processing
Seattle-based Interlune has received a $348,000 grant from NASA to test its system for processing lunar soil on a series of reduced-gravity airplane flights — marking one more small step toward harvesting helium-3 and other resources on the moon.
The project is one of 11 selected for funding through NASA’s TechFlights program, which supports space technology testing on suborbital rockets, rocket-powered landers or airplane-based platforms.
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🛰️ PRODUCT, PARTNERSHIPS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

🇺🇸 Viasat Introduces AIR-IQ
Viasat has introduced the company’s Air-IQ, the firm’s new and upcoming connectivity solution that is designed to deliver faster, smarter intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) communications for government and military missions globally.
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🇺🇸 Moog’s Second Product Launch This Month
Moog has developed a compact and lightweight thruster gimbal assembly — this device has been specifically designed to meet the increasing demands of small payload and satellite market.
The Model S Thruster Gimbal Assembly (Model-S TGA) allows for close integration and support of electric propulsion thrusters (EP), propellant lines, and electrical power lines in a minimal envelope. It is almost a 1:1 ratio between the gimbal and mass of the payload that it is designed to support, which is critical for the small satellite market where space is at a premium.
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🇦🇪 Orbital Space Unveils Student Led Lunar Program
Orbital Space has unveiled the Orbital Space Lunar Program, a landmark initiative in the Arab world’s space exploration history.
This program will send a student-built experiment to the Moon, marking the Arab world’s first privately funded lunar mission
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🚀 LAUNCH CONTRACTS AND MISSIONS

🇺🇸 USSF Awards NSSL Phase 2 Contracts to ULA & SpaceX
Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) awarded more than $1.7 billion in National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract modifications to the Space Force’s established rocket providers — United Launch Services (a subsidiary of ULA) — and SpaceX.
SSC awarded United Launch about $1.1 billion for Phase 2 launches through fiscal 2027 to bring the total awarded to United Launch for Phase 2 since 2020 to $4.5 billion. SpaceX received a $661 million contract modification to bring the total awarded to that company under NSSL Phase 2 to $4 billion.
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🌎️ CUSTOMERS OF THE SPACE INDUSTRY

🇺🇸 🇵🇱 Viasat Awarded In-flight Connectivity Contract From LOT Polish Airlines
Poland’s flagship air carrier LOT Polish Airlines awarded Viasat a contract to provide in-flight connectivity for 15 Boeing aircraft in its fleet. This marks the first time LOT will offer in-flight Wi-Fi. 
Viasat will equip 15 aircraft in LOT’s wide-body Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliner fleet with Ka-band IFC as part of a major upgrade that includes upgrading the internal cabin design and seat replacements. Service on the planes is expected to begin by early 2026. 
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📜 REGULATORY & GOVERNMENT

🇪🇺 🇬🇧 European Space Agency Expands Into The United Kingdom
The European Space Agency unveiled plans July 23 to expand its presence in the United Kingdom as the country announced 2.1 million pounds ($2.7 million) of funding for programs tackling space industry skills gaps.
ESA and the UK Space Agency said they are exploring the potential for a space quantum technologies laboratory in the country.
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🇺🇸 3GPP approves Intelsat’s Ku-band Standardization Project
The 3GPP mobile standards organization has approved an Intelsat-led Ku-band project for standardization. Intelsat led the effort with support from 35 companies and 3GPP community members, including other satellite operators, terrestrial vendors, and mobile network operators (MNOs).
The approval of the “Ku-band Work Package” means that Intelsat and other satellite providers will now begin the process leading to full certification to deploy Ku-band-based 5G New Radio (NR) services, targeted to be completed at the end of 2025. 
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🇮🇳 Indian Space Regulator Invites Private Sector To Build and Manage EO System
The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) has invited proposals from Indian startups and private companies to build and manage a space-based earth observation (EO) system.
To be undertaken under a public-private partnership (PPP) model, the project will involve designing, building and launching a constellation of satellites that will be equipped with advanced imaging technologies.
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