🛰️ MANUFACTURING AND OPERATIONS

Leaf Space signs up with Maritime Launch Services to install ground station
Leaf Space announces the signing of a new contract to install and operate a state-of-the-art ground station to be hosted at Spaceport Nova Scotia, Canada, a launch facility owned and operated by Maritime Launch Services.
Article

💰️ FINANCE, FUNDING AND M&A

Agile Space Industries raises funding led by Lockheed Martin Ventures
Agile Space Industries is making strides in the space propulsion sector, securing a new round of investment led by Lockheed Martin Ventures. The funds are set to fuel the expansion and development of Agile’s Mobile Payload Processing Center
This round of funding also brought in new investors, including Veteran Ventures Capital and BOKA Capital
Article

Reflect Orbital completes seed funding for space based sunlight reflection technology
Reflect Orbital, a space-tech startup, recently announced the successful completion of its $6.5 million seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital to launch its production vehicles and grow a team dedicated to advancing space-based sunlight reflection technology.
Additional investments came from Starship Ventures, Baiju Bhatt, Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, and Keenan Wyrobek. This funding round marks Sequoia’s first space technology investment since SpaceX.
Article

D-Orbit closes series C funding round led by Marubeni Corporation
D-Orbit has announced today the second and final closing of its €150m [$166m] Series C Round, making one the biggest space deals in the last 12 months.
The round is led by Marubeni Corporation along with other investors such as Avantgarde, Iberis Capital, European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Phaistos Investment Fund, United Ventures, European Investment Bank, and the European Investment Fund.
Article 

🛰️ CORE SERVICES

Spaceflux wins contract to build infrared telescope
Spaceflux has won the “Infra-Red Sensor Technology Demonstrator System for Space Domain Awareness” contract from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), a UK Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) executive agency.
The contract involves the design and build of an infrared telescope testbed to de-risk the technology for ground-based surveillance and characterization of satellites.
Article

🛰️ PRODUCT, PARTNERSHIPS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Viasat introduces on-demand managed L-band service offering communications flexibility
Viasat has introduced Enhanced LAISR, the company’s global mobility, on-demand managed L-band service offering communications flexibility for airborne, maritime and land users worldwide — this technology will deliver highly available, flexible, on-demand capabilities enabled by Viasat’s seamless, global L-band space and ground network.
Artice

🚀 LAUNCH CONTRACTS AND MISSIONS

Deep Blue Aerospace suffers partial failure during first stage test
Chinese commercial rocket firm Deep Blue Aerospace conducted a first-stage rocket hop test Sunday, experiencing a partial failure during the final moments of landing.
Footage of the vertical liftoff, vertical landing test shows the rocket ascending to a predetermined altitude before shutting off two of the three engines used for the 179-second flight.
Landing legs deployed as planned, and the stage hovered above its planned landing spot. However an anomaly during the final engine shutdown phase led to a higher-than-expected landing altitude, leading to partial damage.
Article

Rocket Lab launches second mission for IOT company, Kineis
Electron launched a second set of satellites for French startup Kinéis Sept. 20, putting that company on track to begin offering Internet of Things services.
The launch is the second of five that Kinéis procured from Rocket Lab in 2021, after one in June. The five launches will deploy a 25-satellite constellation that Kinéis will use to provide IoT services globally.
Article

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries launches classfied satellite
Japan launched the classified IGS-Radar 8 satellite early Thursday with the second-to-last H-2A rocket.
Information Gathering Satellite (IGS) Radar 8 was launched into sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). Japan’s Cabinet Satellite Information Center will operate the satellite. The IGS series includes both optical and radar satellites. Radar 8 will gather data for intelligence purposes and environmental and natural disaster monitoring, as with earlier IGS satellites.
Article

🌎️ CUSTOMERS OF THE SPACE INDUSTRY

Vodafone signs up with Intelsat’s Flex portfolio
Vodafone is expanding its work with Intelsat to bring on-the-move satellite communication to organizations operating in hard-to-reach areas or disaster zones.
Vodafone and Intelsat announced that Vodafone is adding Intelsat’s Flex portfolio to its satellite connectivity product range. This includes communications-on-the-move (COTM) with a vehicle-mounted antenna, and communications-on-the-pause (COTP) with a compact satellite terminal. Flex operates on Intelsat’s Geostationary Orbit (GEO) network. 
Article

Air France signs up with Starlink
Air France announced plans Sept. 26 to begin rolling out free Starlink broadband services across its entire fleet in the summer, becoming the latest major airline to partner with SpaceX’s low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation.
Article

📜 REGULATORY & GOVERNMENT

U.S Space Force awards contracts to develop cost effective GPS satellites
The U.S. Space Force selected four companies to develop concepts for smaller, more cost-effective GPS satellites based on commercial designs, aiming to augment the existing Global Positioning System network, the Department of the Air Force announced Sept. 23.
Astranis, Axient, L3Harris Technologies and Sierra Space have been chosen to submit proposals for the Resilient GPS (R-GPS) program, which seeks to explore the use of proliferated small satellites transmitting core GPS signals.
Article

Read older editions of the Newsletter here