Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has completed integration and testing of two spacecraft destined for Mars orbit.

Rocket Lab built the twin spacecraft for the University of California Berkeley’s Space Science Laboratory and NASA to enable the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral this year. This heliophysics mission will measure plasma and magnetic fields around the Red Planet, helping scientists learn more about the processes that strip away atoms from Mars’ magnetosphere and upper atmosphere, driving Martian climate evolution.

Named Blue and Gold, the spacecraft were designed, built, integrated, and tested at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California.

Based on Rocket Lab’s Explorer spacecraft, a configurable, high delta-V interplanetary platform, the duo features Rocket Lab-built components and subsystems, including solar panels, star trackers, propellant tanks, reaction wheels, reaction control systems, radios, and more.

Mars missions can take a decade or more from proposal to launch, but Rocket Lab was able to produce Blue and Gold in just three and half years due to mature, proven spacecraft development experience, as well as a vertically integrated supply chain that enables streamlined production.

Blue and Gold are scheduled to ship to Cape Canaveral in August where they will be integrated onto Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.

“Building one Mars spacecraft is an achievement, but building two and doing it on an accelerated timeline is testament to our team’s deep experience and our vertical integration strategy,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck. “We are immensely proud to once again partner with NASA and support the UCB team to deliver new and important science from Mars.”

“Rocket Lab has been an invaluable partner to UC Berkeley over the last four years of ESCAPADE’s development,” said ESCAPADE Principal Investigator and Associate Director for Planetary Science at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, Rob Lillis. “Their energetic, talented engineers and managers have consistently gone above and beyond in responding rapidly and constructively to both our requests and the inevitable challenges inherent in developing new scientific spacecraft. We are proud to be flying with Rocket Lab to Mars.”

Astroscale Japan Inc. (“Astroscale Japan”), a subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc. (“Astroscale”), has revealed that the company’s commercial debris inspection demonstration satellite, Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J), has achieved a technical milestone for a commercial company: the controlled fly-around operations of the space debris — a rocket upper stage — capturing images from various angles and lighting conditions while maintaining a controlled fixed-point relative position of approximately 50 meters from the upper stage.

ADRAS-J is the world’s first attempt to safely approach, characterize and survey the state of an existing piece of large debris through Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO). This groundbreaking mission has rendezvoused with an unprepared Japanese upper stage rocket body that is approximately 11 meters long, 4 meters in diameter, and weighs approximately 3 tons.

After demonstrating safe approach and proximity operations with the object that is the size of a city bus, ADRAS-J has been gathering images and other data to assess its movement and structural condition. Unprepared objects in orbit are not designed with any technologies that enable docking or potential servicing or removal, heightening the complexity of operations.

The information gained from these images will provide essential data that will support a future mission to capture and remove the object.

During the first fly-around observation in June, ADRAS-J was approximately one-third through the maneuver (~120 degrees) when an unexpected attitude anomaly triggered an autonomous abort. ADRAS-J safely maneuvered away from the upper stage as designed, demonstrating the effectiveness of its on-board collision avoidance system in safely approaching a non-cooperative object. ADRAS-J then re-approached the upper stage and demonstrated two successful fly-around observations.

Watch the time lapses taken during fly-around operations:

Telephoto on July 15: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bKKkkX-7fn8
Wide-angle on July 15: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wk2N9Ldh-SA
Telephoto on July 16: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/V_dW4PC139Q
Wide-angle on July 16: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hXg_Jt4ni8I

Satellites and debris objects in low Earth orbit (below 2,000 km) travel at speeds of approximately 7 to 8 km per second, highlighting the challenge of locating, approaching, orbiting around, and gathering data from objects at this altitude. These capabilities are the baseline for on-orbit servicing and the achievements from the ADRAS-J mission will herald a new era in RPO missions, paving the way for future on-orbit services while laying the foundation for a sustainable space environment.

The ADRAS-J spacecraft was selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for Phase I of its Commercial Debris Removal Demonstration program, aimed at demonstrating technologies for removing large debris. Astroscale Japan was also selected as the contracting party for Phase II, which will involve the capture and deorbit of the upper stage.

Development of the ADRAS-J2 spacecraft is underway, and the heritage of the ADRAS-J spacecraft and operations, along with the data collected, will be utilized for the removal phase of the program. The three fly-around operations have revealed no major damage to the payload attach fitting, which is the planned capture point for the ADRAS-J2 mission.

Since the launch in February, the major ADRAS-J mission highlights include:

• Feb. 18: launch and start of in-orbit operations.
• Feb. 22: start of rendezvous phase.
• Apr. 9: start of Angles Only Navigation and proximity approach from several hundred kilometers.
• Apr. 16: start of Model Matching Navigation relative navigation techniques.
• Apr. 17: approach to the client within several hundred meters.
• May 23: approach to the client within 50 meters.
• May 23: first fixed-point observation completed.
• Jun. 17: second fixed-point observation completed.
• Jun. 19: start of fly-around operation and validation of collision avoidance system.
• Jul. 14: approach to the client within 50 meters. Third fixed-point observation completed.
• Jul. 15: successful second fly-around observation.
• Jul. 16: successful third fly-around observation.

HawkEye 360 Inc. continues the firm’s collaboration and investment in the Global Data Marketplace which expands HawkEye 360’s market reach, making the firm’s advanced data and analytics products accessible to a broader array of users with critical global missions — the Global Data Marketplace is a dynamic hub that connects government entities, academia, and international allies with commercial data vendors.

For HawkEye 360’s customers and U.S. government entities, the Global Data Marketplace streamlines the procurement process for our products and services, including GPS Interference, Maritime Domain Awareness, Electronic Order of Battle (EOB), and Communications mapping.  By eliminating traditional procurement barriers, the marketplace enhances operational efficiency and ensures critical data is readily accessible for mission-critical applications. Customers can easily access the necessary information, supporting timely decision-making and operations.

HawkEye 360’s robust data offerings are seamlessly integrated into the platform, allowing us to efficiently manage transactions and deliver precise geospatial insights to the right place at the right time.  This will allow HawkEye 360 to continue supporting the evolving needs of its customers worldwide, significantly impacting global safety missions.

“HawkEye 360’s integration with the Global Data Marketplace allows us to bring our novel RF data and analytics to a broader range of clients,” said Alex Fox, Chief Growth Officer at HawkEye 360. “The Marketplace enables HawkEye 360 to deliver precise and timely data, using a rapid acquisition process that empowers our customers to meet their strategic and operational requirements effectively.”

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) provider of launch services and space systems revealed the launch window for its 51^st Electron launch mission to deliver the latest satellite in a constellation being built by its long-standing customer Synspective.

The “Owl for One, One for Owl” mission is scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand during a 14-day launch window that opens on July 31st NZST / July 30^th UTC. In addition to deploying a single StriX satellite to low Earth orbit for this mission, Rocket Lab will perform an advanced mid-mission maneuver with Electron’s Kick Stage to shield the satellite from the sun and reduce radiation exposure.

The mission will be the fifth launch of a total of 16 launches on Electron for Synspective, a Japanese Earth observation company deploying a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites designed to deliver imagery that can detect millimeter-level changes to the Earth’s surface from space. Rocket Lab has been the sole launch provider for Synspective’s constellation to date, and this latest mission continues a lasting and trusted partnership to deploy their StriX constellation to low Earth orbit. Most recently that partnership was further cemented by a new multi-launch contract of ten dedicated Electron launches for Synspective announced in June 2024, with the launches in that new deal set to take place across 2025-2027.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, says, “Synspective’s long-standing trust in the team to build out their constellation is recognition of Electron’s continued dominance as the ultimate small launch vehicle for the industry. Schedule flexibility, a reliable rocket launching more and more frequently, and our unique in-space capabilities that support mission needs are all critical functions at play in the multi-launch contracts being signed by our domestic and international launch customers. It’s an honor to continue launching for Synspective through our ongoing partnership.”

“Owl for One, One for Owl” will be Rocket Lab’s 51^st Electron mission and ninth launch this year. As well as an additional launch for Synspective scheduled to take place before the end of this year, other launches for multi-launch contract customers include space-based intelligence company BlackSky and French Internet-of-Things (IoT) company Kinéis.

Rocket Lab’s date set for Synspective satellites launch

File photo of a Rocket Lab Electron launch.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has announced the launch window for the company’s 51^st Electron launch, a mission that will launch the latest satellite in a constellation that is being built by long-standing customer — Synspective.

Screenshot

The “Owl for One, One for Owl” mission is scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, during a 14-day launch window that opens on July 31st NZST / July 30^th UTC. In addition to deploying a single StriX satellite to LEO for this mission, Rocket Lab will perform an advanced, mid-mission maneuver with Electron’s Kick Stage to shield the satellite from the sun and reduce radiation exposure.

The mission will be the fifth launch of a total of 16 launches on Electron for Synspective, a Japanese EO company deploying a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites designed to deliver imagery that can detect millimeter-level changes to the Earth’s surface from space. Rocket Lab has been the sole launch provider for Synspective’s constellation to date, and this latest mission continues a lasting and trusted partnership to deploy their StriX constellation to low Earth orbit. Most recently that partnership was further cemented by a new multi-launch contract of ten dedicated Electron launches for Synspective announced in June 2024, with the launches in that new deal set to take place across 2025-2027.

“Owl for One, One for Owl” will be Rocket Lab’s 51^st Electron mission and ninth launch this year. As well as an additional launch for Synspective scheduled to take place before the end of this year, other launches for multi-launch contract customers include space-based intelligence company BlackSky and French IoT company, Kinéis.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, said, “Synspective’s long-standing trust in the team to build out their constellation is recognition of Electron’s continued dominance as the ultimate small launch vehicle for the industry. Schedule flexibility, a reliable rocket launching more and more frequently, and our unique in-space capabilities that support mission needs are all critical functions at play in the multi-launch contracts being signed by our domestic and international launch customers. It’s an honor to continue launching for Synspective through our ongoing partnership.”

SpaceX submitted its mishap report to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding Falcon 9’s launch anomaly on July 11, 2024. SpaceX’s investigation team, with oversight from the FAA, was able to identify the most probable cause of the mishap and associated corrective actions to ensure the success of future missions.

During a July 26 NASA briefing regarding the upcoming Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station Sarah Walker, director of Dragon mission management at SpaceX stated, “It moved through its line, because it was too cold, too slowly. Without that ignition fluid present at the time when the fuel and oxygen started mixing, that caused damage to a number of components on the engine.”

She added that the ”hard start,” as the engine anomaly is called, did not cause widespread damage to the stage enabling it to deploy the satellites and passivate itself. “But there were a handful of components on the engine that were damaged, which did not allow it to complete that second burn.”

Post-flight data reviews confirmed Falcon 9’s first stage booster performed nominally through ascent, stage separation, and a successful droneship landing. During the first burn of Falcon 9’s second stage engine, a liquid oxygen leak developed within the insulation around the upper stage engine. The cause of the leak was identified as a crack in a sense line for a pressure sensor attached to the vehicle’s oxygen system. This line cracked due to fatigue caused by high loading from engine vibration and looseness in the clamp that normally constrains the line. Despite the leak, the second stage engine continued to operate through the duration of its first burn, and completed its engine shutdown, where it entered the coast phase of the mission in the intended elliptical parking orbit.

A second burn of the upper stage engine was planned to circularize the orbit ahead of satellite deployment. However, the liquid oxygen leak on the upper stage led to the excessive cooling of engine components, most importantly those associated with delivery of ignition fluid to the engine. As a result, the engine experienced a hard start rather than a controlled burn, which damaged the engine hardware and caused the upper stage to subsequently lose attitude control. Even so, the second stage continued to operate as designed, deploying the Starlink satellites and successfully completing stage passivation, a process of venting down stored energy on the stage, which occurs at the conclusion of every Falcon mission.

Following deployment, the Starlink team made contact with 10 of the satellites to send early burn commands in an attempt to raise their altitude. Unfortunately, the satellites were in an enormously high-drag environment with a very low perigee of only 135 km above the Earth. As a result, all 20 Starlink satellites from this launch re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. By design, Starlink satellites fully demise upon reentry, posing no threat to public safety. To-date, no debris has been reported after the successful deorbit of Starlink satellites.

SpaceX engineering teams have performed a comprehensive and thorough review of all SpaceX vehicles and ground systems to ensure we are putting our best foot forward as we return to flight. For near term Falcon launches, the failed sense line and sensor on the second stage engine will be removed. The sensor is not used by the flight safety system and can be covered by alternate sensors already present on the engine. The design change has been tested at SpaceX’s rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas, with enhanced qualification analysis and oversight by the FAA and involvement from the SpaceX investigation team. An additional qualification review, inspection, and scrub of all sense lines and clamps on the active booster fleet led to a proactive replacement in select locations.

Safety and reliability are at the core of SpaceX’s operations. It would not have been possible to achieve our current cadence without this focus, and thanks to the pace we’ve been able to launch, we’re able to gather unprecedented levels of flight data and are poised to rapidly return to flight, safely and with increased reliability. Our missions are of critical importance – safely carrying astronauts, customer payloads, and thousands of Starlink satellites to orbit – and they rely on the Falcon family of rockets being one of the most reliable in the world. We thank the FAA and our customers for their ongoing work and support.

Moog Inc. (NYSE: MOG.A and MOG.B) 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) is a game-changer for smallsats. It builds on decades of proven performance and successfully addresses key design requirements within a small volume and low weight package. The 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.

In addition to the low size and weight, the Model-S TGA has integrated launch lock and vibration isolators. This launch lock mechanism is capable of supporting the payload and protects the gimbal and critical components from launch vibration and shock. This extra layer of protection is novel in a mechanism developed for the smallsat market.

“Our team is excited to announce this latest technological advancement, which exemplifies our commitment to innovation in precision motion control. It not only enhances performance and reliability, but also impacts the way our customers approach their engineering challenges. Providing them with unparalleled tools and solutions for the small satellite market,” said Armond Asadurian, Moog Senior Engineer.

Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) has received the certificate of occupancy for the firm’s previously announced, new assembly facility, located in Irvine, California.

The facility spans 94,000 square feet and is situated on a five-acre site. Upon final interior completion of construction and outfitting, it will significantly increase Terran Orbital’s space vehicle assembly, integration, and testing capabilities by over three times the Company’s current capacity.

All of the Company’s space vehicle assembly will be transitioned to this new facility enabling the dedication of Terran Orbital’s existing facilities to the manufacturing of components and modules. This optimization will increase the overall efficiency and capacity of Terran Orbital’s entire production system and further facilitate the Company’s vertical integration efforts.

With the certificate of occupancy secured on the building construction, Terran Orbital will now commence the construction of cleanrooms, targeting occupancy in Q1 2025.

“We are thrilled to be advancing toward the opening of our new facility. It will truly be state-of-the-art, featuring advanced robotics that will boost our capacity and accelerate our production speed, giving us the ability to facilitate existing and new contract awards,” said Marc Bell, Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has announced the launch window for the company’s 51^st Electron launch, a mission that will launch the latest satellite in a constellation that is being built by long-standing customer — Synspective.

The “Owl for One, One for Owl” mission is scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, during a 14-day launch window that opens on July 31st NZST / July 30^th UTC. In addition to deploying a single StriX satellite to LEO for this mission, Rocket Lab will perform an advanced, mid-mission maneuver with Electron’s Kick Stage to shield the satellite from the sun and reduce radiation exposure.

The mission will be the fifth launch of a total of 16 launches on Electron for Synspective, a Japanese EO company deploying a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites designed to deliver imagery that can detect millimeter-level changes to the Earth’s surface from space. Rocket Lab has been the sole launch provider for Synspective’s constellation to date, and this latest mission continues a lasting and trusted partnership to deploy their StriX constellation to low Earth orbit. Most recently that partnership was further cemented by a new multi-launch contract of ten dedicated Electron launches for Synspective announced in June 2024, with the launches in that new deal set to take place across 2025-2027.

“Owl for One, One for Owl” will be Rocket Lab’s 51^st Electron mission and ninth launch this year. As well as an additional launch for Synspective scheduled to take place before the end of this year, other launches for multi-launch contract customers include space-based intelligence company BlackSky and French IoT company, Kinéis.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, said, “Synspective’s long-standing trust in the team to build out their constellation is recognition of Electron’s continued dominance as the ultimate small launch vehicle for the industry. Schedule flexibility, a reliable rocket launching more and more frequently, and our unique in-space capabilities that support mission needs are all critical functions at play in the multi-launch contracts being signed by our domestic and international launch customers. It’s an honor to continue launching for Synspective through our ongoing partnership.”

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL has signed a seven-figure contract expansion with a U.S.-allied International Government Agency for SkySat high resolution satellite data.

Planet’s SkySat fleet offers multiple revisits per day of any location on the globe with up to 50 centimeter resolution imagery. Over time, SkySats will be replenished with Planet’s next-generation, high-resolution fleet, Pelican, which is designed to further increase revisit rates and image resolution, while also reducing latency and speeding customer time to insights. The first Pelican tech demo, launched in November of 2023, continues to perform well.

Additionally, last month Planet announced that it is collaborating with NVIDIA on its onboard processing capabilities for its high-resolution Pelican-2 satellite. Through this collaboration, Planet will leverage the NVIDIA Jetson edge AI platform for its next-generation high-resolution mission and fly the technology on its Pelican-2 satellite, set to launch later this year. Leveraging recent advances in AI, Planet expects this collaboration to support shorter time to value for customers across government and commercial markets.

“Global customer demand for high resolution satellite data continues to grow, fueled by heightened security needs and increased climate disaster risk,” said Will Marshall, Planet’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder. “Our SkySat fleet provides organizations with a powerful combination of high frequency, low latency, high resolution data, enabling greater understanding of critical events around the world. The ability to enable considerably faster alerting of various types of events around the world has the potential to unlock entirely new use cases for customers.“

Astra Space, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASTRA) has successfully closed the firm’s move to take the company to private ownership.

Under the terms of the definitive agreement for the transaction (the “Merger Agreement”) that was previously announced on March 7, 2024, Apogee Parent, Inc., (“Parent”), an entity formed by Chris Kemp, Astra’s co-founder, chief executive officer and chairman, and Dr. Adam London, Astra’s co-founder, chief technology officer and director, will acquire all of the outstanding shares of the Company’s Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Class A Shares”) not already owned by it for the right to receive $0.50 per share in cash, as more fully described in the Merger Agreement.

With the completion of the take-private acquisition, the Class A Shares ceased trading prior to the opening of trading on July 18, 2024 and will no longer be listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”). The Company also intends to make the applicable filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) to suspend its periodic reporting obligations and to terminate the registration of the Class A Shares underlying the Company’s active registration statements.

As previously disclosed, (i) on April 17, 2024, the Company received a deficiency notice from Nasdaq that the Company is not in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5450(a)(1) because the per share closing bid price of the Class A Shares had been below $1.00 for thirty consecutive business days prior to such deficiency notice; and (ii) on April 23, 2024, the Company received a deficiency notice from Nasdaq that the Company is not in compliance with the minimum stockholders’ equity listing requirement set forth in Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1) because the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2023, reported stockholders’ equity below $2.5 million.