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Open Cosmos and Astroscale Ltd. have been awarded a contract worth £5.15 million by the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) dedicated to science and technology in the defence and security sectors, via BAE Systems, as the Dstl Serapis Framework lead.

As global reliance on space infrastructure grows, so do the threats posed by space weather, adversarial actions, and orbital congestion. As a critical step in strengthening the UK’s capabilities in space, the Orpheus mission objectives are to enhance our understanding of space weather and improve space situational awareness, advancing global initiatives toward a joint space architecture.

A recent Lloyd’s of London report highlights that an extreme space weather event, such as a severe solar storm, could result in global economic losses of up to $2.4 trillion, with disruptions to the ionosphere posing a significant threat to satellite communications, navigation systems, and critical defence infrastructure.

This fully funded project will run for three years, concluding in 2028, and will cover the complete lifecycle of the mission, from design to launch and operations. The contract award from Dstl was made under the Serapis framework.

As geopolitical and environmental threats to space infrastructure rise, Orpheus will deliver crucial insights, safeguarding vital UK and allied operations against emerging challenges.

Open Cosmos is partnering with Astroscale UK to design and build two near-identical satellites that the company will operate for the mission. The satellites will fly in formation to observe and collect critical data using in-situ and remote sensing techniques, to enable faster space-based data acquisition. The payloads designed to characterize the ionosphere are being developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the University of Bath and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.

Dstl Chief Executive, Dr. Paul Hollinshead, said, “Changes in space weather can have a critical impact on satellites which provide navigation aids, telecommunications and data transmission. Sustained investment in space research in collaboration with our international partners strengthens the security of UK interests in space.”

Nick Shave, Managing Director of Astroscale UK, said, “The Dstl Orpheus mission is an important opportunity for Astroscale to demonstrate our capability to deliver innovative missions in the Defence arena and in support of national security. We have successfully demonstrated our space mission implementation capability during our ELSA-d mission in 2021, and the ADRAS-J close proximity inspection mission in 2024. We are pleased to contribute our space mission design, development, integration and operations experience to ensure a successful mission which will also demonstrate the UK’s value to international partner nations.”

Rafel Jordà Siquier, founder and CEO of Open Cosmos, said, “We are thrilled to partner with Astroscale on the Orpheus mission to enhance space domain awareness. Our advanced satellite solutions will provide the critical data needed to understand the ionosphere and protect vital space infrastructure. This mission exemplifies the power of collaboration in driving innovation and ensuring the security of our space assets.”

Exolaunch is set to deploy 45 customer satellites on the upcoming Transporter-14 rideshare mission with SpaceX aboard a Falcon 9 rocket as soon as this month. This mission highlights Exolaunch’s role as a trusted partner for rideshare launches and represents unparalleled expertise and flight heritage

The Transporter-14 mission represents a major milestone for Exolaunch as its largest mission to date, building on the company’s track record of providing reliable and precise access to orbit for customers worldwide. Exolaunch’s teams of experts will manage the deployment of numerous microsatellites, up to 250 kilograms, and CubeSats, up to 16U in size, supporting 25 new and returning customers from the USA, UK, Lithuania, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Australia, Canada, South Korea, France, Japan, Spain, Norway, Italy, and Greece.

On this mission, Exolaunch will use its flight-proven deployment systems, including:

• CarboNIX microsatellite separation rings in 8″, 11″, 15″, and 24″ sizes
• EXOpod Nova advanced CubeSat deployers, supporting higher-mass and larger volume satellites with exceptional reliability
• Quadro four-point separation systems, offering synchronized release and ultra-low tip-off rates for precision microsatellite deployments

Exolaunch’s EXOpod Nova deployers have now supported over 100 delivered units and hundreds of successful CubeSat deployments, reinforcing Nova’s reputation as a trusted next-generation deployer for CubeSat mission.

Exolaunch continues to be the only launch integrator to have manifested satellites on every Transporter mission since the program’s inception in 2020. With Transporter-14, Exolaunch will celebrate its 37th mission overall, having deployed over 530 satellites across 36 previous missions on different global launch vehicles.

As part of the company’s comprehensive service offering, Exolaunch has managed global logistics, satellite integration, deployment, and testing for its customers aboard the Transporter-14 mission—a turnkey solution trusted by the world’s most ambitious space programs.

Transporter-14 marks a historic achievement for Exolaunch and our customers,” said Robert Sproles, Chief Executive Officer at Exolaunch. “Our flight heritage, reliability, and hardware performance continue to set the standard in the rideshare industry. We are grateful to our customers for their trust and to SpaceX for being an outstanding partner as we continue to open space for all.”

This milestone reflects not just the growth of Exolaunch, but also the expanding demand for global access to space,” said Jeanne Allarie, Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer at Exolaunch. “Our unmatched success across these missions and the growing adoption of our Nova, CarboNIX, Quadro and Neo systems highlight the strength of our technology and services. We deeply appreciate our customers’ and SpaceX’s ongoing confidence in our team.”

BAE Systems and Hanwha Systems recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop technology and collaborative working to deliver a multi-sensor satellite system for international markets.

The companies will look to work together to combine BAE Systems’ ultra-wide band Radio Frequency (RF) sensors and Hanwha Systems’ space domain expertise in next generation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to create an advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability.

The ambition is to explore the creation of a system that will use a range of sensors to collect RF and SAR data, which will be analyzed by machine learning using on-board edge processors to deliver derived insights and intelligence securely.BAE Systems expects to launch its first Low Earth Orbit (LEO) cluster of satellites in 2025. Known as Azalea the mission will boost domestic and international markets’ ability to understand the threats and hazards in, from and through space. To deliver this, it works collaboratively with a range of partners around the globe.

Rachael Hoyle, Space Director, BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, said, “Bringing together our pedigree in space with Hanwha Systems’ expertise in SAR satellites represents an exciting opportunity to progress ISR capabilities from space for international markets. We’re looking forwards to building this relationship and advancing space technologies together.”

Sung-Chan Song, Head of the Space Division, Hanwha Systems, said, “Small SAR satellites are becoming increasingly recognised as invaluable resources for surveillance and reconnaissance. Hanwha Systems is proud to collaborate with BAE Systems as we look to further expand our presence in the global satellite market.”

Sarah Jones MP, Industry Minister, UK Government, said, “The UK and South Korea are already world leaders in the space industry, and this new partnership is exactly what we both need to create jobs, advance cutting-edge technologies and expand into new international markets. Our modern Industrial Strategy will set out how we’ll boost the space sector further to reach new heights and unlock more investment and jobs in the industries of tomorrow, as part of this government’s Plan for Change.”

Sierra Space has chartered a new operation dedicated to supporting national security space as a prime contractor: Sierra Space Defense.

The company also unveiled expansion plans with a new production facility called “Victory Works,” adding 60,000 square feet of manufacturing space and bringing Sierra Space’s total infrastructure to more than one million square feet across seven states.

The launch of Sierra Space Defense and related infrastructure expansion plans are driven by a palpable sense of urgency: the United States is facing new threats and near-peer adversaries at unprecedented levels in the space domain. In response to the evolving threat environment, Sierra Space is retooling its commercial capacity to focus on revitalizing the U.S. defense industrial base through innovative satellite and spacecraft systems technology. Sierra Space will dedicate a new manufacturing facility, called “Victory Works,” to defense technology.

Located in Centennial, Colorado, the 60,000 square-foot space will play a pivotal role in the production of the company’s new Sierra Space Eclipse satellite bus line, a key component in Sierra Space’s efforts to enhance the capabilities of the U.S. defense sector. This expansion is on top of 24,000 square feet of existing sites dedicated to national security and defense work.

Since 2023, Sierra Space has secured $1.5 billion in national security and defense contracts, for production on 30 satellites; included in that figure are 18 missile warning and defense satellites awarded by the Space Development Agency (SDA) in January of 2024, as part of a $740 million prime contract to support the SDA’s Tranche 2 Tracking Layer.

In addition, Space Force awarded Sierra Space a “Quick Start” Resilient GPS (R-GPS) agreement in September of 2024. And the company continues to make strides in its spacecraft systems business, boasting more than 20 active contracts for solar arrays and other components.

In the Sierra Space Defense Portfolio:

• Sierra Space Eclipse: a next generation product line of small, high performance, affordable satellites for on-orbit servicing missions
• Sierra Space Ghost: a state-of-the-art space delivery system engineered to safely return objects from space – and through space – directly to precise locations on Earth
• Sierra Space Spectre: a revolutionary satellite designed for precision rendezvous proximity operations (RPO)
• Sierra Black OS: an advanced AI-enabled operating system athat is able to operate across space, air and ground systems seamlessly

Sierra Space Vice President Erik Daehler will helm the new organization.

We are mission-focused and dedicated to supporting our national security customers and the revitalization of the U.S. defense industrial base. Commercial space companies now have a profound responsibility to help lead an entirely new era for national defense,” Daehler said. “The creation of Sierra Space Defense enables stronger partnerships – such as our steadfast partnership with SNC – to tackle the hardest mission problems like Golden Dome. Our new Sierra Space Defense organization is a testament to our dedication to innovation at speed and excellence in satellite and spacecraft systems production, which will shape the future of defense technology.”

Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw (U.S. Space Force, Ret.) serves on Sierra Space’s National Security Space Strategic Advisor Group, said, “The growing scope and scale of what our adversaries are doing in space is alarming, and the threat environment is evolving rapidly as near-peer challenges accelerate,” Shaw said. “Commercial space companies possess the speed and agility required to outpace our adversaries and effectively respond to our critical national security space needs.”

Earlier this month, ESA and the Spanish Space Agency (Agencia Espacial Española or AEE) confirmed their intent to collaborate on the proposed CApTure Payload Bay (CAT) on-orbit demo—this mission will test a standardized docking interface that will simplify satellite removal operations.

Space debris mitigation guidelines outline that a satellite should be able to maneuver itself out of valuable orbits, either to reenter the atmosphere and burn up, or else to park itself in a so-called graveyard orbit. Yet even the most reliable of satellites may fail on-orbit and become uncontrollable, becoming a collision risk to other satellites.

Active debris removal techniques, where a second satellite captures and removes an incapacitated satellite or other debris, are complex. Approaching and docking to another satellite is always a risk, as any collision can lead to more damage and debris generation. It becomes even more complicated if the spacecraft is unprepared, meaning not designed to rendezvous and be ‘towed’. A rendezvous in space requires compatible interfaces A rendezvous in space requires compatible interfaces Using standardized interfaces

ESA has started to prepare its satellites with standard interfaces for capture and removal to simplify active debris removal missions. As anyone who has experienced the hassle of different charging cables before they were standardized to USB-C knows: for efficient interoperability of hardware, you need matching interfaces.

In September of 2024, Spanish company AVS successfully launched their LUR-1 mission that, among other new technologies, carries the joint technology demonstration with ESA of the Mechanical Interface for Capture at End-of-life (MICE) as well as other navigation aids that will help precise distance and orientation determination needed during the close-proximity navigation.

The MICE interface is a point of attachment put onto the satellite so CAT can easily grab it, similar to how cars have tow hooks. Six navigation aids have also been installed on LUR-1 to support the rendezvous and capture process by helping determine the distance, orientation and any tumbling of the spacecraft.

MICE and the navigation aids are also being installed on four of the future Copernicus Expansion missions to facilitate their removal from orbit in case of a failure that would prevent any of them from leaving orbit under their own steam. With MICE in space, ESA must send a CAT robotic assembly.

The next step is to demonstrate the removal operations on-orbit by sending the CAT side of the standardized interfaces into space, as well. The CAT payload is currently being developed under the leadership of GMV in Spain. It is compatible with ESA’s design for the removal interface and combines innovative robotics with relative navigation equipment for tight close-proximity operations.

CAT will then undergo end-to-end validation during the ESA CAT in-orbit mission. The demonstration will make active removal a reliable and more affordable option for future ESA satellites, in case of failures in a congested orbit.

The mission is proposed for implementation within the Space Safety Programme Proposal in view of the ESA Council meeting at Ministerial level in November of 2025.

ESA and the Spanish Space Agency (AEE) affirmed their intent on May 16, 2025, to collaborate by considering the Spanish LUR-1 satellite as a candidate target for the ESA CAT mission. As LUR-1 already has MICE onboard, ESA’s CAT mission can aim to safely remove the LUR-1 satellite from its low-Earth orbit in a timely manner after it reaches its end-of-mission.

Spain and ESA coming together to collaborate on the CAT on-orbit demonstration would form a key stepping stone to make the ESA Zero Debris goal possible and constitute significant progress in enhancing safety and sustainability in space.

SES Space & Defense joins the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Hybrid Space Architecture Network initiative.

SES’s Hybrid Space Architecture II project will showcase an automatically orchestrated secure integrated multi-orbit network that interconnects commercial and government networks to deliver assured and affordable, low-latency, multi-path communications across a scalable and resilient multi-domain network.

SES Space & Defense will deliver an engineered multi-orbit network leveraging Secure Integrated Multi-Orbit Networking (SIMON). This will enable always-on connectivity as an affordable, resilient alternative to traditional Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency (PACE) and auto-PACE operations currently used by warfighters across the Department of Defense (DoD) worldwide.

By blending LEO, MEO, and GEO capabilities in a purposeful manner, SIMON ensures that the warfighters’ data can affordably traverse multiple orbital regimes simultaneously, adapting and adjusting in real time to changing mission requirements.

With SIMON, warfighters will have the ability to ‘set and forget’ their user terminals and affordably realize assured connectivity across multiple orbits,” said David Fields, President and CEO of SES Space & Defense. “This transformational approach solves a decades-long dichotomy of affordability versus resilience, providing SATCOM agility, flexibility, and reliability for the forward deployed personnel.”

AAC Clyde Space has won an order from Ghalam LLP in Kazakhstan for Starbuck Mini power systems—the order is valued at 814,000 euros, with delivery scheduled for March of 2026. The units will be used onboard EO satellites developed under the KazEOSat-MR program.

The order reinforces AAC Clyde Space’s advanced and reliable satellite systems and highlights the company’s ability to win business in new and expanding markets. Starbuck Mini is a proven solution for demanding missions and continues to play a key role in positioning AAC Clyde Space as a preferred supplier for critical satellite subsystems.

KazEOSat-MR is a national EO program that will provide data for environmental monitoring, land use, and security in Kazakhstan. The customer, Ghalam LLP, is based in Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc (Nasdaq: RKLB) has completed a record turnaround of two Earth return missions in two months with its latest successful mission and Pioneer spacecraft for Varda Space Industries (Varda).

Rocket Lab successfully supported the return to Earth of Varda’s W-3 capsule at 02:07 a.m. UTC on May 14th, the third overall successful operation in the W-series of Varda missions.

For the second time this year, Rocket Lab’s highly configurable, medium delta-V spacecraft platform, Pioneer, delivered Varda’s hypersonic re-entry capsule back to Earth. To date, Rocket Lab has successfully built, tested, integrated, and managed on-orbit and de-orbit operations for three of the four contracted missions for Varda.

Each Pioneer spacecraft for Varda’s W-series missions delivered critical mission functions for Varda’s 120kg capsule including power, communications, propulsion, and attitude control. The Pioneer spacecraft was designed, built, and tested at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California. Rocket Lab’s Pioneer spacecraft platform uses the Company’s vertically integrated components and systems, including star trackers, propulsion systems, reaction wheels, solar panels, flight software, radios, composite structures, tanks, separation systems, and more.

The fourth spacecraft in Varda’s W-series is currently undergoing integration and testing at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California.

The good news for Canada-based satellite operator Telesat is that its backlog for its Lightspeed mega-constellation is likely to be worth more than C$1.1 billion (0.7 billion euros) by the end of this year. The bad news is that the first Lightspeed LEO satellite will not be orbited until the end of 2026 and service will not commence until 2027.

Further bad news is in its core DTH transmission business for Canadian (and U.S.) viewers and where revenues are down 25 percent when compared to the same period last year. The company’s Operating Income is down 53 per cent y-o-y.

The Lightspeed backlog is likely to see further growth helped by a contract with Viasat. Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg told analysts during its Q1 2025 call on May 6th that he’s optimistic Telesat will secure additional commitments over the course of this year, which would bring Lightspeed’s backlog to more than the backlog for services from GEO.

We continue to believe that our year-end 2025 LEO segment backlog will exceed our year-end 2024 GEO segment backlog. The Viasat contract is a very meaningful contract. I think there will be other commercial players that will sign significant deals. Maybe they won’t quite be at the Viasat level, but they could be still in that nine-figure [value], when I think about conversations we’re having and what the pipeline looks like.” Goldberg said. “We have had multiple conversations with various governments around the world as governments think about leveraging LEO to meet their growing space requirements.”

But meanwhile, Goldberg admitted that Telesat’s revenue expectations would remain under pressure. The company is anticipating a 27 percent decline in revenues at the mid-year point.

For the quarter ended March 31st 2025, Telesat reported consolidated revenue of C$117 million, a decrease of 23 per cent (C$35 million) compared to the same period in 2024. When adjusted for changes in foreign exchange rates, revenue declined 26 percent (C$40 million) compared to 2024. The decrease was primarily due to a lower rate on the renewal of a long-term agreement with a North American DTH television customer and to reductions in services for certain customers, particularly on an agreement to provide services to an Indonesian rural broadband program, combined with lower equipment sales to Canadian government customers.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has announced the launch window for the firm’s next mission for multi-launch customer, Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS).

The mission, named ‘The Sea God Sees’, will launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand during a launch window that opens on May 17, 2025. The mission will launch a single, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite called QPS-SAR-10 (nicknamed “WADATSUMI-I” for the Japanese god of the sea) to a 575 km circular Earth orbit, from where the satellite will join the iQPS constellation in providing high resolution images and Earth monitoring services globally.

The mission will be the third overall Electron launch for iQPS and the second in a line-up of eight dedicated missions across 2025 and 2026 to deploy iQPS’s constellation. The first mission of the multi-launch contract, ‘The Lightning God Reigns’, was successfully deployed to space by Electron just weeks ago on March 15, 2025.

“The Sea God Sees” will be Rocket Lab’s sixth mission of 2025, its 64th Electron launch overall, and will bring the total number of satellites delivered to space by Rocket Lab to 225.