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Recently, the United Kingdom (UK) announced that the nation is joining Portugal and Spain as a member of the Atlantic Constellation and is contributing a new pathfinder satellite designed and built by a UK-based company to add to the innovative Earth and coastal monitoring and data sharing network.

This new commitment will further strengthen the UK’s national capabilities in EO technology and complement the UK’s contributions to the EU Copernicus program, European Space Agency and bilateral missions.

The UK Space Agency is providing £3 million to support the build of the new pathfinder satellite, intended to be one of the first in the constellation, with co-funding from Open Cosmos, based at the Harwell Space Campus in Oxfordshire.

The Atlantic Constellation is a flagship, global project for the development of a constellation of smallsats for Ocean, Earth and Climate monitoring. The satellite built in the UK will be of the same design and launched in the same orbital plane as three others from Portugal constituting the first batch of smallsats in the constellation. This will significantly increase the frequency of revisit time at the beginning of the constellation formation, offering valuable and regularly updated data, and supporting critical services such as the detection, monitoring and mitigation of natural disasters.

“Earth Observation will play an absolutely vital role in tackling global challenges like climate change and disaster relief, providing the data we need at speed, while supporting key UK industries like agriculture and energy. By working with Open Cosmos on a new satellite and supporting our Atlantic partners, Spain and Portugal, we can harness space tech for our shared goals, while creating new skills opportunities and jobs for the future to grow the UK economy. Open Cosmos is a growing company that has recently added a further 2 satellite missions to its OpenConstellation, successfully launched on 11 November and recently raised $50 million in Series B funding from leading impact investors to accelerate its international growth and expand its product offering.” — Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Andrew Griffith

“Building a shared satellite constellation is a very effective way of having high revisit diverse data over each region of interest. The UK joining Portugal and Spain in the Atlantic Constellation is a major step forward in the national EO strategy and we are very proud that Open Cosmos has been contracted to deliver the first UK pathfinder satellite.” — Rafael Jorda Siquier, Chief Executive of Open Cosmos

“There’s no better way to open the UK Space Conference than by backing a new Earth observation mission and investing in the future workforce, with support for new rocket science PhDs. Space has been shaping our lives for decades but is set to become increasingly critical as we take the necessary steps to protect our planet, drive prosperity and push the boundaries of human knowledge. That’s why we are focused on catalysing investment, delivering new missions and capabilities in areas such as Earth observation and the low-Earth orbit economy, and championing the opportunities that our growing space sector brings to people and businesses up and down the country.” — Dr. Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency

Arcfield has completed the firm’s acquisition of Orion Space Solutions (Orion), a Colorado-based developer of end-to-end space mission capabilities and solutions.

The acquisition of Orion enhances Arcfield’s space exploration and hypersonic detection and tracking capabilities for agencies in the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) by bringing expertise in sensor and payload design, smallsat and CubeSat spacecraft integration and manufacturing, and space mission operations and data analysis to the company.

Orion is a leader in atmospheric science, space exploration and research, and technology development. The company’s key capabilities include the design, integration, and assembly of smallsats and CubeSats, as well as the development of sensors, computational models and data products for the space and ground network domains. Orion’s highly talented workforce, consisting primarily of engineers and scientists, develops novel technologies in support of our nation’s space security and environmental monitoring objectives.

“Arcfield has a long history of delivering innovative solutions across the space domain, and we believe the acquisition of Orion enhances Arcfield’s ability to provide next-generation space technologies in support of DOD and IC missions. We look forward to welcoming the Orion team into the Arcfield family and further developing our collective solutions.” — Kevin Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer, Arcfield

“For nearly two decades, Orion has been developing space-based solutions for national security and intelligence mission challenges, built on a foundation of science,” said . “As a leader in systems engineering and integration and space and mission launch assurance, Arcfield is highly complementary to Orion, and the combination will help us expand our core capabilities and develop new, cutting-edge space-based technologies for our customers.” — Geoff Crowley, Ph.D., chief executive officer, Orion

Dr. Crowley has joined the Arcfield executive leadership team as chief scientist and will be responsible for leading the company’s space research and development efforts. Chad Fish has been named president and general manager of Orion, which will operate as the fourth business sector of Arcfield.

Arcfield was purpose-built to protect the nation and its allies through innovations in systems engineering and integration, space and mission launch assurance, cybersecurity, and conventional and hypersonic missile support. Headquartered in Chantilly, VA, with 16 global offices, Arcfield employs more than 1,400 engineers, analysts, IT specialists, and other professionals with more than 60 years of collective proven experience supporting missions in cyber and space defense, hypersonic and nuclear deterrence, and warfighter readiness.

Founded in 2005, Orion was born from a vision to apply fundamental space physics knowledge to solve real-world problems encountered in the space environment. Today, skilled in data science, artificial intelligence, space systems, and mission operations, Orion is a “New Space” mission solutions industry leader serving U.S. government agencies, universities, and research and scientific institutions. Orion turns science into data, and data into knowledge.

ThrustMe has recently 200 orders, doubling the company’s order book within a four month period of time — this milestone mirrors the exponential growth within the space industry and the dawn of the industrial space era as well as underscores the importance of accessible mobility in a sustainable space environment.

The space industry is moving through a significant transformative phase, characterized by the rapid ascent of New Space actors. These innovative players are launching satellites with increasing frequency and as a consequence accumulating invaluable experience from their space operations, effectively bridging the divide with legacy space actors.

As missions become more refined and mission capacities expand, the blend of legacy knowledge and new-space innovation is steering the industry toward an Industrial Space Era. To sustainably leverage their full potential from economic and environmental aspects, space actors new and old will require increasingly sophisticated on-orbit maneuver capabilities for their space-based entities.

Established in 2017, ThrustMe has been at the forefront of this transformation, showcasing sustained excellence and leadership within the industry. The company’s achievements include the NPT30-I2, the world-first demonstration of in 2020, followed by the subsequent industrialization of its product portfolio. ThrustMe’s track record of reliability coupled with outstanding quality has cemented its position as a pioneering manufacturer of the electric space propulsion technologies required for the industrial space era.

ThrustMe’s bestselling NPT30-I2 provides smallsats with autonomous maneuverability and is in high demand. With the 2023 production slots fully booked, and orders for 2024 arriving at an unprecedented rate, ThrustMe is strategically scaling up production capacity. The company is aiming for them milestone of one unit per day before the end of 2024. ThrustMe offers sustainable and intelligently operated iodine-based solutions that effectively address the pressing challenges confronting the space sector.

“Our factory is set to handle large-scale deliveries and we can accommodate the significant increase in orders we continue to receive. We have identified and are effectively and efficiently serving an underserved market, where clients are looking for top-quality propulsion solutions and expect consistent reliability in both product and delivery. At ThrustMe, we are proud to be fulfilling their expectations.” — Ane Aanesland, CEO and co-founder, ThrustMe

“Since the beginning of our development we were aiming to provide the community with a high-end disruptive product adding significant value to the market, not “simply” a propulsion system. Six years later we are happy to see that this objective was truly fulfilled. Our bestseller product NPT30-I2 is a key element for many small satellites to reach autonomous maneuverability in space, highly demanded by the market today. Our next step is to extend this experience to much larger satellites.” — Dmytro Rafalskyi, CTO and Co-Founder, ThrustMe

TESAT’s Optical Communication Terminals (OCTs) successfully passed interoperability testing for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites that are to be built by Lockheed Martin.

TESAT was selected to deliver OCTs terminals) to Lockheed Martin for integration for the company’s 42 SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites. TESAT’s OCTs will also be applied for commercial constellations, such as Kepler’s ÆTHER LEO constellation network.

As part of the ground test, the OCTs successfully established a consistent data communication link first with a reference modem and second with a laser terminal made by another supplier. This achievement demonstrates that TESAT terminals comply with the technical specifications and standards issued by SDA and are interoperable with third-party products.

The OCT is part of TESAT’s laser communication portfolio and specifically designed to operate in LEO broadband constellations and is compliant to the SDA standard v3. As of today, 46 OCTs are already on-orbit, 12 more terminals were delivered to customers and 180 terminals are currently in production.

In view of future growth in the field of laser communication, TESAT has a new manufacturing building under final construction in Merritt Island, Florida, providing 2,200m² of additional cleanroom capacity.

“The successful completion of this important test showcases that our OCTs meet the SDA standards and marks a big step for laser communication technology as interoperability is key.”— Thomas Reinartz, CEO, TESAT

Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) has announced the the firm’s wholly-owned international subsidiary, Tyvak International s.r.l., has been selected as a prime contractor under a $4.7 million (€4.5 million) contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) for a proximity operations and on-orbit servicing mission that will deploy a nanosatellite spacecraft from Space Rider, the European, uncrewed, robotic laboratory.

The deployed smallsat will perform proximity operations maneuvers around Space Rider, demonstrating unprecedented on-orbit servicing capabilities. Space Rider will allow technology demonstration, and benefit research in pharmaceutics, biomedicine, biology, and physical science.

At the end of its mission, Space Rider will return to Earth with its payloads and land on a runway to be unloaded and refurbished for another flight.  Tyvak International develops the nanosatellite to be onboarded and deployed at any time during the experimental Phase in orbit, on one of the ESA’s Space Rider flight missions, paving the way for future, recurring, servicing missions.

This contract is in partnership with a consortium of Italian industries and research institutions, including Polytechnic University of Turin, the University of Padova, and StellarProject SRL.

“Terran Orbital is honored to be selected once again for a prime contract with the European Space Agency. Using space technology for research in areas, such as proximity operations and in-orbit servicing, will be a huge benefit for our partners and the protection of precious and strategic orbital assets.  I am excited to see Tyvak International s.r.l. in the forefront.” — Marc Bell, Terran Orbital Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer

Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) has signed a contract with RIDE! Space for transportation and orbital delivery services in the first quarter of 2024.

RIDE! Space will be flying its Gaindesat and Djibouti payloads on a single mission.

“We are thrilled to mark this historic moment for the space sector of Africa with Momentus. Being an actor for sending the 1^st Senegalese satellite and the 2^nd one for Djibouti proves the objective RIDE! has given itself: make space more convenient, affordable and reliable. In this mission, Momentus plays a key role. They have also always been a trusted partner to RIDE!, responsive and ready to accommodate small sat players from our ecosystem.” — Valentin Benoit, CEO, RIDE! Space

“The African Space Industry Annual Report released in August reports that the African space economy is projected to grow to more than $22 billion by 2026.We anticipate rideshare services to be an important enabler for this growth. We’re looking forward to working with RIDE! Space as they support access to Low-Earth Orbit for new and established African customers.” — Chris Kinman, CEO, Momentus

In addition to rideshare missions, Momentus offers Delta-V delivery for missions requiring precise custom orbits. The Company also provides hosted payload services and its M-1000 satellite bus for customized and dedicated missions.

Firefly Aerospace has successfully launched the company’s Alpha rocket and has deployed the VICTUS NOX spacecraft following a 24 hour notice to complete final payload operations and mission preparations.

Led by U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s (USSF – SSC) Space Safari Program Office, and in close partnership with the Rocket Systems Launch Program, the mission advances the nation’s capability to rapidly respond to on-orbit needs during a conflict or in response to a national security threat.

Upon receiving the notice to launch and orbit requirements from the USSF, Firefly completed all final launch preparations, including trajectory software updates, payload encapsulation, transport to the launch pad, mating to Alpha, and fueling, within 24 hours. Alpha then launched at the first available window, 27 hours after receipt of launch orders.

The flight began with a nominal countdown and liftoff at 7:28 p.m. PDT on September 14th. and progressed seamlessly through each stage of flight, including stage one main engine cutoff (MECO), stage separation and stage two ignition. Alpha then deployed the Millennium Space Systems satellite at the target destination in LEO. Firefly also successfully tested an Alpha stage two relight and targeted re-entry.

Building on this success, Firefly is ramping up Alpha production and testing for multiple upcoming launches, including missions in support of Lockheed Martin, NASA, the NRO, and more.

“Today was an incredible success for the Space Force, the Firefly team, and our nation after nailing this complex responsive space mission. Our combined commercial and government team executed the mission with record speed, agility, and flexibility, adding a critical capability to address national security needs.” Bill Weber, CEO, Firefly Aerospace

“I’m incredibly proud of this team for completing these critical mission milestones and successfully launching in a matter of hours rather than weeks or months in a typical operation. As our third flight, this mission further validates Firefly’s technology rigor, passion, and dedication that’s required to prevail as the leading responsive launch provider for both government and commercial customers.” — Adam Oakes, VP of Launch Vehicles, Firefly Aerospace

“The success of the VICTUS NOX mission not only proves a key aspect of the United States’ TacRS capability but provides true utility to the warfighter. Working closely with our Assured Access to Space team and industry partners, the Space Safari team continues to demonstrate how TacRS enables us to quickly respond to urgent on-orbit needs.” — Col. Bryon McClain, Program Executive Officer for the Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power directorate, which oversees SSC’s Space Safari program office

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has signed a contract with Leidos to launch four HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) missions.

The missions, scheduled across 2024 and 2025, will lift off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Rocket Lab was selected by Leidos to provide hypersonic test launch capabilities with HASTE under the MACH-TB project. The project was awarded by Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane through the Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems (S2MARTS) Other Transaction Authority (OTA) vehicle on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense Test Resource Management Center (TRMC).

Rocket Lab’s HASTE suborbital launch vehicle is derived from the company’s Electron rocket but has been modified to support hypersonic payload deployment. By leveraging the heritage of Rocket Lab’s low-cost Electron, HASTE offers true commercial testing capability at a fraction of the cost of current full-scale tests.

Rocket Lab launched the first HASTE mission on June 17, 2023, for Leidos under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) program.

HASTE is operated under Rocket Lab National Security (RLNS), the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary created to serve the unique needs of the U.S. defense and intelligence community and its allies.

“Our first HASTE mission in June this year successfully demonstrated HASTE’s ability to accelerate the cadence of hypersonic flight testing for the nation. We’re proud to now follow it up with a series of four additional missions for Leidos to support hypersonic technology innovation and technology maturation.” — Brian Rogers, Senior Director, Global Launch Services

Telesat (NASDAQ and TSX: TSAT) and SpaceX have signed a Multi-Launch Agreement (MLA) to deliver the Telesat Lightspeed constellation to LEO.

Telesat has contracted 14 launches on SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which will carry as many as 18 Telesat Lightspeed satellites to LEO per launch. The launch campaign is scheduled to commence in 2026 and will take advantage of SpaceX’s high launch cadence to rapidly deploy the satellites and enable Telesat to begin providing global service in 2027. Launches for the campaign will lift off from SpaceX’s launch facilities in California and Florida.

Designed from inception to serve the demanding, mission-critical connectivity requirements of enterprise and government users, the optically-linked Telesat Lightspeed network will provide multi-Gbps data links and highly secure, resilient, low-latency broadband connectivity anywhere in the world. With the August signing of MDA as the prime satellite manufacturer and all necessary launch contracts in place for global constellation deployment, Telesat is well-positioned to begin delivering unmatched, enterprise-class connectivity in late 2027.

“SpaceX has been a trusted and effective launch provider to Telesat on our geostationary satellite programs and I am delighted that they will be supporting us with their highly reliable Falcon 9 rocket to deploy the Telesat Lightspeed constellation, the most ambitious program in Telesat’s 54-year history,” stated . “Given the dedication and professionalism of the SpaceX team, and their outstanding track record of reliability and demonstrated high launch cadence, I have the utmost confidence that they will be an outstanding partner in helping us bring Telesat Lightspeed into service in a timely and low risk manner.” — Dan Goldberg, President and CEO, Telesat

“With growing demand for high-speed internet around the world, SpaceX is proud to launch and deploy Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation. Building upon our successful launch partnership to-date, we look forward to flying Telesat once again as they expand connectivity capabilities for their customers across the globe.” — Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer, SpaceX

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) has announced that Inmarsat Government, now part of Viasat, was awarded a Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (PLEO) Satellite-Based Services (SBS) contract by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) on behalf of the U.S. Space Force’s (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC) — Inmarsat Government is one of 16 companies selected for the $900 million ceiling, 10 year, Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract.

As the United States and its mission partners become increasingly reliant on space-based capabilities for national security, it is critical to have resilient constellations that include satellites in GEO and NGSO. Proliferated LEO (pLEO) constellations are part of a Department of Defense (DoD) strategy to provide additional resilience for satellite communications (SATCOM), remote sensing and other capabilities by diversifying orbits.

Under this contract, Viasat plans to leverage smallsat technology, reduced costs and increased launch service competition, facilitating the ability for pLEO constellations to provide persistent, global coverage with reduced transmission latency. The company will provide a suite of fully-managed pLEO satellite-based services and capabilities, to include space relay services, supplemented by GEO and NGSO satellites, supporting all domains – space, air, land, maritime and cyber.

Viasat will aim to achieve this with a reliable, resilient low latency global pLEO offering that flexibly supports the needs of combatant commands, defense agencies, other federal government organizations and international coalition partners. It will provide a comprehensive managed end-to-end SATCOM solution via a multi-band, multi-orbit constellation of satellites. Furthermore, its new, hyper-intelligent software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) is designed to orchestrate and provide priority routing across mixed networks, enabling an automated primary, alternate, contingency and emergency (PACE) solution to deliver the flexibility and responsiveness required to meet customers’ needs today and in the future.

“Viasat has a proud history of providing integrated SATCOM solutions and service offerings across multiple bands and orbits to support government customers’ unique needs. Our team is committed to developing innovative, mission-focused solutions through our existing partnerships with satellite operators and extending opportunities with new partners. We eagerly look forward to using both our technologies and deep problem solving expertise to deliver resilient, robust and secure SATCOM capabilities to service members around the world.” — Susan Miller, President, Viasat Government