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Last month, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) formally ended a commercial radar contract the agency had with PredaSAR, now Terran Orbital, the NRO said on Oct. 2. “PredaSAR did not meet the requirements, such as having a commercial remote sensing satellite on orbit, to move to Stage 2 and its contract ended in August 2023,” the...

ManSat has rebranded itself as River Advisers in a strategic move. The company announced the rebrand Oct. 3. The company feels it needs a fresh brand identity as it looks to respond to rapid changes within the space and satellite sector. The rebrand recognizes River Advisers’ expanding consulting services from traditional service providers to clients...

The FCC took its first space debris enforcement action on Monday, fining Dish Network $150,000 for failure to properly deorbit its EchoStar-7 satellite. Dish admitted liability as part of the settlement.  The EchoStar-7 was launched in February 2002 and entered service later that year. According to FCC documents on the investigation, Dish identified in February...

NASA has selected seven companies to provide commercial data for the agency’s Earth science research as part of the Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program (CSDA).  NASA announced Tuesday that Airbus DS Geo, Capella Space, GHGSat, Maxar Intelligence, PlanetiQ, Spire Global, and Umbra Lab are vendors in the program.  It is a fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award contract...

A number of companies have joined forces to bring a new track & trace solution for the logistics industry using satellite technology. WISeKey, a global cybersecurity company, is teaming up with WISeSAT, Fossa Systems, and BA Lab the technology division of Bernardino Abad SL have come to together to create this new solution targeting smart...

Cruise company Holland America Line is more than halfway through updating the internet on its fleet of 11 ships to SpaceX’s Starlink service. Holland America announced Monday that it expects to have Starlink internet installed on the remaining five ships in its fleet by mid-December 2023. Its ships Koningsdam, Oosterdam, Volendam, Westerdam, Zaandam and Zuiderdam...

The Vega C rocket is not expected to return to flight until the fourth quarter of 2024, the European Space Agency announced Monday.  Vega C failed during its second mission in December 2022. An independent commission previously determined the failure dealt with the second stage Zefiro40 nozzle, but an updated Zefiro40 engine had significant damages...

The Japanese government awarded Astroscale Japan an award worth up to $80 million for a debris inspection mission. The award announced Monday is a small business innovation research (SBIR) award from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Astroscale will develop an on-orbit inspection demonstration mission to image and diagnose a large,...

United Launch Alliance (ULA) set an Oct. 6 launch date for Amazon’s Project Kuiper prototype satellites. The encapsulated payload arrived at ULA’s integration facility at Cape Canaveral on Thursday.  The two prototype satellites will launch on an Atlas 5 rocket. The launch window opens at 2 p.m. EDT on Oct. 6. Describing the mission, ULA...

NASA extended its blanket purchase agreement (BPA) with Planet, placing multiple orders totaling $18.5 million through 2024, Planet announced Friday.  The BPA is part of NASA’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program. Planet has worked with the space agency through CSDA since it was a pilot program in 2018.  Through the program, federally funded researchers...