Firefly’s current rocket launch operations at Vandenberg halted, Virgin Orbit went public, and more smallsat industry news

Precious Payload Market Update: December 27, 2021 — January 2, 2022

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Bloomberg: The U.S. government halted Firefly’s current rocket launch operations at Vandenberg as the ownership issue with Polyakov plays out. (Refer)

SpaceX raises $337.4M in equity financing. (Refer)

NASA plans to extend operations on the ISS to allow continued research and technology deployments till 2030. (Refer)

NASA will launch the first demonstration mission of its CubeSat Laser Infrared CrosslinK, CLICK A, in May 2022 followed by CLICK B/C in 2023 from the ISS, to test optical communications capabilities for autonomous CubeSats. (Refer)

Sidus Space will construct a new cleanroom to support the production, testing, and integration of the LizzieSat constellation. LizzieSats are 3D manufactured 100kg LEO satellites focused on cost-effective development and testing of upcoming innovative spacecraft technologies for multiple customers. (Refer)

Sidus Space made a microgravity test of Dhruva Space‘s CubeSat deployer during a Zaro-G flight aboard Boeing 727-200. (Refer)

ExxonMobil partners with Scepter to deploy a constellation of 24 satellites to detect methane emissions on a real-time basis by 2026. (Refer)

Maxar Technologies will launch the first two satellites of the 6 WorldView Legion constellation aboard a SpaceX rocket by Q2 2022. (Refer)

ReOrbit completes the PDR of Warpspace’s WarpHub InterSat constellation that plans to offer a commercial inter-satellite optical communication service in MEO by Q4 2023. (Refer)

Virgin Orbit goes public after NextGen Acquisition Corp. II approves its SPAC merger last week. (Refer)

Arianespace launches 36 OneWeb satellites aboard Soyuz bringing its total fleet to 394 spacecraft. (Refer)

Check out Precious Payload Market Update: December 20, 2021 — December 26, 2021