MBRSC plans to develop a hosted payload platform, Terran Orbital goes public, Steve Wozniak unveils Privateer plans

Precious Payload Market Update: October 18, 2021 — October 31, 2021

We skipped a couple of weeks in coverage of small satellite news for our market updates because 70% of our team was busy at the International Astronautical Congress in Dubai, the most prominent space conference in the world. Of course, we did the retrospective. Enjoy!

By the way, half of the announcements awaiting you in the report below were made during the IAC.

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UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center collaborates with UNOOSA to develop modular satellite platforms that can host payloads. (Source) 

MBRSC will launch the country’s most powerful Earth Imaging satellite, MBZ-Sat, aboard a Falcon 9 rideshare mission in 2023. The space center will develop the spacecraft in partnership with five private companies in the UAE — Strata, EPI, Rockford Xellerix, Halcon, and Falcon Group. (Source)

India’s Pixxel Space partners with ISISPACE to build the solar panels for its upcoming satellite mission Anand, expected to be launched aboard an ISRO rocket in Q4 2021. (Source)

Plus Ultra Space Outpost partners with Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) to launch its first satellite as a part of a cislunar constellation Harmony aboard an RFA ONE launch vehicle in 2023, making it the first private orbiter around the Moon. (Source)

SENER Aeroespacial also partners with RFA to launch its smallsat with E.T.PACK, an electrodynamic tether technology for deorbiting satellites, aboard the RFA ONE micro launcher. (Source)

NASA confirms the successful completion of the CDR review of the Firefly Aerospace‘s Blue Ghost moon lander, which will deliver 10 NASA payloads for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission aboard a SpaceX rocket by Q4 2023. (Source)

Indian start-up GalaxEye raises a pre-seed round and plans to launch a constellation of 15 optical-radar satellites, starting 2023. (Source)

NanoAvionics partners with Korean-based Contec to supply its modular 16U nanosatellite bus and launch services for Contec’s Earth observation nanosatellite in H1 2023. (Source)

D-Orbit partners with Oman’s International Emerging Technology Company to set up a satellite manufacturing and space logistics facility, a first in the Sultanate. (Source)

D-Orbit also partners with Indian launcher Skyroot Aerospace to host future customer missions on Skyroot’s Vikram launch vehicles using their ION Satellite Carriers. (Source)

Leaf Space partners with Odysseus Space to develop end-to-end laser communications systems for satellite missions and a hybrid ground station network, which it plans to operate from 2024. (Source)

Isar Aerospace partners with EnduroSat to launch its satellites in rideshare missions between 2022 and 2025. (Source)

Malaysian-based Angkasa-X files ITU for LEO Slots to set up its ASEANLINK LEO constellation for satellite internet connectivity in the region. (Source)

Kleos Space S.A signs new contracts with Innovative Solutions in Space B.V. (ISISPACE) to receive turn-key solutions for its fourth cluster of observer mission satellites (KSF3), while Spaceflight Inc will manage the launch campaign in Q3 2022. (Source)

ESA invites payload developers to ride on the first flight of a reusable “Space Rider” spacecraft to LEO, expected to be launched aboard a Vega-C rocket in 2023. (Source)

A third classified US National Security mission, USSF-67 to GEO, gets added to SpaceX Falcon Heavy’s crowded 2022 manifest after two 2021 missions get delayed due to payload readiness and range scheduling issues. No launch dates have been announced yet. (Source)

Satellogic partners with Agencia Espacial del Paraguay to provide a dedicated satellite constellation network and will develop a Space-As-A-Service model for geospatial imaging in the region. (Source)

United Launch Alliance will launch two satellites for the U.S. Space Force’s STP-3 mission to GSO aboard an Atlas 5 rocket next month. STP-3’s primary payload is the STPSat-6 satellite built by Northrop Grumman with the secondary payload being a deployer system for U.S.S.F. (Source)

OneWeb signs a seven-year $200m joint venture agreement with Saudi-based NEOM Tech & Digital Holding Company to sell its satellite capacity for high-speed satellite connectivity in the region starting 2023. (Source)

Ariane 5 launches Europe’s largest telecommunications satellite, SES-17, to GSO and the first of three Syracuse IVA military telecommunications satellites for France to LEO from the Guiana Space Centre. The rest will be launched in 2022. (Source)

Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group, Ltd. (HKATG) partners with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) to establish a satellite manufacturing and testing center and utilize its zero tariffs advantage to boost space investments in the region starting 2022. (Source)

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. launches the Shijian-21 satellite aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, southwest China to test space debris mitigation technologies. (Source)

Indonesia’s Telkomsat orders a communications satellite from Thales Alenia Space and wants to launch it to GEO in 2024. Another Telkomsat satellite SATRIA, built by Thales, will be launched in Q1 2023. (Source)

Canadian-based Exodus Orbitals pivots to leasing satellites to offer its software solutions as plans to launch its satellite from an undisclosed US partner get delayed to Q4 2022. (Source)

Belgian-based AMOS partners with European Space Agency (ESA) to build and qualify an advanced hyperspectral imager, ELOIS. Integrated by OHB Sweden AB, it will be launched in 2024. (Source)

Dragonfly Aerospace will launch the first satellite for EOS Data Analytics, for their intended AgriSat constellation comprising seven optical satellites to LEO starting 2022. (Source)

ABL Space Systems closes an additional $200 million Series B investment round raising the company’s valuation to $2.4 billion. Lockheed Martin will use ABL‘s RS1 rocket for 26 launches through 2025, with an additional 32 launches through 2029. (Source)

Astroscale Ltd. gets selected by U.K Space Agency for an Active Debris Removal Phase 0-A Feasibility Study that will launch an ELSA-m servicer spacecraft to capture two defunct satellites in space by 2025. (Source)

Terran Orbital will go public with SPAC Tailwind Two Acquisition Corp. and use its funds to build an EO constellation of 96 satellites by 2026. (Source)

In-Space Missions second payload rideshare spacecraft, Faraday Bell, will carry payloads up to 80kg and fly in formation with inter-satellite links, is expected to be launched in 2023. (Source)

Funded by Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.S. Space Force, six US and international startups get selected under the Soft Landing accelerator program in New Mexico for its first cohort. See the list. (Source) 

Russian private space firm Sputnix unveils their new SXC6 nanosatellite Earth observation platform designed for developing CubeSat 6U satellites at IAC2021. (Source)

Hedron raises $17.8M in a Series A funding round led by Fine Structure Venture with plans to establish the first plane of hybrid optical/RF data relay network constellation in LEO in 2022. (Source)

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s new space company Privateer will launch their first 3U CubeSat, Pono 1, in Q1 2022 and will work in partnership with Astroscale to tackle space debris by 2025. (Source)

Australia’s Gilmour Space Technologies plans to launch rockets for SmallSats from Bowen from mid-2022. (Source)

 

Check out Precious Payload Market Update: October 11, 2021 — October 17, 2021.