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Australian launch vehicle startup Gilmour Space has raised $36 million ahead of its first launch. The company announced Monday the Series D round, led by Queensland Investment Corporation with participation from several other investors. The company last raised $46 million in 2021. Gilmour Space is working on a small launch vehicle called Eris designed to place more than 200 kilograms into orbit. A first launch of Eris from a site in northern Queensland is planned for the "coming months" pending approval from Australian regulators. [SpaceNews]
The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence has selected two companies to develop satellite control systems. Lockheed Martin and Rhea Group each won awards valued at $2.5 million for the ISTARI project, a next-generation constellation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) satellites in low Earth orbit. The companies will develop competing mission systems to control ISTARI satellites and to manage and process data. The U.K. government in 2022 announced plans to invest about $1 billion in the ISTARI program over 10 years, with the satellites projected to launch between 2026 and 2031. [SpaceNews]
Airbus took 600 million euros ($650 million) in charges on its space programs in 2023. The company disclosed the charges as part of its annual earnings report last week. Airbus did not disclose specific programs and issues that caused the charges, but acknowledged that problems with its OneSat line of software-defined GEO communications satellites contributed "big time" to the losses. Airbus also said it is still studying whether and how to replace two Pléiades Neo high-resolution imaging satellites lost in a December 2022 Vega-C launch failure. [SpaceNews]
Concerns about the vulnerability of GPS to spoofing and jamming are spurring efforts to develop alternatives. The Pentagon is now scoping a burgeoning commercial market promising innovative options to reduce GPS dependence for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). These range from terrestrial networks that leverage existing cellular infrastructure to new constellations of low-orbiting small satellites broadcasting PNT signals. Extensive use of GPS jammers in Russia's invasion of Ukraine has helped raise awareness of the potential problem, officials said. [SpaceNews]
Companies wanting to provide commercial weather data to NOAA say the agency has commitment issues. Those companies claim that while commercial customers are willing to sign long-term contracts lasting for three to five years, NOAA instead uses short-term contracts typically lasting six to eight months. That makes it difficult for companies to invest in new capabilities, they argue, since investors do not see a firm return on investment. NOAA says its approach is intended to get the best value and that issuing long-term contracts would deter new companies from entering the market. [SpaceNews]
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A United Nations committee has agreed to take up the issue of interference to astronomical observations caused by satellite constellations. At a meeting this month, a subcommittee of the U.N.'s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) agreed to add an agenda item on "dark and quiet skies" to meetings from 2025 through 2029. That will allow formal discussions about how constellations can interfere with radio and optical astronomy and to discuss ways to mitigate that interference. Getting COPUOS to take up the topic had been difficult in the past since the committee operates by consensus, allowing just one of its more than 100 member states to block consideration of the issue. The ITU also agreed to take up radio interference issues in astronomy involving satellites for the next World Radiocommnuication Conference in 2027. [SpaceNews]
A startup led by a former Disney Channel star has raised a seed round of funding to mass produce ground stations. Northwood Space has raised $6 million from several investors to allow it to advance development of ground stations that can be built quickly to increase capacity at teleports for satellite operators. The CEO of Northwood is Bridgit Mendler, who once starred on several Disney Channel shows and later studied at Harvard and MIT. [CNBC]
ESA is providing funding to Spanish launch vehicle startup PLD Space. Through ESA's "Boost!" program, the agency is awarding PLD Space 1.3 million euros ($1.4 million) to develop a modular payload accommodation system. That system will be used on the company's Miura 5 small launch vehicle, scheduled to make its first flight in 2025. [ESA]
India is studying adding a helicopter to a future Mars mission. An ISRO scientist said in a recent webinar that the agency is exploring a concept called the Mars Boundary Layer Explorer, or Marble, a helicopter similar to NASA's Ingenuity. Marble would fly to altitudes of up to 100 meters to make a vertical profile of the atmosphere. Marble would be included on a future Indian Mars lander mission, although there is no formal schedule yet for that mission. [India Today]
The universe's brightest object is a black hole that devours a sun a day. Astronomers announced Monday the discovery of the distant quasar, 12 billion light-years away, after earlier surveys miscategorized the object as a star. The object is 500 trillion times brighter than the sun and is fueled by a supermassive black hole 17 billion times the mass of the sun. The astronomer who led the study that identified the object as a quasar called it "the most violent place that we know in the universe." [AP]
| | Webinar: Automating for SmallSat Success - Register Today
Tuesday, Feb. 20
1 p.m. Eastern
The purpose of this webinar is to explore how today's smallsat leaders are employing automation in satellite operations and manufacturing.
Panelists - Chris Winslett, Blue Canyon Technologies
- Chuck Beames, York Space
- Marc Bell, Terran Orbital
- Chester Gillmore, Planet
Moderator - Jeff Foust, SpaceNews senior staff writer
| | sponsored by  | | State of Nature
"They feared satellites powerful enough to zoom in on individuals, capturing close-ups that might differentiate adults from children or suited sunbathers from those in a state of nature."
– From a New York Times article about concerns raised by privacy advocates of future commercial satellites capable of extremely high resolution imaging.
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