Top Stories

Airbus, Leonardo and Thales have agreed to combine their space businesses into a joint venture. The companies announced Thursday they signed a memorandum of understanding to create a company from space business units at the three companies. Airbus would own 35% of the new company and Leonardo and Thales 32.5% each. The company, not yet named, would have 25,000 employees across Europe with 6.5 billion euros ($7.5 billion) in projected annual revenue. The three companies have been in talks for months on the joint venture, codenamed "Project Bromo," in a bid to better compete globally. The deal still requires regulatory approvals, such as European antitrust reviews, that will not be completed until 2027. [SpaceNews]

Lockheed Martin is investing in rocket propulsion startup Venus Aerospace. The startup said Wednesday that Lockheed Martin Ventures, the venture capital arm of the aerospace giant, would make an investment of undisclosed size to support development of a rotating detonation rocket engine. Such an engine promises more efficiency than conventional engines, and Venus has proposed using it for hypersonic vehicles. Venus Aerospace tested the technology on a sounding rocket launch in May. [SpaceNews]

Vantor is providing imagery of satellites for the U.S. Space Force. The company, previously known as Maxar Intelligence, said Wednesday it is providing the Space Force with high-resolution space-to-space imagery using its commercial imaging satellites, filling a gap in military surveillance of low Earth orbit. The company's satellites can capture images of other spacecraft at resolutions finer than 10 centimeters from distances exceeding several hundred kilometers. Vantor takes those images when its satellites are passing over oceans and would not be engaged in Earth imaging. Vantor secured a separate contract with NOAA's Office of Space Commerce to provide non-Earth imagery supporting space traffic management initiatives. [SpaceNews]

Quantum Space expects to launch its first mission next year. The company said Wednesday its Ranger Prime mission will launch next June to test technologies for its Ranger line of spacecraft. Quantum Space originally proposed Ranger to support cislunar transportation and other applications, but has since pivoted to national security space missions. The company said the highly maneuverable spacecraft could play roles in the Golden Dome missile defense system. [SpaceNews]

French propulsion startup Ion-X won a contract to provide thrusters for a broadband constellation company. Univity, a three-year-old French venture planning 1,500 small 5G broadband satellites in very low Earth orbit, said it will buy electrospray thrusters from Ion-X for one of two UniShape prototype satellites it plans to launch in 2027. The UniShape mission would mark the first flight of Ion-X's Halo-Max, designed to deliver around five times the total impulse of its existing Halo-100X thruster. [SpaceNews]

Other News

SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Wednesday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 10:16 a.m. Eastern and deployed 28 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. The launch was the 133rd so far this year of the Falcon 9, compared to 132 Falcon 9 launches in all of 2024. [Space.com]

Hungary is the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords. NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy announced the signing Wednesday in a social media post, although there was no other publicity about the agreement from the U.S. or Hungarian governments. The signing coincided with a visit by Hungary's foreign minister to the United States. Hungary is the fifth country to sign the Accords this year and the 57th overall. [SpaceNews]

The Texas senators pushing to move the space shuttle Discovery to Houston are now getting the Justice Department involved. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn (R-Texas), along with Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas), said Wednesday they sent a letter to the Justice Department, calling on it to investigate allegations that the Smithsonian Institution violated the Anti-Lobbying Act in efforts to oppose the transfer of Discovery. The budget reconciliation bill passed in July included $85 million for a "space vehicle transfer" since interpreted to mean moving Discovery. Opponents of the move argue that the cost would be far greater than the $85 million appropriated and risks damaging the orbiter. [collectSPACE]

SpaceX has settled a lawsuit filed by a game company that owns land adjacent to Starbase. Cards Against Humanity (CAH) said this week SpaceX agreed to settle the $15 million lawsuit it filed last year, claiming SpaceX construction contractors trespassed on a plot of land CAH owns near Starbase. CAH claimed that workers parked equipment and left debris on the land for at least six months. The companies did not disclose terms of the settlement, reached just before the case was set to go to trial, but CAH said that SpaceX admitted during the discovery phase of the case that workers did trespass on the property. CAH bought the land in 2017 in a bid to oppose a proposed border wall. [AP]

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