| By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Northwood Space raises $100 million, Oman signs a satellite contract and the Artemis Accords, NASA looks for Earth science mission partners and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
Ground station developer Northwood Space has raised $100 million. The Series B round, announced Tuesday, was led by Washington Harbour Partners and co-led by a16z, with participation from Alpine Space Ventures and others. Northwood builds electronically steered antennas that communicate with satellites without physically moving the antenna. Its main product is a multi-beam phased array called Portal, designed to add capacity to the ground segment of satellite operations. The company also recently won a $49.8 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to augment the capacity of the Satellite Control Network, which is used to track launches and early satellite operations, control satellites and provide emergency support to spacecraft that are tumbling or have lost contact. [SpaceNews]
Astranis will build a satellite for an Omani company. Astranis signed "a nine-figure contract" Monday with MB Group for the satellite, part of a $200 million investment covering the satellite, ground stations and other connectivity infrastructure. The satellite will join four other Astranis Block 3 satellites due to launch together on a dedicated SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this summer for customers from Mexico, Taiwan and Thailand. The announcement comes two months after Space Communication Technologies, Oman's state-backed operator, said it had picked Airbus for its first Ka-band broadband satellite, a much larger spacecraft set to launch in 2028. [SpaceNews]
South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Systems is partnering with Canada's MDA Space on a proposed military satellite constellation. The companies announced an agreement Monday on the partnership, which would use MDA's Aurora spacecraft platform. Hanwha said it is also collaborating with Telesat on its sovereign satellite connectivity program, including potentially developing terminals compatible with the proposed K-LEO defense network and Telesat's Lightspeed, which is slated to begin initial services next year. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force is preparing to select its first contracts for a new line of space surveillance satellites. Officials said last week that the service plans to select satellite manufacturers as soon as March for the Geosynchronous Reconnaissance & Surveillance (RG-XX) program, an effort to build a new constellation of reconnaissance satellites using commercial offerings rather than bespoke military designs. Program leaders see RG-XX as a test case for the Space Force's push toward a "commercial first" acquisition strategy. The program office plans to tap more than one company and expects the constellation to be significantly larger than the existing Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP), a constellation built by Northrop Grumman. [SpaceNews]
NASA is looking for partners to handle operations of several Earth science missions. The agency released a call for proposals for organizations interested in working with NASA on several Earth science satellites and instruments mounted on the International Space Station. They include the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite and the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) fleet of smallsats for monitoring tropical storms. NASA said the partnerships could reduce the burden on NASA for operating spacecraft in their extended missions. [SpaceNews]
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A Brazilian government agency will launch a satellite on a Vega C. Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, or INPE, announced Tuesday it will launch Amazonia-1B, a 700-kilogram Earth science spacecraft, on a Vega C in 2027. INPE elected to work with a launch broker, Texas-based SpaceLaunch, rather than directly with Avio, which builds and is taking over operations of Vega C. SpaceLaunch noted that some of its employees previously worked at Spaceflight, which handled the launch of Amazonia-1 on a PSLV in 2021 for INPE. [SpaceNews]
Oman is the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords. An Oman government minister signed the Accords Monday during the Middle East Space Conference in Muscat. Oman is the 61st country to sign the Accords, which outline best practices for responsible space behavior, and the second so far this year. [SpaceNews]
NASA is planning a key fueling test for the Artemis 2 mission as soon as Saturday. NASA said late Monday it has scheduled the wet dress rehearsal for the mission no earlier than Saturday. During the wet dress rehearsal, the SLS is loaded with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants and goes through a practice countdown. One potential schedule constraint is the weather, with unseasonably cold temperatures forecast this weekend that could violate NASA rules for carrying out fueling of the rocket. [NASA]
Amazon's first broadband satellites are bright enough to interfere with astronomy. Observations of the initial sets of Amazon Leo satellites have an average magnitude of 6.28, falling short of the guideline of being no brighter than magnitude 7 set by astronomers to avoid disrupting observations. About one-quarter of the time the satellites are bright enough to be seen by the naked eye. Astronomers, though, said Amazon has been willing to work with them on ways to reduce the brightness of the satellites. [Space.com]
A Chinese space tourism company has signed up its first customers. InterstellOr says that about 20 people have signed up to fly on its suborbital vehicle, paying 3 million yuan ($430,000) each. Among those who have signed up are an actor, businessman, and poet. Flights of CYZ-1, a vehicle with a concept of operations like Blue Origin's New Shepard, are scheduled to begin in 2028. [CGTN]
| | | | | | The Guy That Walked on Mars
| "I wanted to be the guy that walked on Mars. I failed at that. I find myself here just because of circumstances."
| | – Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a former NASA astronaut, talking about his political career on "The Press Box" podcast.
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