May 4, 2023

Europe Won't Have Reusable Rockets for Another Decade (Source: Space.com)
The CEO of France-based launch company Arianespace says Europe will have to wait until the 2030s for a reusable rocket. Stéphane Israël delivered the comments to a French radio station on April 8, the European Spaceflight newsletter reported. Arianespace is currently preparing its Ariane 6 rocket for a test flight following years of delays. Europe's workhorse Ariane 5, which has been operational for nearly 30 years, recently launched the JUICE Jupiter mission and now has only one flight remaining before retirement. (5/4)

Private equity investors have completed their $6.4 billion purchase of Maxar. The company was acquired for $53 per share by the U.S. private equity firm Advent International and minority investor British Columbia Investment Management Corp. in a deal announced in December. That deal was completed Wednesday, and Maxar's shares stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Maxar previously said the buyout would allow it to accelerate investment in projects like its WorldView Legion imaging satellite constellation. (5/4)

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Vie to Develop Survivable Satellite Ground Systems (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin and Raytheon won contracts to develop ground systems for a satellite communications network intended to survive a nuclear attack. Each company won a $30 million contract to develop prototypes of a ground system for the Evolved Strategic Satcom (ESS) program, Space Systems Command announced this week. ESS is a classified satcom system designed to operate in the event of a nuclear war. Boeing and Northrop Grumman are developing competing satellite designs for ESS, a program the Defense Department expects to spend $6.5 billion on over the next five years. (5/4)

Seraphim Selects Nine Space Startups for Accelerator (Source: Space News)
Seraphim Space has selected nine companies that will participate in the next round of its accelerator program for space startups. The 11-week program kicked off April 4 and is designed to help young businesses refine their corporate pitches, connect with mentors and ultimately broaden the pool of potential investments for Seraphim, an early-stage space investor. The companies involved are from the U.S., India, Italy, Lithuania and Singapore, and are working on a wide range of space technologies and services. (5/4)

CesiumAstro to Develop Phased Array Antennas for Raytheon Missile Tracking Satellites (Source: Space News)
CesiumAstro will provide phased-array antennas for seven missile-tracking satellites being built by Raytheon. The company said it will provide Ka-band radio-frequency payloads to be integrated in the seven satellites Raytheon is building that will be part of the Space Development Agency's Tracking Layer Tranche 1. SDA earlier this year awarded Raytheon a $250 million contract for the seven satellites, to be delivered in 2025. CesiumAstro says the contract validates its approach to commoditizing phased array technologies that traditionally have been highly customized and costly. (5/4)

SpaceX Launches More Starlink Satellites From Florida Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX launched a batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral early this morning. A Falcon 9 carrying 56 Starlink satellites lifted off at 3:31 a.m. Eastern, with the satellites deployed into low Earth orbit a little more than an hour later. SpaceX now has about 4,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, with the next set of satellites scheduled to launch early next week. (5/4)

Cosmonauts Conduct ISS Spacewalk (Source: NASA)
Two Russian cosmonauts spent more than seven hours outside the International Space Station Wednesday. Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin started the spacewalk at 4 p.m. Eastern, working to move an experiment airlock from the Rassvet module to the Nauka module on the station. The two are scheduled to perform another spacewalk May 12 to deploy a radiator on Nauka and connect lines on the module's exterior. (5/4)

NASA Picks Five to Vie for Coronagraph Instrument for NOAA L-1 Space Weather Satellite (Source: Space News)
NASA has awarded study contracts to five organizations for solar coronagraphs for a future NOAA space weather satellite. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, EO Vista, the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Southwest Research Institute each won $800,000 study contacts for studies of coronagraphs that could be flown on the Space Weather Next Lagrange 1 mission. NASA plans to award coronagraph development contracts on behalf of NOAA in 2024. (5/4)

Eumetsat Weather Satellite Releases First Image (Source: BBC)
Eumetsat has released the first images from a new weather satellite. The images released Thursday are from Meteosat-12, a geostationary orbit weather satellite launched in December that is still in commissioning. The satellite, which observes Europe, Africa and the Middle East, features a high-resolution imager that will give meteorologists improved data for monitoring severe weather. "It's like going from standard definition to 4K," said one forecaster. (5/4)

Workforce Groups Plan Event to Boost Central Florida Aerospace, IT Employment (Source: FAWAC)
The Florida Atlantic Workforce Alliance Consortium will host a May 23 virtual event to collectively boost the Aerospace/Aviation, Advanced Manufacturing, and IT/Cybersecurity workforce to meet growing industry demands on the East Coast. As an employer, education provider, or community stakeholder, we seek your input in the first of a series of real-time conversations designed to provide strategic solutions that meet your workforce needs. Click here. (5/4)