U.S.-based satellite communications provider Viasat on Nov. 8 announced a definitive agreement to acquire UK-based Inmarsat in a transaction valued at $7.3 billion that would create an unrivaled, multiband space and terrestrial network serving aviation, maritime and other markets.

ANA Holdings has an agreement that sets the stage for the purchase of 20 Virgin One LauncherOne rocket flights that would take off from Japan.

Three-year-old New York startup Innovative Rocket Technologies on Nov. 4 said it has signed an agreement with two-year-old Turion Space of Irvine, California, to launch 20 of the latter’s proposed Droid orbital-debris-removing satellites to low Earth orbit via iRocket’s planned Shockwave launcher.

UK startup Isotropic Systems has demonstrated the first simultaneous connections with communications satellites in different orbits, its solid-state terminal linking to SES spacecraft in both geostationary and medium Earth orbits at the same time.

Recently public new-space company Redwire is buying Techshot, a microgravity biotechnology company that provided the first U.S. system capable of manufacturing human tissue in microgravity, among other innovations.

U.S. researchers have developed a technique to manipulate satellites and orbital debris magnetically for repair or removal.

Spurred by rising space business opportunities, reinsurance and risk management service provider Applied Underwriters on Nov. 1 said it was taking on former PartnerRe Direct and Facultative Space staff for a new Washington-based joint venture called Applied Underwriters Aerospace.

Amazon said Nov. 1 it will launch the KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 prototype satellites for its low Earth orbit-based broadband offering via two ABL Space Systems RS1 rockets from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in a year.