Assuming a successful Dec. 18 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope from French Guiana atop an Ariane 5 rocket, the many thousands of experts who have worked on the $9.7 billion mission will have to hold their breath for another six months before the world’s most technically complex space observatory reaches its final orbit, fully deploys and checks out.

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.

The U.S. Space Force’s Commercial Satellite Communications Office is planning to release 20 solicitations to industry for commercially provided satellite services over the next year—starting with nine requests for proposals in the next two months.

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

A crew medical concern has joined a weather issue in delaying the anticipated launch of NASA’s SpaceX-contracted Crew 3 Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) until Nov. 6 at the earliest.

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.

Launched late Oct. 27 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan atop a Soyuz 2a.1 rocket, the MS-18 freighter—designated Progress 79 by NASA—docked to the ISS on Oct. 29 at 9:31 p.m. EDT.