Space

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

The Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Hybrid Space Architecture program has issued several contracts to companies to develop and demonstrate a space-based network architecture for communications across commercial and government satellites in multiple orbits.

Stellar Solutions, a global aerospace and systems engineering services firm, has unveiled Stellar Ventures, a woman-led venture capital firm investing in the next generation of space entrepreneurs, the company said July 7.

NASA’s small Capstone mission satellite successfully carried out a delayed midday trajectory correction maneuver on July 7.

The European Space Agency (ESA), its commercial partners and potential customers are eagerly awaiting the inaugural launch of the Vega-C rocket.

A Minotaur II+ rocket, the first launch test supporting the development of the Mk21A re-entry vehicle, exploded shortly after launch late July 6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

Roscosmos State Space Corp. is eager to launch new Angara modular rockets from its Vostochny commercial spaceport in 2023.

U.S. Air Force seeds new tanker competition; Aerojet’s new board; Europe seeks airlifter; and Northrop chooses Airbus satellite bus.

Virgin Galactic has signed an agreement to partner with Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to build two new White Knight Two jets to carry its air-launched passenger suborbital spaceships.

Ground control teams have re-established communications with NASA’s Capstone lunar mission, the space agency reported July 6.

L3Harris plans to invest €11.2 million ($11.4 million) in Mynaric in exchange for 7.2% of the laser communications company’s shares.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is testing its experimental receivers for the upcoming Navigation Technology Satellite-3 as it is integrating the satellite ahead of its planned launch next year.

The Singaporean Defense Ministry has played down the possibility of setting up a space division within its military in the near future, but nevertheless is closely studying the development of novel satellite technology, especially in the field of small to nano satellites.

The newly deployed Capstone lunar spacecraft has been unable to communicate with ground control teams, NASA said July 5.

Northrop Grumman has selected Airbus US Space & Defense as its satellite bus supplier for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) prototype constellation.

Norway’s Kongsberg is to purchase a majority holding in Lithuanian small satellite integrator and bus manufacturer NanoAvionics.

NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (Capstone) small satellite successfully separated from its orbital Photon propulsion stage early July 4, beginning a pioneering journey to near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon.

With a mostly successful tanking test complete, NASA sets its sights on Moon rocket’s first flight.

NASA has completed construction of a record-tying large primary mirror for a telescope to be carried aloft by a high-altitude balloon.

OneWeb, in partnership with the European Space Agency and UK Space Agency, says it demonstrated a 5G link between low Earth orbit satellites, a geostationary satellite and a mobile ground terminal on June 28.

Startup launch company Relativity Space has signed a multiyear, multiflight launch services agreement with OneWeb to deliver its next-generation broadband satellites into orbit beginning in 2025.

After nearly two years in the orbit of Mars, China’s Tianwen-1 has completed imagery mapping of the red planet.

Capstone dispatched to scout orbit for NASA’s lunar Gateway.

Tracy Caldwell Dyson is likely to be the third U.S. astronaut to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule to the International Space Station under a new crew seat exchange agreement to be signed by NASA and Roscosmos.

The House Appropriations Committee has advanced a $25.45 billion 2023 NASA budget proposal to the full House, which if enacted by the House and Senate would amount to a $1.4 billion increase over 2022, but less than the $25.97 billion requested by President Biden in March.