#Airbus wins contract for ExoMars lander platform ,
Airbus Defence and Space will build the landing platform for the European Space Agency’s #ExoMars rover, replacing a critical component originally to be provided by Russia.

Airbus announced late March 28 (Eastern time) that it was selected by ESA and Thales Alenia Space, the prime contractor for the mission, to build the landing platform for that rover mission, scheduled to launch in 2028.

The landing platform is the part of the ExoMars spacecraft that handles the final phases of its descent to the Martian surface in 2030, including performing the final landing burn. After landing, the platform will deploy ramps to allow the ExoMars rover, named Rosalind Franklin, to roll onto the Martian surface.

Airbus did not disclose the value of the contract, but the U.K. government stated it was worth £150 million ($194 million). ESA awarded a contract worth 522 million euros ($565 million) to Thales Alenia Space in April 2024 to restart work on the mission, which was paused in March 2022 weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia was to provide the landing platform as well as launch the mission on a Proton rocket.

“Getting the Rosalind Franklin rover onto the surface of Mars is a huge international challenge and the culmination of more than 20 years’ work,” Kata Escott, managing director of Airbus Defence and Space U.K., in a statement about the award. Airbus will build the landing platform at its facility in Stevenage, England, where it also assembled the Rosalind Franklin rover.

“We are proud to have built the rover in our state-of-the-art Stevenage clean room and delighted now to develop the project to ensure its safe delivery to Mars,” she said.

#Geopolitical shifts are driving government interest in Telesat’s low Earth orbit plans, according to the Canadian operator, validating its move beyond geostationary satellites as LEO frontrunner Starlink erodes its legacy broadband business.

Rising global defense priorities and a push for sovereign-controlled communications are making customer demand for Lightspeed “much more concrete” and urgent, Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg said during a March 27 earnings call.

Telesat has disclosed a revenue backlog of 600 million Canadian dollars ($419 million) for Lightspeed, comprising mostly a commitment from Canada’s federal government in 2020 to provide subsidized broadband services to rural communities.

However, Goldberg said it is very likely LEO commitments will surpass the 1.1 billion Canadian dollar backlog Telesat recorded for its geostationary orbit (GEO) business at the end of 2024.

“We’re having some advanced discussions with customers about Lightspeed commitments,” he said, adding “we’re still about a year and a half out from our first launch, but the market just feels like it’s moving in our direction.”

Canada’s MDA is under contract to build 198 satellites for Lightspeed, which Starlink owner SpaceX is scheduled to deploy across 14 launches within a year, starting from mid-2026.

Isar #Aerospace’s first Spectrum launch fails ,

#WASHINGTON — The first launch of Isar Aerospace’ Spectrum rocket failed March 30 when the vehicle lost attitude control seconds after liftoff and plummeted back to Earth, but the company still considered the launch a successful test flight.

The Spectrum rocket lifted off from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway at 6:30 a.m. Eastern on the first orbital launch attempt by a commercial entity from continental Europe outside Russia. Weather conditions had postponed the launch by more than a week. The company had a launch period of March 20 through March 31 set by a license the company received from Norwegian regulators March 17.

The vehicle soared into clear skies, but appeared to lose attitude control about 25 seconds after liftoff, shortly after the announcer for the company’s launch webcast said the vehicle would make a pitchover maneuver, designed to allow the rocket to gain horizontal speed as well as altitude.

Within five seconds, the vehicle completely pitched over and started descending. While the webcast cut away from the rocket, an explosion could be heard on the broadcast about 10 seconds later. Video from VG, a Norwegian publication, showed the rocket hitting the surface near the pad and exploding.

Company executives said in a call with reporters about four hours after liftoff that the vehicle activated its flight termination system, which shuts off the #rocket’s engines, at the T+30 second mark. The vehicle then fell in an “aerodynamic, stable phase” into a planned zone in waters near the pad, said Alexandre Dalloneau, vice president of mission and launch operations.

“The pad looks healthy, which is good,” said Daniel Metzler, chief executive of Isar Aerospace, on the call.

Officials declined to speculate on what caused the vehicle to lose control. “We saw that the vehicle was tumbling, so there was some form of loss of control,” Metzler said. He said it would be at least a few days before the company could review the data to gain insights on the potential cause, part of a “proper investigation” that will include Andøya Spaceport and Norwegian regulators.

Despite failing half a minute after liftoff, Isar Aerospace called the test flight, which it named “Going Full Spectrum,” a success. “It was a success because we met all of the objectives that we had for that flight,” he argued. “We didn’t reach orbit but we learned a ton from it, and it sets us up very well for the second flight that’s ahead of us.”

“With this test, we were able to gather a substantial amount of flight data to apply on our future missions,” said Dalloneau, who previously oversaw Ariane, Soyuz and Vega launches from French Guiana. “Even if I would say the end of the mission was spectacular, I would say — and I insist on that due to my previous experience — it was still a success.”

“We never expected that we would get to orbit” on this test flight, Metzler said on the call. “We set out to gather data primarily, and that is something that we have successfully achieved. We gathered tons of data.”

The second Spectrum rocket is “quite progressed” in production, but he said it was too early to say when the company might be ready for a second launch as it analyzes the data from this flight. “We’ll make the adjustments that are necessary and try to be back with vehicle number two on the pad as early as possible.”

“We’re super happy,” he said of the flight. “It’s a time for people to be proud of, for Europe, frankly, also to be proud of.”

French space propulsion firm ThrustMe expands U.S. footprint .

ThrustMe, a satellite propulsion company based in France, is making a strategic push into the U.S. space market, securing a roster of new American customers.

The company announced Feb. 4 it has signed deals with a diverse set of U.S. firms, including Starfish Space, Astro Digital, Magellan Aerospace, Lumen Orbit, Oligo Space, Turion Space, and Terran Orbital, a subsidiary of defense giant Lockheed Martin.

Founded in 2017, ThrustMe specializes in miniaturized, iodine-fueled electric propulsion systems for small satellites. The company in 2021 performed the first on-orbit tests of an iodine-fueled electric propulsion system. The demonstration proved that iodine could be a viable propellant for electric propulsion systems, leading ThrustMe to begin the commercialization of the system.

ThrustMe began industrial-scale production in mid-2023. Since then, the company has delivered more than 150 propulsion systems, with 67 already operational in orbit, according to Ane Aanesland, ThrustMe’s co-founder and chief executive.

“North America is known for its highly competitive space industry, where international companies often face difficulties establishing themselves,” Aanesland said in a statement. “Securing these customers demonstrates our ability to meet the growing demand for innovative propulsion solutions.”

Pangea #Aerospace raises Series A round to fund space propulsion work .

Spanish propulsion startup Pangea Aerospace has raised 23 million euros ($25 million) to further development of advanced rocket engines for use in launch vehicles and spacecraft.

Pangea said its Series A round was led by Hyperion Fund, a Madrid-based firm focused on aerospace, cyber and defense. Several other firms and individuals participated in the round, including André-Hubert Roussel, former chief executive of ArianeGroup.

The funds will allow Pangea, based in Barcelona and with offices in Toulouse, France, to accelerate its growth in the European market for propulsion systems, seeking both institutional and private customers. That includes plans to expand manufacturing and testing facilities.

Pangea is known for its work on aerospike engines, a technology that promises greater efficiency but which has long been technically challenging to develop. The company tested a prototype of one aerospike engine design, leveraging 3D-printing technologies, in 2021.

The company said in its March 18 announcement of the funding round that it has eight active contracts with companies and institutions. That includes contracts with the European Space Agency to study designs of high-thrust engines for use on future European reusable vehicles as well as how its engine technology could be used on reusable upper stages. None of those designs have flown in space, though.

Pangea sys it remains focused on developing propulsion systems and has no plans to move towards full launch systems or other spacecraft. “It follows a business model similar to Rolls-Royce in the aviation industry, which has already been validated with multiple private clients,” Pangea argues, a reference to the jet engines Rolls-Royce produces for multiple aircraft developers.

That approach is contrary to current business models in launch, where most vehicle developers also produce their own engines, seeking to maximize technical and financial efficiencies. An exception is United Launch Alliance, which uses engines from Blue Origin and L3Harris for its Vulcan Centaur rocket.

The investment in Pangea Aerospace is the first for the Hyperion Fund, which recently announced it closed its first fund at 150 million euros. The fund will support companies in aerospace, defense, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Hyperion said in a statement that it is in talks with “top firms” in NATO countries on additional investments.

“In this unique geostrategic moment, we support founders and companies that share our vision for strengthening the allies’ technological sovereignty and security leadership,” Hyperion said in its announcement of closing the fund.

French #VLEO 5G startup strikes telecoms infrastructure partnership ,

TAMPA, Fla. — French satellite broadband startup CTO has teamed up with TDF, which operates France’s largest network of carrier-neutral hosting sites, to help integrate its proposed very low Earth orbit (VLEO) 5G services with terrestrial telcos.

The companies announced an agreement March 20 to test the feasibility of using cellular frequencies from telecom partners to deliver VLEO services to user terminals, which CTO (Constellation Technologies & Operations) is developing in-house.

CTO founder and CEO Charles Delfieux said the agreement also paves the way for the venture to deploy gateways at TDF sites, supporting backhaul services and emergency communications between satellite and terrestrial networks.

“Beyond infrastructure, CTO and TDF share a common vision: to serve as neutral hosts for telecom operators — TDF on the ground, CTO from space,” Delfieux said via email.

Scaling VLEO services

CTO secured about $10 million from a French state-backed seed fund and Expansion Ventures last year toward plans to deploy 1500 small satellites 375 kilometers above Earth.

Satellites at this altitude could enable faster communications and smaller user terminals compared with higher orbits such as LEO, where SpaceX’s Starlink network operates, but they also contend with greater atmospheric drag and other operational challenges.

The lowest authorized orbit for Starlink broadband is 525 kilometers, though SpaceX has sought permission to operate at lower altitudes.

Delfieux said CTO remains on track to launch a test payload in June via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission, hosted on a spacecraft from Italy’s D-Orbit.

The payload would support initial end-to-end 5G tests from 550 to 600 kilometers above Earth before CTO moves ahead with its VLEO deployment.

CTO plans to deploy its first two 350-kilogram VLEO satellites next year, with the full constellation set to be deployed by 2029 for global service coverage.

Just 36 satellites on the equatorial plane would be enough to provide an initial emergency connectivity service, according to Delfieux, ensuring connectivity even when natural disasters disable ground-based relay antennas.

“In disaster scenarios, our inter-satellite links will allow connectivity to “hop” between islands, or to mainland areas where terrestrial infrastructure remains intact, ensuring continued access via anchor gateways,” he said.

In addition to network integration, he said TDF would provide local expertise and workforce to support rapid connectivity deployments in critical situations.

#Europe funds inflatable #satellite drag sail demonstration .

TAMPA, Fla. — A group of #European companies has secured government funds to test an inflatable drag sail in space by 2028, designed to swiftly deorbit its host satellite after mission completion.

Two-year-old Portuguese startup Spaceo is leading the consortium, which announced a 3 million euro ($3.3 million) contract from the European Space Agency March 18 for the demonstration in low Earth orbit.

French hosted payload provider SpaceLocker will manage the integration of the drag sail onto the host satellite, which will be provided by Denmark-headquartered smallsat specialist GomSpace. SolidFlow of the Netherlands is responsible for developing the gas generator needed to inflate the sail for the SWIFT (Spacecraft With Inflatable Termination) project.

The system is designed to be initially 20 square centimeters in size but would inflate about 7,500 times larger to around 1.5 square meters, increasing atmospheric drag to accelerate deorbiting.

According to Spaceo CEO João Loureiro, the increased drag should reduce the satellite’s altitude from 500 to 400 kilometers in under a year, with full deorbit expected within 14-16 months. Without SWIFT, he said, the satellite would take around 10 years to naturally burn up in the atmosphere.

While the system is being fitted to a 12U cubesat measuring 20 x 20 x 30 centimeters with a 20-kilogram mass, Loureiro said it could be scaled for larger satellites up to 200 kilograms.

Deorbit alternatives

A growing number of satellites rely on onboard propulsion to maneuver and lower their altitude for deorbiting. However, this method requires the satellite to be functional at the end of its mission and consumes fuel that could otherwise be used for operational tasks.

“SWIFT will be triggered even if the satellite fails or is malfunctioning,” Loureiro said.

On March 15, California-based Vestigo Aerospace launched its Sphinx drag sail demonstrator as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-13 rideshare mission. Unlike SWIFT, which inflates, Vestigo’s Spinnaker drag sail deploys using lightweight booms.

Vestigo Aerospace spokesperson Ben Spencer said telemetry has confirmed the spacecraft — based on Astro Digital’s Corvus Micro platform — is functioning post-launch.

The company plans to deploy the drag sail in the second half of April, with deorbit expected just 16 days later.

Spencer said Sphinx was deployed at around 500 kilometers, with the combined spacecraft — Spinnaker and the Corvus Micro bus — weighing just over 33 kilograms and measuring 39 x 47 x 71 centimeters. When fully deployed, Spinnaker’s frontal surface area expands to 18.8 square meters.

Chinese company targets crewed orbital #spaceflight .

HELSINKI — A Chinese space company is setting its sights on crewed orbital #spaceflight, marking a new step in the expansion of China’s commercial space sector.

Zhang Xiaomin, chairman of Beijing Ziwei Yutong Technology Co., Ltd., also known as #AZSpace, told the #Chinese outlet Securities Daily last week that, “we plan to officially conduct orbital manned flight tests in 2027 or 2028.”

So far, China’s human spaceflight missions have been carried out solely by China’s human spaceflight agency, CMSA, using Long March 2F rockets and Shenzhou spacecraft, but this may now change in the coming years.

Founded in 2019, AZSpace focuses on spacecraft manufacturing and space tourism, with backing from venture capital firms. Its newly announced crewed orbital plans mark a significant expansion of its ambitions. However, key details—such as funding sources and potential state support—remain unclear.

This follows China’s central government designating commercial space a key emerging industry to be supported and promoted. Local and provincial governments are also seeking to attract commercial space companies and foster space ecosystems.

It was not made clear where funding for AZSpace’s plans comes from, or if the statement will lead to investor interest. It is also unknown if, or to what extent, the company will have access to state-owned technology for its reusable and crewed spacecraft plans.

More concretely, Zhang laid out company plans for 2025. It will conduct a launch of the self-developed B300 spacecraft, and later launch the more advanced DEAR-5 spacecraft.

The company plans to carry out these two flights in July and September this year respectively, with Zhang adding that the spacecraft will conduct on-orbit docking verification and reentry tests.

This follows the launch of DEAR-1 in December 2023 aboard an iSpace Hyperbola-1 solid propellant rocket. That spacecraft remains in orbit, and it is unclear if it is, or was, intended to deliberately reenter as part of its mission. The DEAR-3 microgravity research platform, which is based on the B300 and has a payload capacity of up to 300 kilograms, was lost on the failed Kinetica-1 rocket launch in December last year.

DEAR-5 will have improved payload capacity and service capabilities over DEAR-3. It is equipped with a self-developed intelligent payload management system, to meet more complex user needs.

AZSpace is also developing the C2000 spacecraft which will have a payload capacity of 2,000 kg as a stepping stone to crewed spacecraft. The timeline for the latter appears highly ambitious and no launch partner was mentioned.

It is not the only Chinese commercial company targeting space tourism. Launch companies CAS Space and Deep Blue Aerospace are developing suborbital spacecraft to provide services similar to those of Blue Origin and its New Shepard system. Another, younger spacecraft manufacturer, Interstellor, is also working on a spacecraft for suborbital tourism.

China is currently considering expanding the Tiangong space station and opening it to tourist visits, though no details of how the latter would work have been provided.

China began opening its space sector to commercial activities and private capital in late 2014. Initial efforts were largely restricted to small launch vehicles and small satellites, before expanding to ever-larger, liquid propellant launchers with potential reusability, a range of space systems and applications, remote sensing and communications constellations and, recently low-cost, reusable cargo spacecraft to serve the Tiangong space station. Two low Earth orbit megaconstellations are seen as a source of contracts with which commercial launch companies may establish themselves.

With AZSpace now pushing for crewed orbital spaceflight, China’s commercial sector may be entering a new era in which private firms undertake human spaceflight alongside China’s state-run human spaceflight agency.

#SkyServe tests AI models with JPL and D-Orbit ,SAN FRANCISCO – Indian edge computing startup SkyServe is working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to test artificial intelligence models on a D-Orbit satellite.

The models, developed as part of NASA’s New Observations Strategies Sensorweb, are designed for near-real-time monitoring of wildfires, floods, urban heat islands and other phenomena for scientific research and disaster monitoring.

In March, SkyServe completed testing of JPL’s AI models on its STORM edge-computing suite installed on a D-Orbit ION Satellite Carrier in low-Earth orbit.

“We deployed this software onboard the existing satellite and completed the mission,” Vinay Simha, SkyServe founder and CEO, told SpaceNews. “We uplinked it from the ground station and ran these AI models onboard. It’s a new way of Earth observation.”

The models focused on preprocessing and optimizing water and vegetation observations to make them easier to download. “Achieving these objectives requires sophisticated edge computing technology to integrate and optimize AI models across diverse sensor configurations,” according to the news release.

“SkyServe’s technology plays a pivotal role in streamlining AI model deployment across diverse satellite platforms, ensuring consistency and efficiency,” Vishesh Vatsal, SkyServe chief technology officer, said in a statement. “Our platform bridges the gap between groundbreaking AI models and the hardware diversity of satellite systems, enabling a unified approach to Earth observation.

D-Orbit announced plans in 2024 to equip ION satellite carriers with SkyServe STORM. Similarly, Loft Orbital installed the SkyServe edge computer on its spacecraft. Another SkyServe STORM is a hosted payload on a SatRevolution cubesat launched in December on India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

In addition to STORM, SkyServe offers Surge, a platform for developing and testing AI models on the ground.

A Crew #Dragon spacecraft returned four people from the International Space Station March 18, including two #NASA astronauts whose extended stay became entangled in sensationalism and political controversy.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom undocked from the station at 1:05 a.m. Eastern on the final leg of the Crew-9 mission. The spacecraft splashed down off the Florida coast near Tallahassee at 5:57 p.m. Eastern.

The spacecraft returned with NASA astronaut Nick Hague, commander of Crew-9, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, the mission’s pilot. The two launched to the station on the spacecraft in September.

Also on board were NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. The two arrived on the station in June on the Crew Flight Test mission of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, originally for a stay intended to be as short as eight days. However, problems with the spacecraft’s thrusters led NASA in August to decide to bring Starliner back uncrewed. The agency removed two astronauts originally assigned to Crew-9, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, to free up seats for Wilmore and Williams to use for the trip back to Earth.

The spacecraft’s return appeared to be technically flawless. The spacecraft splashed down near the SpaceX recovery ship, which had the capsule on board within about a half-hour. The four people on board were taken off the capsule a short time later, appearing to be in good spirits.

Crew-9 departed the ISS barely 48 hours after their replacements arrived on another Crew Dragon spacecraft, Crew-10. NASA shortened an already condensed handover between the crews to take advantage of excellent weather conditions at the splashdown location given the possibility of less favorable weather later in the week.

However, NASA officials said at a post-splashdown briefing that shortened handovers won’t be the norm in the future. Bill Spetch, operations integration manager for the ISS program at NASA, said they immediately took care of critical briefings during the handover covering emergency procedures, but there was less time for the departing Crew-9 astronauts to discuss routine station operations and procedures, institutional knowledge that isn’t necessarily written down.

“A lot of the handover we do with the crews is more set up to be an efficiency gain, and that really helps them be more effective,” he said, particularly in the new crew’s first days and weeks on the station. “In general, we don’t look to reduce that because we want to be as efficient as possible.”