#NEW #ORLEANS — D-Orbit, an Italian company that provides space transportation services, has raised 100 million euros ($110 million) in a Series C round to expand into satellite servicing and other applications.

The company announced Jan. 11 a first closing of a Series C round, led by Japanese company Marubeni Corporation. Also participating in the round is Avantgarde, a family office, along with venture funds CDP Venture Capital Sgr, Seraphim Space Investment Trust, United Ventures, Indaco Venture Partners, Neva SGR Spa and Primo Ventures.

#NEWORLEANS — #SpaceX expects to conduct the third integrated test flight of its #Starship vehicle in February as it works to demonstrate key technologies needed to land humans on the moon.

#Redwire said Jan. 10 the two unfurlable #solar array wings it provided for Ovzon 3, the first commercial satellite to use the space technology company’s Roll-Out Solar Array ( #ROSA ) hardware, have successfully deployed in #geostationary orbit.

#TAMPA, Fla. — Iridium Communications plans to make its low Earth orbit #constellation compatible with 5G standards used by mass-market smartphones, aiming to enable them to access messaging and SOS services outside cellular coverage from 2026.

The standards-based approach comes after a proprietary-only strategy for serving the emerging direct-to-device market derailed last year when Qualcomm scrapped plans to make specialized chips that would give smartphones the ability to connect to Iridium’s satellites.

#WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency confirmed on Jan. 8 that it awarded Rocket Lab a $515 million contract to build and operate 18 spacecraft that will be part of a low Earth orbit network of military satellites.

#SpaceNews first reported on this contract award on Dec. 23 after the agreement was disclosed in a regulatory filing.

#Rocket Lab becomes the third supplier of SDA’s Transport Layer Tranche 2 Beta satellites — projected to launch in mid-2027 — that will carry radios using the UHF (Ultra High Frequency) and S-band frequencies that military and intelligence units rely upon for voice and low-speed data transmissions.

#TITUSVILLE, Fla. — The United Arab Emirates has agreed to develop an airlock module for the lunar Gateway, helping complete the design of the lunar space station while enhancing the UAE’s role in the Artemis lunar exploration effort.

#NASA and the UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) announced Jan. 7 that the UAE would contribute the Crew and Science Airlock for the Gateway. That module will allow Gateway crews to perform #spacewalks outside the Gateway as well as install and retrieve external science payloads

#SAN #FRANCISCO – #NASA has been concentrating on the ground component of optical communications networks while the U.S. Space Force Space Development Agency focuses on space-to-space communications.

The two initiatives will intersect in two-to-three years when #NASA determines whether the commercial terminals #SDA is adopting for satellite-to-satellite communications can transmit data to Earth.

“We are going to have some commercial space terminals pointed down, talking to our existing ground sites,” Jason Mitchell, NASA Space Communications and Navigation program executive, told SpaceNews at the American Geophysical Union meeting here in December

#TITUSVILLE, Fla. — #NASA has added milestones and funding to agreements with two companies working on commercial space station concepts using money from a third agreement that ended last year.

#NASA announced Jan. 5 that it added a combined $99.5 million in funding to existing Space Act Agreements with #Blue #Origin and Voyager #Space. The two companies received the original agreements in December 2021 as part of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations, or #CLD, program to spur development of commercial space stations intended to succeed the International Space Station.