Military/Aerospace Electronics

Maxar Technologies has been bought by the U.S. private equity firm Advent International, alongside minority investor British Columbia Investment (BCI). The space technology company, which builds communications and Earth Observation satellites, has now gone private and will no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (and it will also be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange). Advent and ...

A group of European space and telecommunications are forming a partnership to bid to support the future European satellite constellation IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite). With a multi-orbit architecture, interoperable with terrestrial networks, IRIS² is intended to improve European connectivity infrastructures – for governments, businesses and people – in terms of security and resilience. The European ...

Satlantis Microsats, a provider of high-res optical payloads for small satellites, has bought a controlling interest in SuperSharp Space Systems, a University of Cambridge spin-off specialising in thermal infrared payloads for Earth Observation satellites. The size of the investment was undisclosed, with the UK Secretary of State having already approved the transaction, back in March. Satlantis says the agreement will ...

The UK government’s DASA (Defence and Security Accelerator) has demonstrated three telexistence technologies at its BattleLab as a result of the Telexistence: Phase 2 competition. It had made £1.3 million available for “telexistence” innovations as part of a competition for commercial proposals, launched in January 2022. The three projects that had been selected from Phase 1 were MediTel (involving the ...

Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, has confirmed it will support continued operations until the end of 2028 for the International Space Station (ISS). The United States, Japan, Canada, and the participating countries of the ESA (European Space Agency) had already intended to support operations through to 2030, but the commitment of Russia to extend its life, for the mid-term at least, ...

The Space Symposium 2023, which has completed in Colorado Springs, featured a celebration of the Webb Space Telescope, the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission and the progress of the Orion spacecraft and Artemis program, along with calls for for the U.S. government to declare space as a critical infrastructure. Rich Cooper, VP of Strategic Communications at Space Foundation, which ...

Leonardo has delivered the first ECRS (European Common Radar System) Mk2 radar for the UK Typhoon fleet to BAE Systems for integration. The ECRS Mk2 features a multi-functional array (MFA) that can perform both traditional radar functions such as search and targeting, as well as additional electronic warfare tasks. It is designed that the Eurofighter Typhoon will be able to ...

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) has commissioned a Space Sector Skills Survey for 2023. It is intended to be the primary source of evidence for the UK Government’s understanding of skills gaps and workforce challenges in the space sector. The survey opened yesterday – at survey.spaceskills.org – and runs until 2nd June 2023. It is open to all organisations employing ...

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) has launched a £20 million International Bilateral Fund (IBF) aiming to support new UK space capabilities and build international space partnerships. It is also hoped the fund – which is described as the UKSA’s first dedicated fund focused on the UK’s relationships with strategically important international partners – will catalyse further private investment The recipients ...

Slingshot Aerospace, a space tracking and analytics company, is expanding its Global Sensor Network’s low-Earth orbit (LEO) tracking capabilities. The company says it plans make its network the largest commercial optical sensor network for LEO observation in the world, providing optical tracking of LEO objects at scale. Specifically, by the end of 2023, Slingshot plans to deploy 80 new optical ...