eVTOL Insights
• Thomas Sleightholm
The European Space Agency has awarded OHB a €554 million contract to develop the first Sentinel-3 Next Generation Topography satellite for the Copernicus program. The mission is intended to improve radar altimetry, extending Europe’s satellite capabilities for measuring ocean and land surface topography.
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The European Space Agency has awarded OHB a €554 million contract to develop the first Sentinel-3 Next Generation Topography satellite for the Copernicus program. The mission is intended to improve radar altimetry, extending Europe’s satellite capabilities for measuring ocean and land surface topography.
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International regulators have granted Europe’s Open Cosmos more time to deploy its planned low Earth orbit broadband network, but effectively limited the constellation to half its intended size. The decision is a setback to the company’s deployment plans and constrains the scale of its proposed satellite service.
Creditors to Optimum, Altice and Telesat are challenging the transfer of assets tied to a low-Earth-orbit satellite network, alleging the moves were illegal. The dispute puts the ownership and control of satellite-network assets at issue, though the available report does not detail the transactions or the creditors’ requested remedies.
NASA is looking to industry for a mission to raise the Hubble Space Telescope’s orbit before it is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere in 2033 or 2034. The effort follows a failed commercial attempt to reboost the smaller Swift observatory, which is now expected to burn up in November 2026.
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MDA Space won an initial antenna contract for 66 IRIS² satellites Thales Alenia Space aims to deliver in 2029, as Eutelsat forecasts $11 billion in IRIS² revenue for 2032–40 and OneWeb approaches EBITDA break-even. Telesat, meanwhile, pushed global Lightspeed service back three months to mid-2028 amid falling revenue and looming debt maturities.
MDA Space will build AURORA broadband digital phased-array antennas and controllers for the first 66 satellites in Europe’s IRIS² secure-connectivity constellation. The agreement with Thales Alenia Space is valued at more than €100 million, with the satellites scheduled to launch in 2029.
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Telesat says delays completing two pathfinder satellites at MDA Space will push the planned start of global Lightspeed broadband service back about three months, to around the end of the second quarter of 2028. The company also cited a tight launch market as it prepares to deploy the constellation.
A new Defense Intelligence Agency assessment says China has tripled its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellite fleet since 2018 and is expanding systems to track and target U.S. and allied forces. The report also reviews China’s reusable spaceplane and warns of growing Chinese and Russian counterspace capabilities, including potential directed-energy weapons in orbit.
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