The European Space Agency has allotted a combined €10.45 million ($12.5 million) to two UK companies developing microlaunchers for small satellites: Orbex and Skyrora.

OneWeb added another 36 satellites to its orbital broadband constellation on March 25, bringing the network to 146 spacecraft.

Another month, another big announcement from private equity-founded Redwire: this time that the new-space roll up will become a publicly traded company in a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company known to be hunting for aerospace and defense assets.

With a 23rd successful mission dedicated to deploying its Starlink communications network, SpaceX is closing in on its initial goal of about 1,450 operational satellites to kick off commercial broadband services in the U.S. and other regions.

Lockheed Martin and Omnispace, a startup targeting satellite-enabled 5G communications, on March 23 announced a “strategic interest agreement” to explore 5G business opportunities from space, and possibly creating the first dual-use commercial- and government-serving platform.

A Rocket Lab Electron booster has carried seven satellites on a rideshare mission into space from New Zealand. 

The first fully commercial space launch of the Russian Soyuz 2.1a vehicle in 2021, planned for March 20, is expected to orbit 38 various satellites from 18 countries into three different Sun-synchronous orbits.

NASA’s Space Launch System core stage fired up its four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines on March 18 for a critical, 8-min. integrated test ahead of the booster’s debut launch on the uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission.