Startup Venus Aerospace plans to proceed with the development, testing and production of a small hypersonic aircraft capable of  transporting a dozen passengers or time-critical payloads between major continental destinations in an hour.

Spire Global, a Luxembourg-registered nanosatellite operator for cloud-enabled data analytics, will become a publicly traded company after a reverse-merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that has been hunting for aerospace and defense targets, NavSight Holdings.

Rocket Lab will become a publicly traded company with $750 million in cash to develop a new medium-lift launcher, grow its end-to-end space business including through acquisitions, and continue to target U.S. government customers.

Virgin Galactic does not expect to resume flight tests of its suborbital passenger vehicle until May due to potential electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues from a new flight control computer, CEO Michael Colglazier said during a Feb. 25 call with investors.

With growing activity in cislunar space and lunar orbit, there is growing interest in using the weak and intermittent signals that are available from existing GNSS constellations for positioning and timing. 

Blue Origin is targeting the fourth quarter of 2022 for the first flight of its reusable orbital New Glenn launch system, a delay of about one year, the company said on Feb. 25.

Weather service startup ClimaCell on Feb. 24 declared its intent to launch and operate a constellation of small satellites in the coming years to power its aspiration of becoming “the largest weather enterprise in the world.”

NASA is reviewing updated proposals from three companies vying for funding to continue development of human lunar landing systems for the Artemis program and expects to select two programs for Option A follow-on contracts “within the next few weeks,” Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said on Feb. 24.