The UK is moving to bolster its burgeoning sustainable space sector with government funding for projects to advance capabilities ranging from situational awareness to debris removal.

A team including former NASA Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk has unveiled a new business venture to develop and operate a reconfigurable robotic outpost and space tug in cislunar space, with an eye on providing payload hosting, communications, in-space transportation, remote sensing and other services to commercial and government customers, including the Defense Department.

Boeing says successful tests of an all-composite cryogenic fuel tank at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center clear the way for large-scale application of the lightweight technology in future spacecraft and aircraft.

A day after delivering a classified National Reconnaissance Office satellite into orbit from California, SpaceX returned its attention to building its Starlink broadband communications network with a midafternoon Feb. 3 launch of another Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center.

An entrepreneur with a background in space companies and an aerospace-focused investment group are partnering to launch a new company, O-G, that aims to provide microgravity and low Earth orbit (LEO) insertion services.

For the second mission in a row, one of four main parachutes used by SpaceX Dragon capsules inflated late, NASA confirmed on Feb. 3.

The startup, which is planning to perform its first launch from Space Hub Sutherland on the Scottish mainland later this year, is the first UK-based launch provider to disclose that it has applied for such a license. 

Iceye, a Finnish Earth observation services provider with a blossoming constellation of synthetic aperture radar satellites, has landed a Series D round of venture capital worth at least $136 million, the company said Feb. 3.