The Soyuz MS-20 carrying Yusaku Maezawa, Yozo Hirano and veteran cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin touched down in remote Kazakhstan on Dec. 20, marking the end of a 12-day private spaceflight.

Stoke Space, a startup trying to develop a completely reusable rocket for the burgeoning commercial satellite market, has closed a $65 million Series A venture capital round that will go toward developing a rapidly repeatable second-stage segment.

As the military and burgeoning commercial space sector eye thousands of new satellites in low-Earth orbit companies such as Honeywell International and Skyloom Global are teaming to provide more secure and higher-performance optical-communication products and services.

Virgin Orbit is taking a 17.5% stake in partner Hypersat as the companies work to launch a six-satellite constellation to provide hyperspectral imaging from low Earth orbit.

The MU-B200 is a 200-kg (441-lb.) 1.2 kW satellite that aims to provide 5-Gbps (V-band) communications over Southeast Asia.

Two commercial positioning and communication satellites onboard—GeeSAT-1A and 1B—were lost in the Dec. 15 failure. 

A growing number of satellite operators are either pursuing a multi-orbit strategy to provide high-capacity, low-latency data services, or are ready to jump on the bandwagon.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is already seeing MRO graduates being poached by emerging industries such as commercial space.