Satellite manufacturer Apex has won a contract from a Japanese company to provide a spacecraft bus for a technology demonstration mission.

SAN FRANCISCO — TransAstra is performing a study, funded by investors and customers, to explore the technical feasibility of moving a 100-metric-ton asteroid to a stable near-Earth orbit.

China has identified a new target near-Earth asteroid for its first planetary defense kinetic test mission, which is scheduled to launch in December 2027.

Thanks to the success of the Arctic Weather Satellite prototype and Eumetsat’s recent greenlight to develop a full constellation of similar satellites called Sterna, the European Space Agency has awarded OHB Sweden with the contract to build 20 satellites.

This marks a major step toward better monitoring rapidly evolving weather, improving forecasts of severe events in vulnerable regions such as the Mediterranean, and closing critical data gaps over the Arctic – the fastest-warming region on Earth and a key driver of Europe’s weather systems.