WASHINGTON — Radar satellite imagery startup Capella Space on June 14 received a $3 million research contract in support of the Space Development Agency’s National Defense Space Architecture.

Capella Space was selected through a “broad agency announcement” issued by the space agency in January seeking proposals on a wide range of technologies for “National Defense Space Architecture Systems, Technologies, and Emerging Capabilities.

Updated 6 p.m. Eastern with NASA and Coalition for Deep Space Exploration statements.

WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed the nominations June 17 of a former astronaut to be the deputy administrator of NASA and of an ocean scientist to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

WASHINGTON — Japan’s parliament approved legislation that allows companies to extract and utilize space resources as the head of Russia’s space agency criticized similar national laws on the subject.

The House of Councilors, the upper house of the National Diet of Japan, passed the bill June 15.

TAMPA, Fla. — Space-compatible electronics supplier CAES has added former U.S. defense secretary Mark Esper to its board in a push for more government customers.

Arlington, Virginia-based CAES, which used to be part of British defense and aerospace contractor Cobham, said Esper will engage in mission-critical solutions across its space, air, sea and land platforms.

This article was updated June 17 at 4:50 pm Eastern time with comments from HydroSat CEO Pieter Fossel.

SAN FRANCISCO – Data analytics company Hydrosat has raised $5 million in seed funding for a satellite constellation to produce a global thermal infrared map.

SAN FRANCISCO – Tyvak released the first images of objects in orbit and on the ground captured by telescopes the satellite manufacturer developed with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

The technology demonstration satellite, Tyvak-0130, launched May 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare flight.

TAMPA, Fla. — SES is asking Intelsat’s bankruptcy court for a speedier summary judgment on the satellite operators’ C-band dispute instead of a full trial.

The company said in a June 16 court filing that it had already submitted enough evidence for a ruling in its favor over Intelsat’s withdrawal from their C-Band Alliance, where it said the competitors agreed to split proceeds from clearing the spectrum evenly.

China and Russia are rapidly developing capabilities that threaten U.S. satellites in orbit and challenge the stability of the space domain. The need to address these concerns more directly is the reason why the United States Space Force was established.