WASHINGTON — NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will make one final close approach to the asteroid it collected samples from next week before heading back to Earth.

On April 7, the spacecraft will pass 3.7 kilometers above the location on the asteroid Bennu called Nightingale where, in October, the spacecraft briefly touched down and collected as much as several hundred grams of material, now stored in the spacecraft.

Investment in space exploration and development has become a significant global phenomenon in recent years. NASA’s budget has seen several years of healthy back-to-back increases. Silicon Valley and Wall Street are pouring billions into space startups. This largesse has prompted several notable thinkers to raise important questions about investing public and private money into aspirational missions to distant worlds, before we have solved the problems of equity, environmental degradation and conflict here on Earth.

TAMPA, Fla. — AST & Science, which is developing a cellphone-compatible satellite broadband constellation, will start trading on the Nasdaq next week after getting shareholder approval April 1.

New Providence Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that already trades on the exchange under ticker NPA, said its stockholders have approved a plan to merge with the startup on or about April 6.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Command announced April 1 it has signed an agreement with Japan that will increase collaboration on space security.

Under the agreement, an officer from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force will be assigned full-time at U.S.

TAMPA, Fla. — Jim Bridenstine has joined satellite operator Viasat’s board of directors in his second corporate role since stepping down as NASA’s administrator.

U.S.-based Viasat is enlarging its board to eight members to add Bridenstine, who became a senior advisor for private equity firm Acorn Growth Companies soon after resigning from NASA Jan.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission will take up a long-awaited proposal at its next meeting to set aside a spectrum band for commercial launches.

Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chairwoman of the FCC, said in a March 31 statement that the commission would include on the agenda of its next open meeting April 21 a proposed rule to grant a secondary allocation of S-band spectrum, currently reserved for government uses, for telemetry for commercial launches.

ESA is seeking to open the way to a new era of in-space activities such as refuelling, refurbishment, assembly, manufacturing, and recycling. The Agency is now soliciting ideas for In-Orbit Servicing activities from European industry and academia.

WASHINGTON — Russia over the past year has stepped up threats against satellites in orbit, a trend that is not likely to slow down. China, meanwhile, continues to display advances in space capabilities including the launch of an experimental spaceplane that may have deployed at least one small satellite on orbit.

The quarterly ESA Impact is out now!