The European Space Agency’s Plato spacecraft has safely arrived at ESTEC, ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands. There, engineers will complete the spacecraft by connecting its solar panels and sunshield, and carry out a series of critical tests to confirm that Plato is fit for launch and ready for its planet-hunting mission in space.

Eutelsat has teamed up with French satellite connectivity startup Skynopy to explore offering Earth observation operators spare capacity on the ground stations used for OneWeb, its LEO broadband service.

PARIS – Mobile edge computing specialist Armada and Sophia Space are working together to establish integrated, scalable compute infrastructure extending from Earth to space.

In this week’s episode of Space Minds, host Mike Gruss is joined by SpaceNews senior writer Jeff Foust to break down the surprising appointment of Sean Duffy as NASA’s Acting Administrator.

CEO Jason Kim said the company’s Alpha vehicle could launch test targets while the Elytra platform could host interceptors for the Golden Dome missile-defense shield

Today, the Columbus laboratory aboard the International Space Station completes its 100 000th orbit around Earth—a remarkable achievement for Europe’s science module in space. 

Since its launch in 2008, Columbus has been a hub of research and innovation, orbiting at 28 800 km/h and approximately 400 km above Earth. Over the course of 6427 days, it has travelled more than 4.26 billion kilometres, hosted astronauts from over 20 countries, and supported hundreds of experiments that explore everything from human health to advanced materials.

Satellite manufacturer Apex has raised $200 million in a new funding round that values the company at more than $1 billion.

Cailabs, a French company that manufactures optical ground stations for satellite communications, has raised 57 million euros ($67 million) to scale up production.