Kleos Space has ordered its fourth cluster of four satellites, known as KLEOS OBSERVER MISSION, from ISISpace. As part of the order the four CubeSats will be manifested on a mid-2022 SpaceX rideshare mission by Spaceflight Inc. The Dutch CubeSat manufacturer has previously been contracted to build the second and third clusters for Kleos. The contract for this latest batch of Radio Frequency-reconnaissance satellites was awarded on 19 October.
Varda Space a newspace company hoping to pioneer in-space manufacturing is set to launch its first demonstration mission in early-2023. It has previously ordered three Photon satellite buses from Rocket Lab in August however, it has chosen SpaceX to launch its first mission. The contract was announced on 11 October and will see the first Varda in-space “factory” manifested on a SpaceX rideshare mission.
