There were a number of launch and spacecraft orders ranging from small to big this month.
Smallsat launch services company SEOPS has agreed to buy space on future Intuitive Machines lunar missions to sell on to anyone who wants to send smallsats to the Moon.
Intuitive Machines has also scored an US$116.9 million order from NASA, for a private Moon landing to deliver six scientific payloads to the lunar South Pole. It will be the fourth trip to the Moon for Intuitive Machines.
JAXA’s contract with Astroscale for the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan 2 (ADRAS-J2) mission, announced in April, was finalised during August and valued at US$82.1 million (12 billion yen).
The Space Development Agency (SDA) has ordered 10 satellites each from Terran Orbital (contract value of US$254 million) and York Space Systems (contract value of US$170 million) for its low Earth orbit communications network. They will make up the last 20 satellites of its Tranche 2 Transport Layer Gamma program and are expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2027.
An illustration of Terran Orbital’s Tranche 2 Transport Layer (T2TL) Gamma satellites for the Space Development Agency. Courtesy: Terran Orbital
Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) has signed another contract with SpaceX, this time to launch the GEO-KOMPSAT-3 multipurpose communications satellite to geostationary orbit in the second half of 2027.
L3Harris has booked as many as 20 launches of Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket for 2-4 launches annually over the course of five years, from 2027 through 2031. L3Harris did not reveal which satellites it plans to launch.
