Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy won the largest share of prime contracts the European Space Agency awarded July 1 for further development of six new Copernicus satellite missions. SpaceNews

L3Harris has launched the first satellite of a remote sensing constellation. SpaceNews

Israel launched the latest in a series of reconnaissance satellites July 5 on the country’s Shavit rocket. SpaceNews

As Congress and the Trump Administration seek to improve space weather coordination, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research is eager to help. SpaceNews

The Air Force plans to announce the preferred location in January 2021. SpaceNews

How a 2005 call for ‘skin in the game’ started a 15-year countdown to the first human orbital spaceflight from U.S. soil since 2011 SpaceNews

Satellite experts should be asking: why is the space industry, the original ‘remote’ industry, behind the curve when it comes to truly remote operations? SpaceNews

China launched the classified Shiyan-6 (02) satellite on Saturday, following launch of a Gaofen ‘multi mode’ Earth observation satellite two days earlier. SpaceNews

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket failed to reach orbit during a July 4 launch after a problem during the rocket’s second-stage burn. SpaceNews

Three months after the coronavirus pandemic upended American society, there are signs of recovery. NASA is also taking the first initial steps back to normal operations. SpaceNews

Establishing an international long-term sustainable lunar presence in partnership with the private sector remains the core focus in space exploration SpaceNews

An experiment launched May 17 onboard the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-6 is based on over a decade of work focused on a modular space solar satellite capable of beaming energy to Earth. SpaceNews

DoD’s Space Development Agency is leading the way as it prepares to put up a communications transport layer and a surveillance and tracking layer for hypersonic missile defense. SpaceNews

If DARPA exercises all options, the contract awarded to Blue Canyon Technologies has a potential value of $99.4 million. SpaceNews

The British government and Indian mobile network operator Bharti Global placed a winning bid to acquire OneWeb, a broadband megaconstellation startup that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March after running out of funding, OneWeb said July 3. SpaceNews

NASA plans to issue multiple contracts in the coming months for smallsat launch services in the second phase of a program intended to support the emerging small launch vehicle industry. SpaceNews

The first half of 2020 has been sluggish for the commercial launch industry, but its problems can’t be explained solely by the coronavirus pandemic. SpaceNews

Airbus will build the satellite, called Optus-11, on its new OneSat platform, designed with a reconfigurable payload that can steer and reassign beams for different customers and services.  SpaceNews

A smallsat launched a year ago to demonstrate solar sail technologies continues to operate and is now beginning an extended mission. SpaceNews

The Southwest Research Institute won a $15.6 million contract to design and build the Solar Wind Plasma Sensor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Follow On (SWFO) Lagrange 1 satellite. SpaceNews