Author: NASA Official

WASHINGTON — MDA Space, the recently rebranded Canadian space technology firm, selected Belgium-based Aerospacelab to supply components for its new line of satellites, expanding its roster of international partners.

Aerospacelab announced July 8 that it will provide more than 200 battery charge regulators for MDA Space’s Aurora satellites over a three-year period starting in 2026. These components are used to manage power distribution and battery charging in satellite systems.

This deal marks another step in MDA Space’s supply chain development for Aurora, which was unveiled in March as a new line of software-defined satellites. The Aurora platform is designed to operate across multiple non-geostationary orbits and frequencies.

Aurora’s anchor customer is Telesat’s low Earth orbit satellite broadband constellation, Telesat Lightspeed. 

MDA Space recently selected Germany’s Jena-Optronik to provide over 500 star trackers and Switzerland’s Huber+Suhner to supply more than 60,000 multi-channel radio frequency (RF) and DC board-to-board connectors.

Aerospacelab, known for its small satellite technology, is building a large factory in Belgium, and has recently expanded into North America.

MDA Space, which recently rebranded from MDA, has been expanding its operational footprint in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The company’s push into software-defined satellite technology reflects the broader industry trend towards more flexible and efficient space infrastructure.

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TAMPA, Fla. — European microsat specialist EnduroSat announced plans July 3 to build Botswana’s first satellite in partnership with a university from the landlocked country in Southern Africa.

EnduroSat said engineers from Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) are joining the manufacturer’s team in Bulgaria to help make Botsat-1, based on a three-unit (3U) standard cubesat structure.

Booked on SpaceX’s Transporter-13 rideshare mission slated to launch no earlier than February, Botsat-1 would have a hyperspectral sensor to gather ground composition data to support mining and agriculture businesses in the country.

An EnduroSat spokesperson said the sensor would have a spatial resolution of 32 meters at 500 kilometers altitude and a 32 kilometer swath. By collecting multiple bands of light within the visible and near-infrared (VNIR) portion of the spectrum reflected by the surface of the Earth, the data can help identify materials and provide insights on vegetation, water and air quality.

Botswana is the world’s top producer of diamonds by value, according to the U.S. government’s International Trade Association, and the sector accounts for just under a third of the country’s gross domestic product.

However, a decline in the global market for rough diamonds is pushing Botswana to diversify its economy.

Botswana’s government is funding Botsat-1, which EnduroSat said is part of a broader goal to build out a space hub in the country and would leverage its Space Engineering & Technology qualification program that is due to kick off in October.

“BIUST has already invested in developing its own equipment, including … ground stations,” the EnduroSat spokesperson said via email, “so synergy on educational programs [is] one of our common priorities within this mission. BOTSAT-1 is the first step towards implementing practice-driven space education to attract and train regional talent.”

Engineers from BIUST are due to help complete Botsat-1’s assembly and payload integration in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital. BIUST would also operate the satellite from within Botswana via mission operations software EnduroSat has developed.

“This partnership brings us closer to realizing our shared vision and underscores the strength of our mutual commitment to advancing space technology in Botswana,” BIUST vice chancellor Otlogetswe Totolo said in a statement. 

EnduroSat deployed its first satellite in 2018 and says it has delivered 60 spacecraft to date.

The plan for Botsat-1 comes as increasingly affordable and flexible satellites enable a broader spectrum of countries to join a space community previously accessible primarily to wealthier nations.

An inaugural satellite for Senegal space agency is slated to launch later this month as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-11 rideshare mission.

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NASA is just months away from closing off its data relay satellite fleet to new users in preparation for switching over to commercial alternatives.

Following success in leveraging the private sector to send people and cargo to the International Space Station, the agency’s program for fostering a commercial data relay market for spacecraft users is on the home stretch toward services next decade.

Advances in spacecraft design and cheaper launch costs have led to a proliferation of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), opening up new businesses for broadband, Earth observation and other commercial space markets. Satellites in LEO can transfer data with Earth much quicker than those farther away in higher orbits. Being closer to the ground also has its advantages for remote sensing instruments.

However, LEO satellites must also wait until they pass an approved ground station before downloading or uploading data. That’s a growing issue amid a need for not only more data but to have it delivered faster than ever before. Waiting 90 minutes for a satellite to encircle Earth and reconnect with a ground station won’t cut it.

More ground stations and extensive, costly ground infrastructure can help reduce this latency for constellations too sparse to transfer data effectively via inter-satellite links, but are no match for the unstoppable march toward services in real-time.

Still, despite growing demand, the commercial space relay market has a checkered history. Silicon Valley startup Audacy and Australia-owned SpaceLink both collapsed in recent years after failing to get funds to build their constellations from scratch.

RETIREMENT PLAN

NASA has for decades relied on its own Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) constellation to provide speedy connectivity for government users such as the International Space Station and U.S. Department of Defense.
The agency currently has six of these satellites in service. The oldest of these, TDRS-6, was launched in 1993. The youngest, TDRS-M, was launched in August 2017 and designed to last around 15 years.

To help ensure commercial alternatives will be in place in the coming decade, NASA decided to boost data relay services under development as an ancillary service for constellations with much broader missions.

In June 2022, NASA awarded $278.5 million worth of funded Space Act Agreements to six companies keen to demonstrate services that could replace TDRS and address the agency’s future needs.

“We were pleasantly surprised but pleased we had six of them,” said Thomas Kacpura, deputy project manager for the Communication Services Project (CSP) at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. The group comprises a mix of traditional satellite operators and constellation developers with various capabilities in the works across different orbits.

SpaceX and Amazon’s Kuiper Government Solutions aim to show how their LEO constellations could use optical links to provide communications services for satellites and launches.

The remaining four companies seek to demonstrate similar services using radio frequencies (RF).

Viasat and Inmarsat Government are planning relay services from satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO). Telesat U.S. Services would demonstrate services from GEO and LEO satellites, while SES Government Solutions would use its fleet in GEO and medium Earth orbit (MEO).

Notably, NASA expects the six companies to inject a combined $1.5 billion from their own resources to conduct the demonstrations and prepare for the start of commercial services.

The NASA investment “provides that push over the hump,” Kacpura said during an interview with SpaceNews, helping ensure their relay services are up sooner than they would have taken on their own.

Without getting into specifics, Kacpura said each company is working toward different milestones under a roughly four-to-five-year schedule that would culminate in an operational end-to-end service demonstration.

He said NASA is very pleased with the progress so far and currently anticipates all partners will finish their agreements as planned.

“We’re roughly about at the halfway point,” he said, “where we’re starting to see that the upcoming demonstrations are close.”

He said the companies have currently done multiple “limited types of demonstrations to prove out various aspects of their system, and they are making good progress toward ultimately being able to do that end-to-end operational service demonstration.

“After they complete that, they should be able to turn around and offer the service.”

MORE OPPORTUNITIES

Kacpura said NASA is also talking to “a couple different companies” to set up non-reimbursable Space Act Agreements to share the agency’s needs and get information on other relay systems in development

“Those give us the insight on other industry capabilities that are out there,” he said, declining to name companies because negotiations are ongoing.

Canadian small satellite operator Kepler Communications, which is developing an optical data relay network slated to come online next year, has been vocal about plans to serve government and commercial customers.

Kepler also recently teamed up with Europe’s Airbus Defence and Space and its independent laser terminal subsidiary Tesat-Spacecom to develop a LEO relay network for the European Space Agency’s HydRON program.

HydRON, or High Throughput Optical Network, envisages a multi-orbit, terabit-per-second transport network for extending the reach of fiber networks on the ground.

STATUS CHECK

SES said June 5 it had successfully tested a stable relay link between one of its MEO satellites and a LEO flight-representative terminal on the ground.

That success sets the GEO and MEO operator up to be the first CSP participant to demonstrate a relay link in orbit early next year. Planet, which operates an Earth imagery constellation, is its subcontractor and is due to provide the LEO terminal.

Viasat, which acquired Inmarsat last year, recently announced partnerships with Loft Orbital and Rocket Lab to provide the LEO satellites needed to demonstrate relay terminals with its geostationary fleet in the fall of 2025 and early 2026, respectively. Inmarsat’s first demo is slated for March 2025 and will attempt to provide relay communications for a New Glenn rocket from Blue Origin.

Amazon, due to begin deploying operational Project Kuiper satellites toward the end of 2024 for a proposed LEO broadband constellation of more than 3,000 spacecraft, is working toward its first relay demo in May. SpaceX already has more than 6,000 Starlink broadband satellites in LEO but is waiting for a representative mission launch, so its first relay demo is slated seven months later than Amazon.

SpaceX and Amazon, which are developing their own optical terminals, did not return requests for comments before the press deadline.

ONE SHOE DOES NOT FIT ALL

Established GEO operator Telesat declined to comment on the milestones it expects to reach before its first relay demo in June 2025.

Telesat, which will use a spacecraft from Planet for its first LEO demo, does not expect to begin deploying the 198 satellites in its proposed Lightspeed constellation until 2026. Like Starlink and Project Kuiper, Lightspeed would use optical links to move data across its own network of LEO satellites.

Philip Harlow, president of Telesat Government Solutions, said during a separate interview that the company is looking into offering relay services to LEO customers using optical communications technology in addition to RF links. “It’s not just one or the other,” he said. “NASA is interested in us demonstrating both capabilities.”

“[T]here’s some thought that optical interconnectivity rather than RF interconnectivity is the way forward,” Harlow added, particularly for small satellites where laser communications can deliver more bits for less energy.

RF interconnectivity can be easier to implement and more cost-effective for larger spacecraft.

But while the size, weight and power of the terminal a customer needs to have on their spacecraft to connect with the relay network are important considerations, space relayers must also factor in contact times.

“How often will you be able to contact, how long will those contacts be [and] what is the acquisition time?” Harlow continued.

“And then given those three factors, what does the connection speed look like? Because it varies by distance, length of time and things like that.”

SEEDING THE MARKET

Prospective space relayers are banking on these commercial opportunities being attractive enough for customers to install compatible antennas on their satellites, even as commercial relay networks are still years away from entering service.

“The adoption of this is kind of gestational,” Harlow said, adding: “Certainly my wife would never wait for three years before she got the benefit of something she spent a lot of money on … there’s this build it and they will come kind of mentality [and] you’ve got to foster that desire in the customer.”

Although the CSP program helpssmooth the way for these conversations with NASA, other government agencies and commercial customers outside thiscommercialization effort have proved far more challenging.

FUTURE NASA NEEDS

When NASA selected out the CSP awards two years ago, it looked like the TDRS service would need to be retired in the 2030s.

“The predictions right now point out that the remaining satellites should be good into the 2040 timeframe,” according to Kacpura.

That’s good news for legacy TDRS users. The relay satellites serviced more than 30 NASA missions in May. However, Kacpura said NASA plans to formally begin transitioning to commercial relay services for new missions around August when the agency will close off TDRS to new users.

And while the agency anticipates several high-intensity users will leave the network as their missions end in parallel with the TDRS fleet’s gradual retirement, demand from new users remains strong.

“We anticipate demand for relay services will continue; new science missions will be studying an array of transient events and executing missions that require near-real-time coordination of assets,” Greg Heckler, program executive for commercialization at NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation Program, said via email.

“Space relay is ideal for these “on-demand” and low latency science operations, and human space flight is a major driver of this demand.”

He said the follow-on to the International Space Station, which will also see NASA leverage an emerging commercial market, will need relay services, as will emergent human spaceflight programs globally.

NASA’s Artemis Moon exploration program will also present ongoing needs for near-Earth relay to support LEO operations.

“As NASA learns to embrace emerging capabilities in the commercial market, we anticipate new opportunities will arise beyond just high data rate and low latency communications,” Heckler continued.

NEXT STEPS

While NASA already has sufficient funding to complete the CSP demonstrations, Kacpura said follow-on steps are currently being considered as the agency drafts its 2026 budget request.

After concluding the Space Act Agreements, he said NASA would need to fully validate the services it would acquire through a fair and open competition process to ensure they can support missions that tend to have long durations. And although international regulators recently allocated radio frequencies in Ka-band for space-to-space communications, Kacpura said more work needs to be done to clear relay services in L-band and C-band.

This article first appeared in the July 2024 issue of SpaceNews Magazine.

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HELSINKI — Chinese commercial satellite maker MinoSpace has secured more than $137 million to further its design and production aspirations.

MinoSpace, also known as Beijing Weina Star Technology Co., Ltd., announced the funding June 24, now describing itself as a commercial space unicorn enterprise, having secured 1 billion yuan ($137 million).

Wuxi Economic Development Zone Shangxian Industry Investment Fund, managed by SIP Oriza PE Fund Management, led the round. Liangxi Science and Technology Innovation Industry Fund, managed by Bohua Capital and supporting technological innovation and industrial development in Wuxi City’s Liangxi district, followed, along with existing shareholder Qingdao Huizhu Anfulan.

The funding will ensure the successful implementation of major national and commercial missions like satellite internet and Earth observation, Gao Enyu, MinoSpace founder and chairman, said in a statement.

The round will also go towards enhancing and perfecting the supply chain and increasing investment in core products and technologies. The company aims to establish an efficient mass production line for satellites, steadily improving production capacity and scale, Gao stated.

MinoSpace will also soon break ground on a satellite manufacturing base within Wuxi City, according to a Wuxi economic development district (WEDD) statement. This is intended to “help our region accelerate the construction of a commercial aerospace industry ecosystem and promote the creation of a world-class aerospace industry cluster with international influence and competitiveness,” according to the WEDD statement.

Wuxi City released new policies June 13 to foster commercial space, focusing on commercial rockets, satellite manufacturing and space applications. Attracting MinoSpace will be a boost for plans to develop a hub for advanced satellite technology and manufacturing, while also hoping for a local positive ripple effect. Liangxi District also attracted June 27 a base for another Chinese satellite unicorn, GalaxySpace.

Numerous Chinese city and provincial governments have initiated commercial space action plans, most notably Beijing and Shanghai. 

China’s central government noted commercial space as a priority for the first time in its work report earlier this year.

The C1 funding round was the second large Chinese commercial space fund raising activity in June. It followed launch service provider Space Pioneer securing $207 million for its Tianlong-3 rocket. The company then suffered a catastrophic static-fire test failure June 30.

MinoSpace was established in 2017. It was one of the first Chinese commercial satellite companies following first moves to open up China’s space sector in late 2014. 

It has developed eight satellite platforms ranging in size from 10 to 1,000 kilograms. The latter is a geostationary communications platform. Other platforms cover remote sensing at a range of resolutions and a flexible communications, Internet of Things and navigation platform. MinoSpace is planning a 2,000 kg platform.

MinoSpace states its business architecture as “two centers, plus four bases and six stations.” These facilities cover satellite design, research and development, production, tracking and control and delivery. MinoSpace has the production capacity of more than 50 satellites per year, according to the release.

The company has seen 24 of its satellites launched into orbit as of June 2024. These include 0.5-meter-resolution optical and X-band commercial synthetic aperture radar remote sensing satellites, and a Ku-band phased array communications satellite. 

Existing shareholders include state-owned space and defense giant CASIC, Shenzhen Capital Group, Yonghua Capital and CITIC Securities.

The company now has overseas sales offices established in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It says it will also continue to deepen cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road Initiative.

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WASHINGTON — As NASA pushes ahead with a crewed lunar landing on the Artemis 3 mission in September 2026, the agency’s own analysis estimates a nearly one-in-three chance the lander will be at least a year and a half late.

That assessment came from a confirmation review for the Human Landing System (HLS) Initial Capability project, which is supporting the development of SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander that will be used on Artemis 3. The confirmation review, known in agency parlance as Key Decision Point (KDP) C, sets cost and schedule commitments for NASA projects.

The confirmation review, which took place in December 2023, set a schedule baseline of February 2028 for that project at a 70% joint confidence level. That means there is a 70% chance that Starship will be ready for a lunar landing — a milestone formally known as lunar orbit checkout review — by February 2028.

“The joint cost and schedule confidence level is an integrated analysis of a project’s cost, schedule, risk, and uncertainty, which indicates a project’s likelihood of meeting a given set of cost and schedule targets,” stated the Government Accountability Office in a June 20 report assessing major NASA programs.

That date is nearly a year and a half after NASA’s current schedule of September 2026 for Artemis 3. The 70% joint confidence level also means that the agency believes there is a 30% chance that the Starship lander will not be ready until after February 2028.

The confirmation review, not widely publicized by NASA when it was completed, was mentioned the GAO report. It noted that schedule assessment is independent of the readiness of other aspects of the mission, such as the Space Launch System, Orion spacecraft and new lunar spacesuits.

In a statement to SpaceNews, NASA confirmed the dates mentioned in the GAO report, while reiterating that Artemis 3 remains on schedule for September 2026. “The GAO report’s cost and schedule baseline figures are accurate, risk-informed estimates at the 70% joint confidence level (JCL). The agency use of a 70% JCL to inform baseline estimates is a conservative approach that assumes broad risk realization,” it stated.

“NASA continues to have confidence in SpaceX as a provider to help achieve the Artemis III mission,” the statement added.

The KDP-C also set a cost of $4.9 billion for HLS Initial Capability at the same 70% joint confidence level. That includes the $2.9 billion fixed-price contract to SpaceX, awards to SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics in the earlier phase of the project and NASA project office costs.

Cathy Koerner, NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, reiterated the 2026 date for Artemis 3 at a June 7 meeting of the National Academies’ Space Studies Board. That meeting took place a day after the fourth integrated test flight of Starship and its Super Heavy booster.

“From a Human Landing System project status, SpaceX continues to make great progress,” she said citing the latest flight and other work, such as an integrated test of the elevator that astronauts will use to descend to the surface from the Starship cabin.

She noted, though, that the HLS effort faces “a lot of technical challenges.” The next major milestone, she said, was an in-space cryogenic propellant transfer test, which she said was planned for early 2025.

The GAO report also emphasized the importance of that test. During the confirmation review, a standing review board “recommended that SpaceX’s in-space propellant transfer tests inform the program’s critical design review, currently planned for 2025.”

At the Space Studies Board meeting, Koerner played down reports that NASA was considering an alternative plan that would test Starship and Orion in low Earth orbit, analogous to the Apollo 9 mission, but acknowledged that that the agency was planning for contingencies.

She said NASA did a lot of “next-worse failure” assessments, looking at what happens if one element of the mission was not available. “We’re always doing those kinds of backup plans,” she said. “We have not made any changes to the current plan as I outlined it here today, but we have lots of people looking at lots of backup plans so that we are doing due diligence.”

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TAMPA, Fla. — Europe must improve how it allocates capital for the space industry to avoid missing out on the fruits of rising early-stage investments, the head of Luxembourg-based private equity firm NewSpace Capital has warned.

Recently published research from the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) shows Europe averaged 96 investment deals annually for space companies over the past three years, not too far behind the United States at 114 deals.

However, the United States also averaged 6.3 billion euros ($6.8 billion) in investments, driven by larger growth-stage funding rounds, compared with 1.4 billion euros for Europe.

More than 50% of venture capitalists surveyed by the European Investment Fund, which is part of the European Union’s lending arm, have also expressed a negative outlook on fundraising over the next 12 months.

While Europe’s fragmented market lends itself to emerging technological development amid numerous early grant programs, NewSpace Capital CEO Bogdan Gogulan said this diversity poses major obstacles for more mature ventures.

“It’s brilliant for innovation,” he said. “What it is really bad for is scaling.”

In comparison, the United States is a far larger market that benefits from a more cohesive regulatory framework — all in one language.

Although Europe has been stepping up support for early-stage ventures, Gogulan said these businesses are left lacking the growth capital needed to expand in the region.

“Basically Europe is becoming a victim of its own success,” he added.

Missing opportunities

According to Gogulan, European space companies have few options other than to look abroad to bridge the financial “valley of death” between technology development and commercial adoption.

Even NewSpace Capital, which has invested in Finnish Synthetic Aperture Radar operator Iceye and French satellite imagery analysis provider Kayrros, gets most of its funding from investors in the United States and the Middle East.

“We [Europe] are spending a lot of time, effort and energy on the most difficult part of the journey,” Gogulan continued, “and when everything is ripe to take advantage of it, we’re giving that away.”

He called on Europe’s largest financial asset managers and pension funds to allocate funding to the space industry. 

NewSpace Capital is also in talks with the European Commission and regional investment banks to establish a funding stream specifically for growth-stage companies.

“It takes a village to raise a child,” Gogulan said. “We need 20 funds like ours.”

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WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic has approved a reverse stock split intended to boost the company’s stock price and avoid delisting.

The company announced after markets closed June 12 that the company’s board approved a 1-for-20 reverse stock split, which will take effect after markets close June 14. Under the plan, 20 current shares of Virgin Galactic stock will be converted into 1 new share.

The 1-for-20 reverse split is at the high end of the proposal that the company put forward to shareholders in April. At the time, the company said it was considering options between a 1-for-2 and a 1-for-20 split, with the exact value to be determined by the board if shareholders approved the plan at its annual meeting June 12.

The reverse split effectively increases the share price by a factor of 20 at a time when the share price had dipped below minimum levels set by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). “The primary goal of the reverse stock split is to increase the per share market price of the Company’s common stock to meet the minimum per share bid price requirement for continued listing on the NYSE,” the company noted in a statement.

Shares in Virgin Galactic closed June 12 at $0.85, and had been trading below the exchange’s minimum share price of $1 for much of the last two months. The company reported May 29 it has received a notice from the NYSE that its average closing share price had been below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days. That notice gave the company six months to raise the share price or be delisted from the exchange.

The company’s share price has been declining since peaks in 2021 where, on two occasions, Virgin Galactic shares traded at more than $50. The falling share price was one factor in the company’s decision last November to phase out operations of its existing suborbital spaceplane, VSS Unity, and lay off some staff in order to conserve its cash on hand, focusing on development of the new Delta-class spaceplanes that offer lower costs and higher flight rates.

At a June 5 conference by TD Cowen, Michael Colglazier, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said the company was sticking to that plan. He noted the company had about $870 million of cash and equivalents in hand as of the end of the first quarter.

“That amount of money, we’ve said, is sufficient to move through and build our first two Delta ships and put them into commercial service,” he said. “And just those first two ships in service, we estimate, drives about a $450 million revenue business at great contribution margin and flow through, and that puts the company on a cash positive footing.”

Shares in Virgin Galactic were down more than 12% midday June 13.

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The European Space Agency has signed an agreement with Vast to study how the agency could use and support the company’s commercial space stations.

ESA and Vast signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) June 6 during the ILA Berlin air show, agreeing to study collaboration on the commercial space stations that Vast plans to develop, starting with the Haven-1 station Vast plans to launch in the second half of next year.

According to the statement, ESA and Vast will study potential use of Vast stations by ESA and its member states. They will also look for roles for European industry for providing components for Vast’s stations, as well as use of future European crew and cargo spacecraft.

“Today ESA has further proven its determination to play a crucial role into the further development of the LEO economy in space for Europe and European citizens,” Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, said in a statement. “Our teams are looking forward to working closely with Vast teams to ensure the European interests and our collective role in space exploration.”

In an interview, Max Haot, chief executive of Vast, said the agreement is a first step towards winning business from Europe, a key partner on the International Space Station, on his company’s commercial space stations.

“The European ecosystem, led by ESA, is a very important partner to any future ISS replacement station,” he said. “A big priority for us is that we build to their requirements and we enable opportunities to fly their payloads and astronauts.”

The MoU, he added, is “a first step, a signal that they see Vast as a credible partner.”

The long-term focus of the agreement is on the space station Vast seeks to develop and offer to NASA through that agency’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations, or CLD, program. It could, though, include opportunities to fly ESA astronauts or payloads on the smaller Haven-1 station Vast is currently developing.

It could also include any private astronaut missions (PAMs) that Vast wins from NASA to the ISS. Vast announced in February its intent to compete for future such missions to the ISS. Axiom Space has, to date, won all four PAMs awarded by NASA, with the fourth to be flown late this year. Haot said he is still waiting for NASA to issue a solicitation for the next PAM competition, but is hoping NASA will select new missions before the end of the year.

He said Vast in talks with other countries, including ISS partners, on use of Vast stations. “We’re engaging all countries, including key ones that are part of the ISS,” he said, but with no formal agreements yet. “ESA is the first, but we obviously hope to build momentum in Europe and other regions of the world.”

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