The Air Force Research Laboratory’s space vehicles directorate has chosen eight companies to participate in its collaborative Catalyst Space Accelerator program, which seeks to rapidly develop commercial technologies for space intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations.

Inmarsat and Singapore-based communications firm Addvalue Innovation have introduced a service to facilitate data transfer between low-Earth orbit small satellites and ground stations. The partnership commissioned the Inter-satellite Data Relay System service Nov. 12 on Sequoia, a Capella Space synthetic aperture radar microsatellite, and launched the IDRS offering after completion of a live data connectivity demonstration, Inmarsat said Monday.

Rocket Lab's first in-house built satellite launched into orbit Monday as part of its 14th Electron mission that took off from a launch complex in New Zealand and fielded a microsatellite for Capella Space.

NASA has selected seven vendors that will compete for task orders under the expanded Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program procurement effort. The vendors were chosen based on the technical acceptability of their proposals and the reasonableness of their proposed contract prices relative to their commercial pricing, Kevin Murphy, the chief science data officer at NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement issued Sept. 18.

Clinton Crosier, director of aerospace and satellite solutions at Amazon Web Services, said AWS is providing ground stations to help companies and government clients process and analyze satellite-derived data and transmit information in minutes, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

Amazon Web Services is offering AWS Ground Station, a new service that gives customers expanded access to satellite data through a network of ground stations around the world.

The U.S. Navy has awarded Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) a potential five-year, $78 million cost-plus fixed fee task order to provide support services for mobility platform integration for the Expeditionary Department at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), the company announced Tuesday. The task order has one base year plus four option years.