#WASHINGTON — A #Spanish company developing green propulsion systems for spacecraft has raised $3 million in seed funding.

Arkadia #Space announced Oct. 25 it closed what it described as an oversubscribed seed round of funding. The round was led by Draper B1, a Spanish venture capital firm that is part of the U.S.-led Draper Venture Network. Expansion Ventures, a European venture fund focused on space and air mobility startups, also participated in the round.

In addition, several angel investors are backing Arkadia Space, among them Pedro Duque, the former Spanish astronaut and science minister, and Antoine de Chassy, founder of Loft Orbital. Both will be advisers to the company. #spacenews

#HELSINKI — China’s human #spaceflight agency says the country’s commercial rocket companies could launch low-cost cargo missions in the future.

The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) opened a call for proposals for a low-cost cargo transportation system to supply the Tiangong space station in May this year. Four from a total of 10 submitted proposals meeting requirements were selected to proceed to the detailed design study phase in September.

Despite submissions from commercial companies, the chosen proposals came from entities belonging to state-owned enterprises.

#WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force is exploring the use of small #geosynchronous #satellites to enhance military communications networks — either through purchased commercial services or government-owned constellations.

“We’re trying to leverage new capabilities from the commercial industry,” Clare Hopper, chief of the Space Force’s Commercial Satellite Communications Office, said Oct. 19 at the annual MilSat Symposium in Mountain View, California.

Hopper said the Space Force is interested in procuring maneuverable small satellites that can deliver connectivity from geosynchronous Earth orbit.

#Spacenews, #HELSINKI — La #Chine a ajouté samedi soir à sa série de satellites de télédétection #Yunhai un lancement depuis le désert de Gobi. Une fusée Longue Marche 2D a décollé du centre de lancement de satellites de Jiuquan à 20h54 (heure locale). Est, 14 octobre (0054 UTC, 15 octobre). (CASC) a confirmé le succès du lancement en une heure, révélant également que la charge utile de la mission sera Yunhai-1 (04). L’Académie de technologie des vols spatiaux de Shanghai du #CASC a fourni le lanceur de la mission et développé le satellite Yunhai-1 (04). Les médias d’État chinois décrivent le #satellite comme fournissant « des services de détection des environnements atmosphérique, marin et spatial, de prévention et d’atténuation des catastrophes, ainsi que d’expérimentations scientifiques ». Ceci est une description généralement utilisée du vaisseau spatial Yunhai.