Space News for Friday, August 11, 2023

In this episode, we aggregate and summarize today's top space news stories. Enjoy!(00:10) Podcast Introduction(00:24) Space Development Agency shaking up how the military buys satellites(00:50) Viasat studying L-band from Inmarsat for direct-to-device services(01:14) SpaceX to offer mid-inclination smallsat rideshare launches(01:41) Virgin Galactic conducts first space tourist suborbital flight(02:09) Op-ed | SPACs are a double-edged sword for newspace(02:37) Space Force tries to hedge risk with new launch strategy(03:51) Benchmark raises million$$ + moves to new HQ with world-class test + mfg. capabilities – SatNews(05:38) Eutelsat and Thaicom to provide new software-defined satellite over Asia for 16 years lifetime – SatNews(06:57) Northrop Grumman and Firefly’s Antares 330 and MLV plans take shape