Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Satellite firm Astro ​Digital to go public in $587 million SPAC ​deal

Satellite maker Astro Digital said on ‌Monday ​it had agreed to go public through a merger with blank-check company Proem Acquisition Corp I, in a deal valuing the company at about $587 million. Here ‌are some details:

China's space diplomacy lifts Pakistani astronaut toward orbit

Two Pakistani pilots are memorising Mandarin, spinning in centrifuge drills and learning to eat, sleep and repair equipment while weightless as a decision nears on which one will become ‌the first foreign astronaut aboard China's Tiangong space station. The voyage into space would be a first ‌for the South Asian nation. It is part of broader cooperation with Beijing that straddles the Belt and Road Initiative and has produced Chinese-launched Pakistani satellites, a joint satellite-navigation system and a Pakistani-built rover due to fly on China's Chang'e 8 lunar mission ⁠around 2028.

ESA ​taps OVHcloud, CGI to ⁠build system for Earth observation data

OVHcloud and CGI have won a 30-month European Space Agency contract to build computing infrastructure to ⁠store and process Europe's Earth observation satellite data, the companies said on Monday. The award reflects the European Commission's push to steer ​strategic workloads to European providers and follows a €180 million ($205 million) cloud tender handed exclusively to four ⁠European firms in April.

India's TakeMe2Space to launch orbital computing satellite on SpaceX rocket

Indian space startup TakeMe2Space plans to launch what it describes ⁠as ​the country's first orbital computing satellite aboard a SpaceX rocket on October 1, seeking to process data in orbit rather than transmit raw information back to Earth. The company's MOI-1A spacecraft, a sub-50 ⁠kg satellite carrying Nvidia Orin NX edge-computing processors, is scheduled to fly on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission.

SpaceX's Starship ⁠launches on 14th flight, ⁠first headed to orbit

SpaceX's next-generation Starship rocket lifted off from Texas on Monday for its debut flight to orbit and first operational release of satellites, marking its ‌14th launch ahead of ‌a routine service that Elon Musk's company expects ​to begin later this year.