On May 17, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko visited the new R&D center of the private aerospace company Firefly Aerospace in the city of Dnipro (Ukraine). The President was met by Maxim Polyakov, founder of Firefly Aerospace.

The Yuzhnoye Design Office continues its collaboration with Orbital ATK on the production and launch of the Antares launch vehicle. The area of responsibility of the Ukrainian enterprise is the hardware for the rocket’s first stage.

On 23rd June 2018, Rocket Lab’s launch window for the ‘It’s Business Time’ mission will open. During this 14-day window, the company will launch its groundbreaking Electron rocket and will transform access to space for the small satellite market.

It’s amazing to think that humanity is actually about to take its first true foray into space tourism. Achieving weightlessness is a reality through Zero Gravity flights, but now travelling around Moon and even a stay in a space hotel appears to be well within reach. Helen Jameson, Editor-in-Chief, SpaceWatch Global takes a look at just some of the developments in space tourism that could eventually see many of us foregoing our Earthly holiday for an experience that is truly out of this world.

7–8 May 2018, Geneva, Switzerland played host to this years’ Space Security Conference. Entitled ‘Space Security: The Next Chapter’, the events explored the existing framework for space governance in the context of a growing and evolving space industry and with an increasing number of private actors moving into the space domain. Is the current framework sufficient to deal with the new generation of space activities or do changes have to be made? Our very own Torsten Kriening attended the event and caught up with Daniel Porras, Space Security Fellow, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research and organiser of the event.

Following its recent £8.4 million contract win from the European Space Agency, Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd has secured its second phase investment of £24 million. Joining the growing club of billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Greg Wyler who have demonstrated their passion for the high-growth space sector, UK businessman Peter Hargreaves, founder of leading finance and investment services company Hargreaves Lansdown, is investing the money, taking a stake in the iconic Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. in Cornwall, whose rich 56-year history of achievement in satellite communications is matched by an ambitious future-looking roadmap.

International experts and major space players will converge upon Luxembourg from May 15-16 to attend the 2018 Space Forum. A gathering of European Space Clusters and Tech Valley representatives, space business angels, satellite operators, manufacturers and suppliers, will discuss the latest trends and developments in this dynamic industry. Organized in parallel of ICT Spring, the European tech summit, Space Forum will take place at the European Conference Center Luxembourg, at the very heart of Europe. The organizers have announced an impressive list of international speakers, companies and innovative startups, who will participate to the event.

Dubai is clearly leading global innovation. The city has recently played host to the High Level Forum, the World Government Summit and the World Economic Forum providing examples of Dubai’s forward thinking and ambitious attitude. The UAE is fast becoming a hub for space and the government fully recognises the role that space and off-planet habitation will play in our futures. One of the initiatives that has been borne out of this ambition is the Dubai Future Foundation, which shape the future of the strategic sectors in cooperation with the government and private industry and one of their principal areas of focus is space. Torsten Kriening was lucky enough to spend some time with Dr. Noah Raford, Chief Operating Officer and Futurist-in-Chief of the Dubai Future Foundation.

May the Fourth Be With You!!!

Effective Space is poised to launch two spacecraft in 2020 that promise to transform our capabilities in space through in-orbit servicing. These SPACE DRONE™ spacecraft can extend the life of satellites that are reaching the end of their operational term, giving them a new lease of life, and enabling operators to continue bringing in revenues from their space assets long after they would originally have been decommissioned. This is true disruptive technology that will ultimately lead to many other avenues in the in-orbit servicing sector, and can help to tackle the critical challenges that the satellite industry faces such as how we deal with space debris. Helen Jameson, Editor-in-Chief, Spacewatch.Global, spoke to Daniel Campbell, UK Managing Director of Effective Space to get the lowdown on a company that is set to deliver unprecedented services to the space community.