Federal State Unitary Enterprise Experimental Design Bureau FAKEL (hereafter referred to as EDB Fakel) is one of the leading companies in Russia and in the world, having a 55-year experience in development of Electric Propulsion Systems (EPS), and more than a 40-year flight experience in Electric Propulsion Subsystems based on Stationary Plasma Thrusters (SPT), which were successfully used for station-keeping purposes aboard such spacecraft as Meteor and Meteor-Priroda in the 70s, and which have been used aboard spacecraft (S/C) of the Kosmos and Luch family since 1982, as well as aboard Gals and Express since 1994.

Glavkosmos is a subsidiary of Roscosmos State Space Corporation responsible for coordination of the international projects of ROSCOSMOS. The company has been on the market for more than 30 years now and has an impressive portfolio of more than 120 international contracts in space domain. We talked with Denis V. Lyskov, director general, about the company’s goals and priorities and how it manages to adapt to the aggressively competitive space market of today.

There is widespread concern about the prospect of space becoming militarised and it is a critical issue on the United Nation’s agenda. In this exclusive article, Daniel Porras, Space Security Fellow, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, gives an update on the efforts of the UN to prevent an arms race in outer space.

According to Sergei Sopov, S7 Space CEO (S7 Space is part of S7 Group), the company intends to build an enterprise for NK-33 rocket engines production in the city of Samara, Russia. He informed the Vedomosti paper that in order to build the enterprise the company is planning to buy out production facilities from the Russian United Engine Corporation.

Last month ex-deputy prime minister of Russia Dmitry Rogozin was appointed Director General the Roscosmos Corporation by Vladimir Putin, replacing Igor Komarov, who had headed the agency since 2015. Mr. Rogozin has overseen Russia’s space industry since 2011. He was placed under US sanctions over the Ukrainian crisis some years ago.

SpaceWatch.Global wishes all of our Muslim friends and readers a Blessed Eid and our warm wishes to you and your families!

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.