At UNISPACE50+, held earlier this year to celebrate 50 years of space, a new competition was launched by NewSpace 2060 in collaboration with the Moon Village Association (MVA) to encourage everyone to engage with the vision of a NewSpace economy by 2060. The competition encourages interested parties from entrepreneurs and start-ups to seasoned NASA scientists to give a 3-minute pitch on any aspect of going to the Moon and what they would like to do there.

The International Astronautical Congress held in Bremen, Germany last week welcomed a record 6,500 delegates and 83 registered countries, reaffirming a global love affair with space. In addition, more than 10.000 participants attended the public day on Wednesday 3 October to tune-in live to the International Space Station (ISS) for a live session with Alexander Gerst, the second ESA and first German commander of the ISS in the twenty years of its existence.

An event, held alongside the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, engaged world leaders to highlight the importance of space as a “driver for peace and sustainable development on Earth, as a driver for innovative space diplomacy and as the New Frontier for Peace on Earth”.

Earlier this month, the Royal Air Force (RAF) took part in the gruelling Himalayan Venture 18, the principal expedition of RAF100 –the celebration of the centenary of the formation of the Royal Air Force, the first independent Air Force in the world. Uniting 75 members of the wider RAF family, the pioneering expedition took teams to the Rolwaling and Khumbu regions of the Nepalese Himalayan range.

The satellite industry has long been renowned for its unique ability to deliver connectivity to remote regions of the world, making communications accessible where they previously weren’t available. However, there is a technology that is being trialled by some of the world’s biggest tech companies that promises to enable telecommunications networks with a re-usable platform that can form telecommunications networks where there is little or no access. That is the High Altitude Platform.

Firefly is well and truly ignited again. A new formation of the company with solid investors behind it is now paving the way for what has the potential to be a very successful business. International asset management firm, Noosphere Ventures, as lead investor, is set to take Firefly to the next level and beyond with an evolutionary strategy and approach that sees the development two launch vehicles to satisfy the full breadth of the dedicated small satellite launch market and for broader in-space applications as well.

The AngoSat-2 satellite is to be developed by Russia for Angola to replace the failed AngoSat-1 satellite.

An air leak alert at the International Space Station was registered by the ground crews at about 2:00 am on Thursday, August 30.

SpaceWatch.Global last spoke to Gernot Groemer, Founder and Administrative Director of the Austrian Space Forum last year when we covered the Forum’s work and activities on the Mars Analogue missions.

The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center has signed contracts for the production of 12 Angara-A5 heavy-lift launch vehicles.