ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher inaugurated ESA’s new Space Safety Centre at the Agency’s ESOC mission control centre, in Darmstadt, Germany. The Centre is a hub for activities protecting our planet from space weather events, asteroids and defunct satellites.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) extended their cooperation by adopting the 'Inter Agency Arrangement for Strategic Partnership,’ an extended framework agreement, DLR said. The goal is to promote cooperation between the two countries’ aerospace industries.

Space4Impact, EPFL’s Space Center eSpace, E2MC Ventures, and Space Innovation joined forces to launch an online course on the New Space Economy. The program is available on edX as a free EPFLx course. Learners can watch more than 30 video lectures by space experts from various domains within startups, academia, the private sector, and public institutions in Switzerland.

South Korea signed a contract with SpaceX to launch five of its spy satellites by 2025, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) confirmed. The first launch will take place by the end of 2023 onboard of a Falcon 9 rocket, delivering an 800-kg electro-optical infrared satellite to low Earth orbit.

The US-based International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Portuguese institutions focused on STEM research and space education, IIAS announced. The institutes include the Portugal Space Agency, Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology, and Science

German thermal remote sensing specialist constellr, has acquired Belgian hyperspectral firm ScanWorld, in a first for Europe’s emerging agricultural Earth Observation sector, constellr announced. The merger will allow for actionable full-spectrum monitoring of water, carbon, energy and crop health. 

France-based space company Exotrail, released its new in-space mobility service SpaceVan, a unique Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV). The debut mission will launch onboard a Falcon 9 launch vehicle in October 2023. Exotrail is planning at least three subsequent missions throughout 2024 using different launch providers. 

France's highest administrative court revoked the decision to grant two frequency bands to satellite company Starlink, saying the country's telecoms regulator, Arcep, had made legal misjudgements, Reuters reported. Starlink got the right operate on two radio frequencies to provide internet access from France's Arcep regulator in February 2021.

The first ever private crewed mission arrived at the ISS on Saturday following the successful launch of Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) by SpaceX and Axiom Space. The four private astronauts Michael López-Alegría, Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, and Eytan Stibbe launched into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket.

Our Space Cafe WebTalk “33 minutes with Catherine Kavvada - Secure connectivity and Space Traffic Management made by Europe” took place on Tuesday, 5th April. Catherine Kavvada is a director for Innovation and outreach at the Directorate General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) at the European Commission in Brussels. Kavvada is a trained lawyer