Orbex announced that Orbex LP1, the first rocket launchpad constructed in the UK for more than 50 years, is now in place at the Orbex test site in Kinloss, Scotland. LP1 was manufactured by a Scottish company specialising in marine and lifting equipment, the Motive Offshore Group. The new launchpad was built and tested to meet strict international standards.

The European Commission announced a number of initiatives in areas critical for defence and security within the European Union. These comprise the conventional defence industry and equipment on land, sea, air, cyber, hybrid and space threats. The Commission’s aim is to strengthen the Union's ability to counter fast-changing multi-layered threats.

There are currently more than 11,000 satellites in LEO and GEO, and only about 3,000 of those are active, this means that there are over 8,000 deactivated satellites. But space is booming, and in 2020 the world registered the highest number of satellites launched per year, with a record of 1,283 which represents 42% of all active satellites now in orbit.

Founder and CEO of Shift4, Jared Isaacman, announced the Polaris Program, a first-of-its-kind effort to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities, while continuing to raise funds and awareness for important causes on Earth. The program consists of three manned spaceflight missions demonstrating new technologies, conducting research, and concluding with SpaceX’s first human Starship flight.

The first set of images taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows that the spacecraft’s primary mirror is performing as expected as it initiated its seven-step alignment process of 18 individual mirror segments. The mirror segments need to work together as a single optical surface to produce high-precision images.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 7 – 13 February 2022. Welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Space Updates! I’m Jean Deville, joined as always by my co-host Blaine Curcio.

Lockheed Martin Corporation announced it has terminated its agreement to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne after a lawsuit filed last month by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking a preliminary injunction to block the acquisition. The company said the acquisition would have benefitted the industry “through greater efficiency, speed, and significant cost reductions for the U.S. government.”

Flight VS27, deploying 34 OneWeb satellites, was Arianespace’s first mission of the year and the 340th for the Arianespace family comprising Ariane, Soyuz and Vega. The number of satellites in orbit in the OneWeb constellation is now 428. Soyuz, the medium-lift, four-stage launch vehicle carrying the spacecraft, was produced by Roscosmos’ Progress Space Rocket Center.

The inaugural edition of the NewSpace Africa Conference 2022 will take place in Nairobi, Kenya, from 25th to 27th April. The event is organized by Space in Africa in collaboration with the African Union Commission and the Kenyan Space Agency. The theme of the event is “Making Africa the New Hotspot for Space Business”.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and the European Space Policy Institute, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and briefs. This is ESPI Briefs No. 80: ‘Space in Support of Security Missions’, originally published in February 2022.