Features

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. 41: ‘Questions raised by the Covid-19 crisis for the European space sector’, originally published in May 2020.

by Sara M. Langston, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityOn May 30, 2020, millions of Americans watched the inaugural SpaceX Crew Dragon launch NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. This mission marked two significant events: First, the return of launch to orbit capability for human spaceflight from the United States.

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. 38: ‘In-Orbit Servicing: Challenges and Implications of an Emerging Capability’, originally published in February 2020.

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. 37: ‘Rethinking the Assessment of the Value of Spectrum’, originally published in January 2020.

In this week’s Space Cafe Web Talk featured Yvette Gonzalez, Director of Outreach for the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences & Project PoSSUM

Our industry is sometimes difficult to understand. OneWeb recently filed for bankruptcy, letting go of most of its staff, but then only a couple of days later they filed for an expansion of their fleet to 48,000 satellites.

The COVID 19 pandemic has ripped apart all sectors of the world’s societal fabric and rendered economies to a state of paralysis. Multilateral space diplomacy has not been immune to this chaos.

In this week's Space Cafe Web Talk Dr. Raji Rajagopalan discussed how India’s approach to outer space has changed over the last decade and how it is now driven increasingly by national security concerns.

While the planet has been on lockdown the last two months, a new space telescope called CHEOPS opened its eyes, took its first pictures of the heavens and is now open for business.

Last week, NASA released "The Artemis Accords: Principles for a Safe, Peaceful and Prosperous Future." The aim of the Artemis program, according to NASA, is to "[L]and the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024, heralding in a new era for space exploration and utilization". I read the short, concise document that NASA  published with a great deal of interest, and a number of thoughts about international technology, economics, and politics came to mind.