Frontiers

ispace technologies U.S., inc. (ispace-U.S.) has announced the official launch of a new data relay service enabled by two relay satellites that will tentatively deploy during ispace-U.S.’s Mission 3 scheduled in 2026. SpaceX will also be tentatively providing the launch service. ispace-U.S. released the details for the relay service at the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium 2024 Spring Meeting, which the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory hosted.

Who should be responsible for cleaning up Space? It's a complex question, and Ines D'Avila, Space Safety and Transportation Officer at the Portuguese Space Agency, explains to our Dr Emma Gatti why it's difficult to understand collisions.

Corals in Space? It can be done! Karman Fellow, Scientist and Founder of Jaguar Space, Dr Luis Zea, explains SpaceWatch.Global's Editor in Chief, Dr Emma Gatti, why basic research is still fundamental to understanding our Earth and how Space microgravity research can help the Maldives get a spot on the Space exploration train.

Primo Space Fund has announced two new deals: Lithium Lasers and Ecosmic, investing about €2,6 million across both deals. This round of investments brings Primo Space Fund’s portfolio to fourteen companies. Lithium Lasers S.r.l., an Italian startup, developed a USPL called FemtoFlash for material processing, biophotonics and non-linear optics applications in several industries, and is particularly useful when dimensional accuracy and tighter tolerances are necessary.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present: The Space Café Podcast #105: Marie-Pier Boucher: If we fail to do this, there is not future in Space. Episode 105 features special guest: Marie-Pier Boucher. Host Markus engages with Marie Pierre Boucher, who provides a fascinating perspective on integrating arts and diverse cultural elements into space exploration. Marie Pierre Boucher, a visionary from the University of Toronto, expands on her extensive work that spans across art, technology, and space, illustrating how these realms intersect to create more inclusive and sustainable environments in space.

The 1st European Spaceplane Summit, organized by Polaris Raumfahrzeuge, started with a keynote by Nicola Winter, ESA Astronaut Reserve, Military Pilot, Entrepreneur, and Inspirator, about her challenging way into the space sector and maybe into space. Torsten Kriening had the opportunity to talk with her about spaceplanes and her view on the market. They also talked about Nicolas's big project—flying to space!

Today Bremen will write history. The 1st European Spaceplane Summit, organized by Polaris Spaceplanes, kicked off. Torsten Kriening spoke with Annika Wollermann, Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director of Polaris Raumfahrzeuge GmbH, about the event, the vision , expected outcomes, and the status of their space plane.

Astroscale Ltd. ("Astroscale UK"), a subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc, announces the successful completion of the Preliminary Design Review phase with the UK Space Agency (UKSA) for its national Active Debris Removal (ADR) mission, COSMIC (Cleaning Outer Space Mission through Innovative Capture). The Company also recently partnered with Space Trash Signs, an initiative to visualize the consequences of space debris on different aspects of life on Earth – highlighting the imperative need for missions such as COSMIC.

ClearSpace has announced that its CLEAR Mission – funded as part of the UK Space Agency’s national debris removal program – has achieved Preliminary Design Review (PDR) maturity, marking a significant advancement in the collective aim of making our space operations more sustainable. The CLEAR Mission will use ClearSpace’s robotic capture system to safely remove two dead, washing-machine-sized, UK satellites from orbit, mitigating the risk that these pieces of space debris pose to other space operations.

MDA Space has announced it has received a $250 million contract extension from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to continue supporting robotics operations on the International Space Station (ISS) from 2025 to 2030. Furthermore, as part of the contract, MDA Space will now fulfil robotics flight controller duties to support mission operations on the ISS.