Geopolitics

Why should small nations join UN COPUOS? And what benefits could they gain from joining the UN COPUOS community? Dr Ulpia Botezatu, Chair of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the UN Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, explains to Dr Emma Gatti, why international Western institutions should be interested in emerging nations and vice versa.

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.

China is building its space network in the Asian-Pacific countries and Africa. Whisper, the Director of the Scientific Research Department for Chang Guang Satellite Technology co L.t.D. visited the Maldives during SINC to understand how China can expand its market in the region. Our Editor-in-Chief, Dr Emma Gatti, had the opportunity to talk with him about his mission.

In this episode of Space Café Radio Geopolitics, Juliana Suess, Research Fellow Space Security at Royal United Services Institute (RUSI),  talked with SpaceWatch.Global's Torsten Kriening about geopolitics and space security. Their discussion shed light on the complexities of space militarization, the challenges facing European space defense readiness, and the importance of collaborative and responsible approaches to space governance.

Space security is central for a peaceful use of space and for security and national al defense. But it's often pushed aside in the concretisation. Why? Almudena Azcarate Ortega, Researcher - Space Security at UNIDIR, discusses with Dr Emma Gatti, SpaceWatch.Global's Editor in Chief, the ways Space security influences our use of space.

For SpaceWatchers, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Thailand has manifested several of its space ambitions. SWGL has covered the last decade of the country’s space developments at the government and private sector levels. So, when in early April 2024, Thailand became the latest country to join the China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) program,  SWGL assessed it as a significant development in the context of Thailand’s space ambitions. But that needs to be put in perspective. What are the short and long term implications? Let’s find out.

Space Systems Command (SSC)’s Innovation and Prototyping Acquisition Delta has successfully completed the CloudSat mission after almost two decades of providing scientists with a deeper understanding of atmospheric conditions and providing key discoveries of weather patterns and precipitation observed from space. Space Systems Command’s recently launched  Weather System Follow-on Microwave (WSF-M) satellite will continue the U.S. Space Force’s space-based environmental monitoring mission.

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.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has celebrated the graduation of its class of 2022 astronaut candidates. The ceremony, held at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany, signified the successful completion of basic training for the five European astronaut graduates and the Australian Space Agency’s first astronaut, all now eligible for spaceflight assignments.

Slovenia has become the 39th Signatory to the Artemis Accords after it and NASA affirmed their cooperation in future space endeavors on Friday. The signing certified Slovenia’s commitment to pursue safe and sustainable exploration of space for the benefit of humanity and took place during a U.S.-Slovenia strategic dialogue in Ljubljana, Slovenia, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Offices.