Geopolitics News

NASA has launched an international crew of four representing four countries into orbit following a successful launch to the International Space Station at 3:27 a.m. EDT Saturday, Aug. 26, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Agency’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission is the seventh commercial crew rotation mission for NASA.

Greetings, SpaceWatchers, and welcome to Summer Listening Week Four! Summer is upon us, and as our gaze shifts towards the stars during those warm, clear nights, SpaceWatch.Global brings you its third collection of the Summer Listening Series. Based on the vote by our newsroom, we have mapped out an interstellar journey across five categories. After the Moon, Climate - Space - Earth and Trendsetters, this week is the turn of  “Space Debris and Regulations.”

IDDK and the United Arab Emirates’ Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen cooperation in providing space bio-experiment services using One-Chip Microscopic Observation Technology (MID). This partnership aims to offer space bio-experiment services using IDDK’s microscopic observation technology to UAE researchers and scientists and also to spread this service to other countries.

Mynaric has announced that the Space Development Agency (SDA) has selected it to contribute to an optical ground terminal demonstration. The research and development program’s mission, slated for 2025, is to demonstrate the successful connection between various space-based optical communications terminals (OCTs) and an optical ground station that Mynaric designed. 

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully soft-landed the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission on the moon's south pole. Recall that the Space and Research Organization launched the spacecraft on July 14 from the Satish Dawan Space Center in India. India has successfully become the third Country to achieve this feat, joining the USA, USSR and China. 

The European Space Agency (ESA) has received information from the United States 18th Space Defense Squadron that it has detected new objects in the vicinity of the VESPA payload adapter. This adapter has remained in orbit following the 2013 launch of a Vega rocket from ESA’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Furthermore, it is a 113 kg, two-meter-diameter, conical upper portion of a payload adapter associated with the VV02 Vega launch that delivered the Proba-V, VNREDSat-1 and ESTCube-1 satellites into Earth orbit.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) has announced the awards of two prototype agreements with a total value of approximately $1.5 billion to build and operate the Tranche 2 Transport Layer (T2TL) – Beta variant prototype constellation. The constellation consists of 72 satellites and will form the foundation of Tranche 2 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.

Sidus Space, a satellite manufacturing and space services company, has announced its strategic acquisition of Exo-Space, a California-based firm specializing in Edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) software and hardware for space applications. This transaction signals Sidus’s determination to tap into the growing AI sector and expand its offerings in the Earth and Space Observations services market.

In this  Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Maxime Puteaux, Principal Advisor at Euroconsult in Paris, about 40 years of Euroconsult, current market trends, and the forthcoming World Satellite Business Week in September 2023. Space Café Radio brings you talks, interviews, and reports from the team of SpaceWatchers while out on the road. Each episode has a specific topic, unique content, and a personal touch. Enjoy the show,

The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is ready to launch on 26 August 2023 to observe the most energetic objects and events in the cosmos. In doing so, it will unveil the evolution of the Universe and the structure of spacetime. XRISM will tentatively launch from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 09:34 JST / 01:34 BST / 02:34 CEST. The mission is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA, with significant participation from ESA. In return for providing hardware and scientific advice, ESA will also receive 8% of XRISM’s available observing time.