Geopolitics

The European Parliament has greenlit the new network of European Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity, and Security by Satellite (IRIS²) telecommunication satellites. The Parliament endorsed the network with 603 votes to 6 and 39 abstentions, and the text will undergo formal adoption by the Council before its signature and publication in the Official Journal. As a result, the network will be active from 2024. 

On the 16th of February, Astroscale Ltd. (“Astroscale UK”) announced it has won funding from Dstl (The MOD Defence Science and Technology Laboratory) to explore space-based space domain awareness (SB-SDA) mission concepts for launch in the 2030s. 

Japan will test its next-generation rocket from Tanegashima Space Centre this Thursday. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as a prime contractor have developed the H-III rocket.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present: The Space Café Podcast #74: Carissa Christensen of BryceTech talks commercial potentials in the space industry and its latest innovations

The UK Space Agency is set to fund 18 projects that intend to boost the space sector across the UK. The funding sum of £6.5 million includes support for high-impact, locally-led schemes and space cluster development managers to help the space sector grow across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with  Dr. Jessica West, Senior Researcher at Project Ploughshares, and Victoria Samson, Washington Office Director at Secure World Foundation. In this episode, Torsten talked with Jessica and Victoria about the third session of the Open-ended working group on reducing space threats through norms, rules, and principles of responsible behaviors, held in early February 2023 in Geneva.

Spaceflight is undergoing revolutionary changes, and the net effect is that the sustainability of our orbit is at risk. The growing quantity of space debris located in economically and scientifically crucial orbits poses a serious hazard to functioning satellites.

GomSpace A/S requested disbursement of the first tranche (tranche A) of 5 million Euros under the existing credit facility with the European Investment Bank (EIB). Disbursement is expected in the coming weeks if certain conditions are met. This includes the delivery of warrants to the EIB entitling to subscription of 1,650,783 new shares in the Company.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully launched the second developmental flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV-D2) today, February 10, 2023, at 09:18 hours IST from the first launch pad at SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota. The SSLV-D2 mission aims to inject EOS-07, Janus-1, and AzaadiSAT-2 satellites into a 450 km circular orbit in its 15-minute flight.

Three European Service Modules (ESMs) are currently undergoing integration in parallel in Airbus’ Bremen cleanrooms. Consequently, the integration of ESM-3 is almost complete, and ESM-4 is well underway. As a result, the newly arrived ESM-5 structure is undergoing initial integration. Each ESM requires the integration of more than 22,000 elements.