News

Fleet Space Technologies has announced a new partnership with Canadian metal exploration company Power Nickel. The company, which specializes in exploring high-potential nickel, copper, gold, and other battery metal prospects in Canada and Chile, will use Fleet Space’s ExoSphere technology to seek additional high-grade nickel ore deposits at its NISK site in Quebec, Canada.

Airbus has launched two defense research and development projects as part of the 2021 European Defense Fund (EDF). The EDF promotes cooperation among European companies and research institutes across the EU to strengthen Europe's resilience and strategic autonomy. In July 2022, the European Commission selected 61 R&T and R&D projects involving new technology areas and funded with €1.2 billion, including eight collaborative projects that Airbus is part of.

Capella Space has announced the formation of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Capella Federal. The new entity enables the company to further support its U.S. Government and defense agency customers by providing expanded access to its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery with increased security and continued on-demand reliability.

We're excited to welcome world-renowned photographer, Max Alexander, to the Space Cafe podcast. With over 25 years of experience in editorial and commercial photography, Max has captured the likes of Neil Armstrong, Stephen Hawking, and Nelson Mandela. He specializes in science communication through photography and has been a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Airbus has disclosed plans to recruit more than 13,000 people globally in 2023 to support its commercial aircraft ramp-up and meet challenges in defense, space, and helicopters. Furthermore, around 7,000 of these recruitments will be new posts across the company. Accordingly, the new hires will be instrumental in supporting its industrial ramp-up and Airbus’ ambitious decarbonization roadmap and preparing the future of aviation.

The Drag Augmentation Deorbiting System (ADEO) breaking sail was successfully deployed from the ION satellite carrier in late December 2022. A sail area of 3.6 square meters autonomously deployed from a small packing size of 10 x 10 x 10 cm to demonstrate deorbiting satellite technology.

Space Foundation has released The Space Report 2022 Q4, showing shattered records for launches and the number of satellites and spacecraft to reach orbit despite difficult market conditions and international tensions, including the Russia-Ukraine war.

In this Space Café Radio, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Simonetta Cheli, Director of Earth Observation Programmes and Head of ESRIN (D/EOP) at the European Space Agency (ESA) at the 15th European Space Conference in Brussels. This conference is one of the very important yearly high-level gatherings of the key stakeholders of the European space domain in the Egmont Palace in Brussels under the 2023 theme “Securing the Future of Europe in Space”.

The African Union Commission (AUC) and the Egyptian Government have, via a signed agreement, formally inaugurated and declared the African Space Agency (AfSA) open and operational on January 25 2023. The agreement establishes the general framework regulating the relationship between the parties, which will serve as a platform for space research and innovation on the continent.

AstroForge Inc. has announced that it has signed a contract with Orbital Astronautics Ltd (OrbAstro), a satellite and in-orbit service provider, to fly a 100kg-class spacecraft into deep space for an asteroid survey mission. The spacecraft will tentatively launch in late 2023 with Intuitive Machines, a space exploration, infrastructure, and services company, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission serves as a prospecting activity and stepping-stone towards AstroForge’s ambitions for asteroid mining.