News

The Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), a key instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) has successfully passed all its functional tests including subsystems and mechanisms, Airbus said. The NIRSpec commissioning team, including experts from Airbus, performed the required tests as Webb continues cooling down to cryogenic temperatures.

UK-based space situational awareness specialists Northern Space and Security Limited (NORSS), and Australian Nominal Systems, have been awarded a contract to develop ARTSIM a spacecraft and missions simulator solution to support the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) future satellite operational plans, NORSS said. to provide a modular, data representative satellite simulation architecture.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Krystal Azelton, Director of Space Applications Programs at Secure World Foundation, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. The Urgency Of Ensuring Sustainability in Space. Krystal Azelton is a Director of Space Applications Programs

Australian space company, Gilmour Space Technologies, announced that is has been selected to develop and launch a new sovereign surveillance satellite for the Department of Defence, as part of the government’s AU $7 billion investment in new space capabilities. The AU $15 million partnership is in line with Australia’s recently released Defence Space Strategy.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Air Force Research Lab and Aerojet Rocketdyne completed a free flight test of Lockheed Martin’s Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC).  The vehicle accelerated to and maintained a speed faster than five times the speed of sound after release from the carrier aircraft.

Chinese space startup LinkSpace, carried out a static fire test of its Reusable Launch Vehicle T6 (RLV-T6) equipped with new Fengbao-1 methane-fueled engines, the company said. The 14.5-meter tall rocket will be launched to the Kármán line (100 km) and then landed with the help of landing legs and grid fins.

During the sixth Space Café Canada event on April 29, 2022, host Jessica West sat down with Stephen Matier, President and CEO of Maritime Launch Services and Spaceport Nova Scotia, Canada’s first commercial space launch complex. In contrast to most other spaceports around the world, Spaceport Nova Scotia is intended to be fully commercial.

Our Space Cafe WebTalk “33 minutes with Dr. Jana Robinson - Economic and Financial Dimensions of Space Security” took place on Tuesday, 3rd May. Dr. Jana Robinson became Managing Director of the Prague Security Studies Institute in April 2020. She also serves as PSSI’s Space Security Program Director, a post she took in 2015.

In this Space Café Radio, SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Café Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Mathieu Bailly, event director of CYSAT about the mission behind the conference, the key takeaways, and what the future holds. The second CYSAT conference took place in Paris in April 2022

Vertically integrated geospatial company, Satellogic  announced that it has signed a multiple launch agreement with SpaceX to deploy 68 satellites. Satellogic builds and manages its own spacecraft, as well as markets the collected Earth observation data. This vertical integration reduces costs and enables the company to offer actionable data at a more affordable price.