News

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 37th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast: Andrew Jones on China's Space endeavours. Episode 037 features a special guest Andrew Jones. The question of all questions: What are the Chinese up to? Money does not seem to play a role.

ArianeGroup and Devialet announced a new partnership that will allow experiencing the power of an Ariane 5 rocket taking off. The sound was recorded by a Devialet engineer over three days at Kourou in French Guiana in 2019. Both firms work on similar problems as rockets and speakers have a number of things in common.

The Paris-based and listed satellite operator Eutelsat rejected an offer from the French telecoms and media tycoon Patrick Drahi. “The relevant governance bodies of Eutelsat Communications have unanimously decided not to engage in discussions based on the terms of this proposal,” Eutelsat said.

Aistech Space SL has signed a contract with Orbital Astronautics Ltd (OrbAstro) to fly its first Guardian mission, OrbAstro said. Their 6U-class, ORB-6 satellite platform will host an Aistech multi-spectral imaging payload to enable commercial services. The aim of the mission is to address environmental sustainability.

by Luisa Low During this week’s Space Café, which was broadcast live from the United Nations’ 2021 Outer Space Security Conference in Geneva, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening and SpaceWatch.Global event coordinator Chiara Moenter had the chance to sit down with the new United Nations Director of the Institute for Disarmament Research, Dr Robin Geiss

During the third Space Café Canada event, host Jessica West of Project Ploughshares sat down with Dr. Samantha Lawler, an orbital modeler and observational astronomer at the University of Regina to talk about the risks posed by light pollution and other environmental impacts of mega-constellations in outer space.  

Spire Global announced a new partnership with SpaceChain to launch a mission demonstrating the feasibility of blockchain technology computation in space. The cooperation aims to resolve land-based centralised infrastructure issues as well. SpaceChain is a global space-as-a-service solutions provider developing the world’s first decentralised satellite infrastructure (DSI).

After eight years of work: the new launch pad for Ariane 6 in French Guiana has been inaugurated, the French space agency CNES said. "ESA and ArianeGroup now have the means to launch the future Ariane 6, whose first flight is expected in 2022", CNES said.

The British Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Ministry of Defence, and the UK Space Agency announced the launch of a National Space Strategy. The plan is to make the UK a world class space nation by giving a boost to its space industry. Space is worth over £16 billion per year to the UK economy.

Two out of four: Blue Origin announced that New Shepard’s 18th mission, NS-18, will carry four astronauts to space, including Dr Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries. Dr Boshuizen is a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Planet Labs while de Vries is the co-founder of Medidata. The two other astronauts will be announced at a later date.