News

Japan is the fourth country in the world – after the United States, Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates – to have a dedicated law for the exploration and exploitation of space resources. The law provides that Japanese private business operators shall be permitted to engage in the exploration and development of space resources.

The satellite industry has lost one of its best and most committed communication executives: Yves Feltes. Yves died this week in a hospital in Luxembourg. He headed and managed the communication of SES, one of the world’s largest satellite operators based in Luxembourg, for more than 20 years.

This Space Café Scotland will feature movers and shakers from the Scottish Space Ecosystem in conversation with Angela Mathis, CEO of ThinkTank Maths and a friend of SpaceWatch.Global. ‘Scotland’s Sustainable Space Challenges’ – a bold and brave approach to growing the Space Economy in Scotland.

Simon van den Dries is the General Manager at Spire Maritime. Spire is a space-to-cloud data and analytics company that specializes in the reaching of global data sets powered by a large constellation of nanosatellites. This past week, space-interested students Bano Barzingi and Chiara Moenter, sat down with Simon to discuss his work at Spire, as well as the factors of space sustainability trends

GNSS.asia, a support platform for international cooperation in GNSS as well as an outreach arm for European GNSS, launches its Hub for industry collaboration on 16 June 2021. The Hub makes it easy to network with senior professionals and decision-makers across all industry, institutions, and academia, anytime and anywhere. Register to the Hub and start connecting today.

Thales Alenia Space will provide the optical intersatellite links for Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation. As prime contractor for the construction of Telesat’s new LEO constellation, it will provide its Swiss Optel-C product to connect the 298 satellites, the company said.

The satcom startup Rovial wants to form a consortium with Mynaric, Reflex Aerospace and Isar Aerospace to develop, build and operate “an independent European satellite-based communications network”, the company based in Paris announced. Rovial unveiled its plan to “develop, build and operate an European-centric, secure, end-to-end, high-capacity, and scalable satellite constellation”

The electric propulsion producer Phase Four closed a $26 million Series B investment round, pushing ahead with the development of its plasma propulsion engine Maxwell, the Californian startup said. The round was led by the venture capital firm New Science Ventures, Phase Four said.

The G7 nations committed to a safe and sustainable use of space at their leaders’ summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, the UK government said. Delegates from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the USA, the UK and the EU pledged to take action to tackle the growing hazard of space debris as our planet’s orbit becomes increasingly crowded, the UK said.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Niklas Nienass, Member of the European Parliament, The Greens/EFA, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. Freedom, Science, Democracy. Europe's role in the new Space Race - Space travel is currently undergoing rapid change.