News

May 2021 saw over US$600 million raised in private fundraising for space-related companies. More than two-thirds of this amount comes from the announcement of another SPAC merger, this time with quantum key distribution company ArQit (as before, this amount assumes cash in trust, PIPE, no redemptions/repayments, and is before fees).

In this week’s Space Café WebTalk Prof. Thomas Schildknecht, Director of Swiss Optical Ground Station and Geodynamics Observatory Zimmerwald and Vice-Director of Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern, Switzerland, talked about Sustainability beyond (our) planet protection from the perspective of an astronomer. 

The giant James Webb Space Telescope is on Arianespace’s launch manifest for the fourth quarter of this year, officials from the European launcher and the U.S. space agency said. The telescope could be shipped from the U.S. to French Guiana late August, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s science mission director, said at a virtual press briefing and mission update.

The Munich-based New Space startup OroraTech has closed a €5.8 million Series A funding to finance its wildfire and climate crisis observation nanosatellite platform, the company said. OroraTech is “the first NewSpace start-up to provide global wildfire detection and monitoring services”, the company said.

New Zealand is the 11th nation to sign NASA’s Artemis Accords, the country announced. New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta and the economic development minister Stuart Nash announced the government has agreed to join the Artemis Accords, launched by NASA, and now signed by eleven nations, the government said on its website. 

The European Commission has selected a consortium of companies and research institutes to study the design of the future European quantum communication network, EuroQCI. EuroQCI is to enable ultra-secure communication between critical infrastructures and government institutions across the European Union. The consortium is led by Airbus and includes Leonardo, Orange, and PwC.

The Spanish high-tech group GMV will supply the control center and flight dynamics system for Yahsat’s Thuraya 4‑NGS satellite, the company announced. Thuraya 4‑NGS is a next generation L-band system built by Airbus on its Eurostar Neo platform and slated for operations in 2024.

The U.S. space agency NASA has requested a $25 billion budget for 2022, the agency said. The budget request for the agency amounts to $24.8 billion, NASA said, $100 million more than requested in April. The largest single item in the budget is for Deep Space Exploration Systems, with $6.88 billion, NASA said.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed the contracts with Airbus and Thales to build the next generation of Galileo satellites for €1.47 billion, ESA said. “Following an intense process of open competition”, the contracts have been awarded to Thales Alenia Space Italy and Airbus Defence & Space Germany to build 12 Galileo Second Generation satellites, the agency said.

Arianespace placed another 36 OneWeb satellites in orbit, the launch company said. Following the 7th launch for OneWeb, Arianespace has now deployed 218 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) for the constellation, ,Arianespace said. Performed on Friday, May 29 at precisely 02:38 a.m. local time at (05:38 p.m. on May 28, UTC)