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SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 31st episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast: Ian Carnelli, Preparing for the worst. Episode 031 features a special guest Ian Carnelli. Next year, a small spacecraft will head for the double asteroid Didymos to slam into it with its brakes off.

The Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council has set itself three objectives in the space sector for the next six months, Agence Europe reported. The new presidency namely wants to advance the project for a European Space Traffic Management (STM) initiative, adopt conclusions to validate the “one space for all” approach

The Swiss cybersecurity startup CYSEC has chosen D-Orbit, the orbital transport company, to test its ARCA Space product line on its ION satellite carrier, the company said. CYSEC has selected D-Orbit, a leader in the orbital transportation industry, to test ARCA Space during their upcoming December mission onboard the ION Satellite Carrier, CYSEC said.

Ready to reach out: Europe’s robotic arm for the International Space Station (ISS) is ready for its flight and task, Airbus said. Airbus space engineers have installed the European Robotic Arm (ERA) onto the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) and it is now ready for its flight to the ISS

Join SpaceWatch.Global's Space Café "Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland" #04 series where global space law experts discuss the legal issues from everyday space activities. This event will take place on 22 July 2021 at 9:30 am CEST / 5:30 pm AEDT. Space Café "Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland" will analyse current space developments with a legal focus

Another SpaceX rideshare passenger last week was Tiger-2, a commercial 5G Internet of Things (IoT) satellite built and owned by 5G OQ Technology, a startup based in Luxembourg. Tiger-2 was successfully launched – together with 87 other satellites – aboard the SpaceX Transporter-2 rideshare mission, OQ said.

Space Race number two, more for Hollywood: the Russian actress Yulia Peresild and the American Tom Cruise compete to be the first to shoot a movie in space. In that race, it seems that the Russian star is in the pole position. The 36-years old actress and her director are planning to take off from Baikonur to reach the ISS in October.

Space Race number one: The founder of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, will be his own first passenger and fly into space aboard his Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo (VSS) this week, on 11 July. Branson thus seems to be ready to beat Jeff Bezos who announced that he would get on board his Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft, together with his brother Mark, for a flight on 20 July.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher, Torsten Kriening spoke with a Member of the European Parliament and member of the German Alliance 90/The Greens party, Niklas Niennas, about Europe’s role and response to the space race 2.0.

The European Commission kick-started the €1.2 billion European Defence Fund and awarded €158 million to 26 projects and another €137 million to the Eurodrone and the ESSOR software project. The adoption of the first European Defence Fund (EDF) annual work programme paves the way to the immediate launch of 23 calls for proposals, the Commission said.