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Federal election 2021 - the future of space in Germany. On the occasion of the federal elections, we are starting a special edition of Space Café Germany. We have invited specialist politicians from selected democratic parties represented in the Bundestag to discuss the future of space travel in Germany with us.

The upper stage of the Ariane 5 which will launch the James Webb Space Telescope into space later this year is on its way from Bremen in Germany to the European Spaceport in French Guiana, ArianeGroup said. James Webb will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched.

Rocket Lab announced it has signed a rideshare agreement with Scottish PocketQube satellite manufacturer, Alba Orbital. Rocket Lab’s Electron will deploy four pico-satellites designed for innovative radio and night-time Earth observation. The cluster includes Alba Orbital’s Unicorn-2 PocketQube satellites, as well as the TRSI-2, TRSI-3, and MyRadar-1 satellites for the company’s customers.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with the ambitious and inspiring Antonino Salmeri, a doctoral space law researcher at the University of Luxembourg and the co-lead of the Space Exploration Project Group at the Space Generation Advisory Council. Antonino is a space law subject matter expert and consummate grade A student

The first full-size prototype of Starship should be ready for orbital test flight "in a few weeks," Elon Musk said. SpaceX has yet to run the 120-metre-tall rocket through its pre-flight tests. Meanwhile the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is conducting an environmental assessment of SpaceX's South Texas launch site, which poses a logistical hurdle.

Blue Origin filed suit on 13th August against NASA in federal court, disputing the agency’s selection of SpaceX to build a Human Landing System (HLS). The law suit comes after both Blue Origin and Dynetics filed protests with the GAO (Government Accountability Office) in April, which were soundly rejected.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Ronald van der Breggen, owner of Route206 and former Chief Commercial Officer at LeoSat, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. "NGSO systems – Imminent success or a Hype after all..." Ronald van der Breggen has more than 20 years of experience in the telecom and satellite sectors.

In this session of Space Cafè “Moriba’s Vox Populi 06” Dr. Moriba Jah talked about Environmental Protection, Climate Change, and their Correlation Pleiades with Orbital Space with Prof. Joellen Russell, Dr. Danielle Wood, Dr. Imogen Napper, Dr. Michael Webber.

An experiment to grow plants in a space greenhouse on an industrial scale will be conducted in Russia’s Nauka (Science) research module aboard the ISS. Experiment Vitacycle-T will involve growing Napa cabbage, grain, leguminous crops, and dwarf tomato varieties, TASS reports. Planting is planned in strips with seeds at certain intervals.

Rocket Lab announced the launch of AuroraSat-1 on board of their Electron rocket to test space junk removal technologies for Aurora Propulsion Technologies. The satellite will be deployed to LEO to demonstrate the company’s propulsion devices and plasma brakes. The Finnish CubeSat will validate the water-based propellant, and mobility control of its Resistojets.