News

Paris, 19 April 2021. – It’s a big deal: NASA has selected SpaceX's Starship to land two American astronauts on the Moon. The firm-fixed price, milestone-based contract total award value is $2.89 billion, NASA said. The U.S. space agency picked SpaceX over Blue Origin to develop its first commercial human lander that will carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface as part of its Artemis program, NASA said.

This Space Café Canada will feature Dr. David Kendall, Founding Member at Outer Space Institute, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in conversation with Dr. Jessica West, Senior Researcher at Project Ploughshares and a friend of SpaceWatch.Global. Does space need more Canada? Canada has a strong past in space, but what is the future?

Join SpaceWatch.Global for an interesting and informative Space Café WebTalk featuring Temidayo Oniosun, Managing Director, Space in Africa, Lagos, Nigeria. A month ago a report on "Global Space Budgets - A Country-level Analysis" was released. This report examines the space budgets of 106 governments and analyses how they have changed between 2018 and 2020.

Paris, 16 April 2021. – The Earth monitoring and analytics startup HawkEye 360 secured $55 million in additional funding, bringing the total amount raised so far to over $155 million, the company said. The new (Series C) round was led by NightDragon and included further investment from existing investors Advance, Razor's Edge Ventures, Shield Capital, Dorilton Ventures, Adage Capital, and Esri International, the firm said.

Paris, 16 April 2021. – Beautiful start, beautiful landing: Blue Origin successfully completed its 15th New Shepard mission, on its way now to fly astronauts and customers to the edge of space, the company owned by Jeff Bezos said. After its successful lift-off, the crew capsule with a dummy passenger reached an apogee of more than 100 kilometers, before returning, with parachutes, to its launch site in Texas.

Paris, 16 April 2021. – The Earth monitoring startup ICEYE opens a production facility in Irvine, California, to better serve U.S. customers ad set the pace for further growth, the company said. The U.S. site will host the production of multiple spacecraft “simultaneously” and contain a research and development lab, offices, and a customer engagement space, ICEYE said. It will also host a Mission Operations Center for monitoring and operating U.S. licensed spacecraft.

Paris, 16 April 2021. – A step into GEO: The San Francisco-based Astranis, a company that wants to offer satellite internet via small and light geostationary satellites, raised $250 million at a valuation of $1.4 billion, in a round led by BlackRock, RockAstranis CEO John Gedmark told CNBC. The new round brings Astranis’ total funding to more than $350 million since its founding in 2015, according to the business channel.

Join SpaceWatch.Global for an interesting and informative new format - Space Café Greater Bay Area China. It will feature Gregg Daffner, CEO of Gapsat and longtime Asia-Pacific satcom executive in conversation with Blaine Curcio, founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting and a friend of SpaceWatch.Global. This event will take place on 30 April 2021 at 10:00 am CEST.

In this week’s Space Café Brazil, Aila Raquel, CEO of Alya Nanosatellites Constellation E.O., Brazil, talked about her experience in starting a space start-up in Brazil. Aila Raquel is the CEO of Alya Nanosatellites who is committed to a global challenge for sustainable development. Incorporating Agenda2030 at Alya’s goals,

During this week’s Space Café episode, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening had the opportunity to speak with a former colleague – renowned space industry expert, President and Founder of Clarkebelt Space, Robert Feierbach. Having worked in space business development across Europe and the United States,