News

ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti became the first European female spacewalker when she went outside the International Space Station (ISS) with Russian cosmonaut, Oleg Artemyev, to complete a seven-hour mission working on the space station. Works carried out by the pair included installing platforms and workstation adapter hardware to the Nauka laboratory module.

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Dr. Brian Weeden, Director of Program Planning for Secure World Foundation, at the LEO Kinetic Space Safety Workshop in Lausanne about threats and risks in Low Earth Orbit and how to move forward to a sustainable future in space. This episode talks about Space Situational Awareness, our awareness level, mega-constellations and risk management of the current situation.

The French Space Agency, CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), selected private European launch service provider, Isar Aerospace, to operate its rockets at the Diamant site of CSG (Centre Spatial Guyanais) in French Guiana, Isar said. The company has signed a binding term sheet for conducting commercial and institutional launch operations at CSG starting from 2024.

Australia selected Airbus as the strategic partner for Defence’s Resilient Multi-mission Space STaR Shot, a strategic research program established to develop future space capabilities for the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Australia’s Defence said. Satellite developer and integrator, Airbus Defence and Space, was chosen by a panel of experts from Defence and the Australian Space Agency.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present: The Space Café Podcast #059 - Günther Hasinger, the James Webb Space Telescope and surprising confessions of an ESA director. Even seasoned ESA directors have emotions when it comes to groundbreaking moments like the launch and commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Prestwick Spaceport’s representatives are to meet with stakeholders at the Farnborough International Airshow (FIA 2022) this week to accelerate plans to become Europe’s premier space launch location, the company said. The spaceport has already secured more funding than any other UK spaceport, for example US $96 million from the Ayrshire Growth Deal.

The Australian Government has granted approvals to launch two suborbital “Kestrel I” rockets from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex by rocket manufacturer ATSpace, and spaceport provider, Southern Launch, the companies announced. Missions VS02 and VS03 will send the experimental Kestrel I rockets to sub-orbital trajectories to test the rocket design.

In-Orbit communications company, Solstar Space (Solstar) will provide the Wireless Access Points (WAP) to be used on NASA’s Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module planned for launch in 2024, the company announced along with aerospace and defense technology company, Northrop Grumman.

End-to-end space solutions company, Raytheon Intelligence & Space, is to acquire space domain awareness, orbital analysis, space surveillance and tracking start-up, Northern Space and Security (NORSS). The UK-based startup was founded five years ago by Ralph Dinsley, a Royal Air Force veteran.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced its plans to develop a radar satellite constellation as part of the National Space Fund  worth over US $800 million to boost its space sector. The project makes the UAE the first Arab country to develop a constellation of SAR satellites.