News

EU member states and the European Commission cut the budget of the Horizon Europe space research partnership, aimed to drive EU competitiveness in the global market, Science Business reported. Industry partners will have to decide now if it is worth going ahead with the project or not.

SpaceX can have Starship’s first orbital flight as early as January, pending regulatory approvals, CEO Elon Musk said at a joint meeting of the National Academies’ Space Studies Board and Board on Physics and Astronomy.  According to Musk, the company is in the final preparations of both the vehicle and their new launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.

During this week’s live Space Café hosted in Bremen, Northern Germany, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Professor Pascale Ehrenfreund, the President of both the International Space University and the International Astronautical Federation and Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute.

ICEYE announced having signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on developing advanced SAR products. The collaboration builds on G42’s recent agreement with Yahsat to develop a geospatial data fusion of different sensor modalities. Finnish Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite and analytics provider, ICEYE

The Australian operator SingTel Optus will launch its Optus-11 communications satellite on an Ariane 6 in 2023, ArianeGroup said. SingTel Optus will use an Ariane 64 configuration with four side boosters to inject its new Optus-11 satellite into its geostationary transfer orbit. Optus-11 is a Ku-band satellite serving Australia and New Zealand with several thousand beams, Arianespace said.

Orbit Fab and Dawn Aerospace announced a collaboration to make on-orbit refuelling available to satellites utilising green propellants such as nitrous oxide and propylene. The collaboration was announced at Space Tech Expo Europe in Bremen. The “Gas Stations in Space” company Orbit Fab offers refuelling services in space and developed a port known as RAFTI.

Arianespace has successfully launched three French military Ceres satellites on a Vega from the European spaceport in French Guiana, Airbus and Arianespace said. The satellites were built by Airbus Defence and Space and Thales for the French Armament General Directorate. CERES stands for Space-based Signal Intelligence Capability.

New Space company Leanspace, announced its launch out of stealth mode with several customers and a new product, Leanspace Cloud. The Seraphim Space backed start-up, has already raised over €2M in seed funding from institutional and angel investors. As a first offering, the company offers Leanspace Cloud, to be launched at Space Tech Expo Europe.

Rocket Lab acquires Planetary Systems, a spacecraft separation systems company based in Maryland, for $42 million in cash and a 1.7 million share package, Rocket Lab said. The deal includes a nearly one million Rocket Lab share option as a performance earnout. Planetary Systems is a provider of mechanical separation systems and satellite dispensers.

The Russian Federation conducted a destructive test of a direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) missile against one of its own defunct satellites. The resulting space debris endangered the crew on the ISS, who had to be evacuated. The test has generated over 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris.