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A lot of global goodwill and a declaration of deterrence: The Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2021) opened in St. Petersburg with high-level commitments from different nations to continue to internationally cooperate in space. NASA Administrator, Bill Nelson announced his wish to extend the collaboration on the International Space Station (ISS) until 2030;

Brazil is next: the country signed the Artemis Accords, “affirming its commitment to ensuring sustainable space exploration that adheres to a common set of principles benefiting all of humanity”, the U.S. space agency NASA said. Marcos Pontes, Brazil’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, signed the document during a ceremony with President Jair Bolsonaro and other officials, NASA said.

Japan is the fourth country in the world – after the United States, Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates – to have a dedicated law for the exploration and exploitation of space resources. The law provides that Japanese private business operators shall be permitted to engage in the exploration and development of space resources.

The satellite industry has lost one of its best and most committed communication executives: Yves Feltes. Yves died this week in a hospital in Luxembourg. He headed and managed the communication of SES, one of the world’s largest satellite operators based in Luxembourg, for more than 20 years.

This Space Café Scotland will feature movers and shakers from the Scottish Space Ecosystem in conversation with Angela Mathis, CEO of ThinkTank Maths and a friend of SpaceWatch.Global. ‘Scotland’s Sustainable Space Challenges’ – a bold and brave approach to growing the Space Economy in Scotland.

Simon van den Dries is the General Manager at Spire Maritime. Spire is a space-to-cloud data and analytics company that specializes in the reaching of global data sets powered by a large constellation of nanosatellites. This past week, space-interested students Bano Barzingi and Chiara Moenter, sat down with Simon to discuss his work at Spire, as well as the factors of space sustainability trends

GNSS.asia, a support platform for international cooperation in GNSS as well as an outreach arm for European GNSS, launches its Hub for industry collaboration on 16 June 2021. The Hub makes it easy to network with senior professionals and decision-makers across all industry, institutions, and academia, anytime and anywhere. Register to the Hub and start connecting today.

Thales Alenia Space will provide the optical intersatellite links for Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation. As prime contractor for the construction of Telesat’s new LEO constellation, it will provide its Swiss Optel-C product to connect the 298 satellites, the company said.

The satcom startup Rovial wants to form a consortium with Mynaric, Reflex Aerospace and Isar Aerospace to develop, build and operate “an independent European satellite-based communications network”, the company based in Paris announced. Rovial unveiled its plan to “develop, build and operate an European-centric, secure, end-to-end, high-capacity, and scalable satellite constellation”

The electric propulsion producer Phase Four closed a $26 million Series B investment round, pushing ahead with the development of its plasma propulsion engine Maxwell, the Californian startup said. The round was led by the venture capital firm New Science Ventures, Phase Four said.