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The Chinese rocket company CAS Space started to develop what it expects will be "the world's most powerful solid-propellant carrier rocket", the company's chairman told China Daily. Yang Yiqiang, a senior rocket scientist and founder of CAS Space, told China Daily that the rocket - ZK 2 - will be ready for its debut flight before the end of 2022.

The International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) will send its bioastronautics researcher Kellie Gerardi to space on a dedicated research mission with Virgin Galactic, the institute said. “The contract marks the world’s first industry-sponsored, human-tended research spaceflight on a commercial vehicle”.

As part of its Discovery program, NASA has selected two new missions to Venus, Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor, the agency said. NASA is awarding approximately $500 million per mission; they are expected to launch in the 2028-2030 timeframe, NASA said.

Axiom Space signed up for three additional private crew missions to the International Space Station (ISS) with SpaceX, the company said. The missions – Ax-2, 3, and 4 – will take place on a SpaceX Dragon until 2023, Axiom said. The landmark agreement between the two companies

May 2021 saw over US$600 million raised in private fundraising for space-related companies. More than two-thirds of this amount comes from the announcement of another SPAC merger, this time with quantum key distribution company ArQit (as before, this amount assumes cash in trust, PIPE, no redemptions/repayments, and is before fees).

In this week’s Space Café WebTalk Prof. Thomas Schildknecht, Director of Swiss Optical Ground Station and Geodynamics Observatory Zimmerwald and Vice-Director of Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern, Switzerland, talked about Sustainability beyond (our) planet protection from the perspective of an astronomer. 

The giant James Webb Space Telescope is on Arianespace’s launch manifest for the fourth quarter of this year, officials from the European launcher and the U.S. space agency said. The telescope could be shipped from the U.S. to French Guiana late August, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s science mission director, said at a virtual press briefing and mission update.

The Munich-based New Space startup OroraTech has closed a €5.8 million Series A funding to finance its wildfire and climate crisis observation nanosatellite platform, the company said. OroraTech is “the first NewSpace start-up to provide global wildfire detection and monitoring services”, the company said.

New Zealand is the 11th nation to sign NASA’s Artemis Accords, the country announced. New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta and the economic development minister Stuart Nash announced the government has agreed to join the Artemis Accords, launched by NASA, and now signed by eleven nations, the government said on its website. 

The European Commission has selected a consortium of companies and research institutes to study the design of the future European quantum communication network, EuroQCI. EuroQCI is to enable ultra-secure communication between critical infrastructures and government institutions across the European Union. The consortium is led by Airbus and includes Leonardo, Orange, and PwC.