News

A historic step: China landed a rover on Mars on Saturday, making it the second space-faring nation after the United States to land on the Red Planet, China’s state media and the worldwide media reported. The uncrewed Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on a vast plain known as Utopia Planitia.

This Space Café Russia will be hosted by Elina Morozova, Executive Director of the Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications and friend of SpaceWatch.Global in conversation with Dr Victor Strelets, a high caliber expert in the field of radio frequencies and satellite orbits

This Space Café WebTalk will feature 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, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global.

The Chinese space sector has seen rapid commercialisation over the past 7 years, with well over 100 companies established and around ¥40B (US$6.5B) raised by commercial space organisations. While still only representing a small percentage of the US$35B in annual revenues of the country’s state-owned space industry giants,

This Space Café Australia will feature Dr Tim Parsons in conversation with Annie Handmer, a friend of SpaceWatch.Global. Mission to Planet Earth. Space is often framed as being outward-looking; about exploration, pushing boundaries, and crossing new frontiers.

Young people are the future:  On the 12th of May 2021, the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) released a Lunar Governance Report outlining the ideas and proposals of the young generations for the inclusive, effective and adaptive regulation of lunar activities. The Report is accessible online and is accompanied by an Executive Summary and a Lunar Manifesto.

Mynaric and SpaceLink join forces to use Mynaric’s laser communication product portfolio on SpaceLink’s data relay network. The cooperation has a volume of $20 million, SpaceLink said, and will help drive forward its satellite relay service, which provides secure, continuous, high-capacity communications between LEO spacecraft and the ground.

The research and development group Space Applications Services has been mandated by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop and deliver three reactors to produce oxygen from lunar soil, the group said. Space Applications said it will lead eight European companies and R&D institutes

The quantum encryption technology specialist Arqit goes public and raises $400 million through a merger with the publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Centricus, the companies announced. The pro forma equity value of the business combination is approximately $1.4 billion, the companies said, and the pro forma enterprise value approximately $1.0 billion

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening met with space professional, author, scientist, analyst and millennial, Laura Seward Forczyk. Laura is the founder and CEO of Astralytical, a space science, industry and policy consultancy that provides space career coaching services, big-picture market trends,