News

The maritime geolocation startup Unseenlabs raised €20 million to build its maritime geolocation fleet, the French company said. The series B funding round is "cementing its status as a European leader in the interception of radiofrequency signals from space”, the company said.

The entrepreneur and investor Max Polyakov acquired a majority stake in the South African startup Dragonfly Aerospace, Polyakov announced. Dragonfly Aerospace was founded in Stellenbosch, South Africa, by a team of five satellite engineers led by Bryan Dean, a global specialist in microsatellites and high-resolution cameras.

Return to flight: Arianespace launched its 18th Vega mission (VV18) with Airbus’ Pleiades Neo 3 on board, the company announced yesterday. The mission marks Vega’s return to flight, Arianespace said, and was also the second successful launch by Arianespace’s teams in less than 72 hours.

During this week’s SpaceCafé, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with self-confessed “spaceist”, astronautics and space engineering expert from the International Space University, Professor Chris Welch. Now the Head of the Space Payloads Laboratory at the ISU, Professor Welch’s career in space engineering has spanned several decades across multiple universities and institutions.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Katherine Courtney, Former UK Space Agency CEO, Chair of the Global Network on Sustainability in Space, and Founder of PrimarySpace, London, United Kingdom, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global.

Luxembourg, 28 April 2021. – OHB wants to launch with Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) in 2024 and 2025, the company said. OHB Cosmos and the Luxembourg-based OHB affiliate LuxSpace signed a contract for a dedicated launch with RFA for upcoming missions scheduled for mid-2024 and 2025, OHB said.

Luxembourg, 28 April 2021. – Eutelsat invests in OneWeb and acquires a 24% stake for $550 million, “becoming a leading shareholder of the company alongside the UK Government and Bharti Global”, Eutelsat announced. OneWeb will operate 648 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), offering “significant” regional coverage by the end of 2021 and global coverage in 2022, Eutelsat said.

Luxembourg, 28 April 2021. – The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in the U.S. accepted to modify SpaceX’s Starlink license in the low Earth orbit (LEO), the commission said. Subject to a couple of conditions, the FCC granted SpaceX to change the primary operational altitude for 2814 satellites from the original 1100 to 1300 kilometer range to the new 540 to 570 kilometer range.

Luxembourg, 28 April 2021. – JUICE is on its way: the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer mission led by the European Space Agency (ESA) left Airbus’ satellite integration centre in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and is now on its way to the Large Space Simulator (LSS) chamber of ESA in Noordwijk, Netherlands, Airbus said.

This Space Café Germany will feature ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, former Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations, and today international coordinator and special advisor to the ESA Director-General, in conversation with Andreas Schepers, Senior Space Communicator and friend of SpaceWatch.Global.