Asia Pacific

TiSPACE’s Hapith I rocket has failed to launch for the third time from Whalers Way site in Southern Australia. The rocket caught fire on the pad but was contained and extinguished by Country Fire Service crews on the scene, the company said. No one was injured during the incident.

Astronauts Akihiko Hoshide of JAXA and Thomas Pesquet of ESA conducted the first spacewalk by two international partner astronauts without a NASA astronaut on Sunday, 8:15 a.m. ET, NASA reported. The event happened just three days after the Russian spacewalk. This was Hoshide’s fourth and Pasquet’s sixth extravehicular activity (EVA) and the 12th spacewalk of the year.

In this latest instalment of Space Café Australia, host Annie Handmer is joined by space medicine researcher Vienna Tran to speak about how space affects the human body, the philosophical questions that arise from human spaceflight. Vienna is a space medicine researcher who has investigated the use of artificial gravity for the hip muscles of astronauts during a prolonged bed rest analogue.

Space Café "Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland" will analyse current space developments with a legal focus. It will, at the same time discuss and ‘demystify’ the law for everyone. In this next episode Host Steven Freeland, Emeritus Professor of International Law at Western Sydney University, Sydney and Professorial Fellow at Bond University, Australia, and Co-Host Torsten Kriening...

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 6-12 September 2021”. A special shout-out to our friends at SpaceWatch.Global,

A consortium of three South Korean companies invests US $50 million in American rocket start-up Relativity Space, News Naver reported. The three companies are Hanwha Aerospace, NH Investment & Securities and Consus Asset Management. The investment is part of the US $650 million Relativity Space raised in the Series E funding round in June, Maeil Economic Daily said.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 30 August - 5 September 2021”. A special shout-out to our friends at SpaceWatch.Global,

The Chang’e-5 orbiter module is currently on its way back to the Moon following deep space tests according to reports. Last year, the orbiter delivered a return module containing 1.731 kg of lunar samples to Earth before setting off to deep space. Chang’e-5 orbiter was in orbit around Lagrange point 1 (L1) where it carried out orbit control tests and observations.

The U.S. Space Force and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Air Force reached an agreement on 27th August to join South Korea’s air force in U.S. Space Force-led military drills, ROK Air Force said. The aim is to reinforce the U.S. Space Force’s defence capabilities in outer space.

August’s financing table is again led by a space company raising funds via a proposed merger with a SPAC: VirginOrbit who may raise up to US$483 million* from this deal. Over two dozen other rounds raised a total in excess of US$700 million. Besides yet another SPAC, other noteworthy deal structure were Swiss IoT constellation’s Astrocast’s,