Europe

By Jessica West and Gilles Doucet Specialists in space security constantly call for more responsible norms of behavior in outer space. As the number of users and uses of space grows, the calls get louder and more urgent. Meanwhile, many states claim to want the same thing. Canada’s national defense …

By Raphael Roettgen With approximately US$56 million of space-related funding rounds, July was slightly stronger than June 2020, but still on the weak side, and lacking any large rounds (except as noted below). On the positive side, the monthly rounds represent a good cross-section of geographies and subsectors. SpaceX is …

GomSpace Luxembourg SARL and the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a contract to continue development and implementation of the Juventas CubeSat, in support of the Hera mission. The contract value, approximately EUR 11,000,000, is focused on delivery of the Juventas spacecraft and its associated payloads for launch with Hera in …

Dear SpaceWatchers, Access to space matters. The race to space that commenced in the 1950’s has accelerated at an unprecedented pace. Dozens of countries invest in space missions, launch capabilities, and sophisticated systems. Entrepreneurs pour billions into space travel, audacious satellite constellations, and missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. …

by Thys Cronje Over the next decade, Earth Observation (EO) satellites will stop streaming simple image data to the earth. Instead, the instruments onboard the EO satellites will tell us more detailed information about what is happening below. In addition, these satellites will be able to take control of their …

by Kiran Mohan Vazhapully Last month, based on a Reuters report, Chris Borgen wrote in Opinio Juris about the White House chalking out details of a United States (US) sponsored international framework dubbed “Artemis Accords”,  to facilitate commercial mining on the Moon. They are conceived as inter-agency bilateral agreements similar …

The Association Agreement between ESA and the Government of the Republic of Latvia enters into force for a duration of seven years. Comprising 18 Articles and two Annexes, it orchestrates the strengthening of Latvia’s relations with ESA. Following its approval by ESA Council, meeting at ESOC in Darmstadt on 24 June, …

The first ever launch into space from British soil is one step closer, as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced a public consultation on the regulations for the UK’s spaceflight program. The regulations to support Space Industry Act 2018 will enable a range of commercial spaceflight and associated activities to take place …

Lunar services company ispace, revealed the final design of its lunar lander that will be used in the first mission of the company’s HAKUTO-R program, a multinational commercial lunar exploration program. HAKUTO-R’s ‘Mission 1’ also reached the final hardware design phase, known as the Critical Design Review (CDR). The HAKUTO-R …

by Marko Pajovic On the 23rd July 2020, the Serbian Case for Space Foundation organized its third webinar with Spacewatch.Global, to tackle an important topic often overlooked in the public perception of space industry: cybersecurity in outer space. SCS invited Andrej Petrovski, the Director of Tech at Share Foundation and …