Europe

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 29th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast: Brother Guy Consolmagno, The Pope’s Astronomer. Episode 029 features a special guest Brother Guy Consolmagno. Brother Guy Consolmagno begins his conversation in this podcast by referring to a long and strange tale.

The European Commission will launch the EU’s new space program in a virtual conference on 22 June, the commission said. The conference is cohosted by the European Commission/DG DEFIS (Directorate General for Defence, Industry and Space), the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The Venture Capital fund Seraphim prepares a flotation at the London Stock Exchange, Sky News reported. The “world's first dedicated space VC fund” is working with banks on plans for a London flotation”, Sky News said. An arm of Seraphim Capital is working with bankers on plans for a public share sale that could raise in the region of £250m, the news channel said.

This Space Café BeNeLux will feature Simon van den Dries, General Manager at Spire Maritime, in conversation with Chiara Moenter, co-founder “SDG18 – Space for All” and her co-host of Space Cafe BeNeLux, Bano Barzingi. A Better Future through Space - Data is a tremendously important part of our world ...

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.

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.

The Spanish high-tech group GMV will supply the control center and flight dynamics system for Yahsat’s Thuraya 4‑NGS satellite, the company announced. Thuraya 4‑NGS is a next generation L-band system built by Airbus on its Eurostar Neo platform and slated for operations in 2024.