Europe

Airbus´ High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) Connectivity Business has signed a strategic partnership with Salam as the last batch of Airbus' Pléiades Neo satellites arrives at the European Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, following a transatlantic flight from Toulouse, France.

The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) has announced the third iteration of its myEUspace competition. The competition challenges innovators to develop game-changing commercial solutions that leverage EU Space data and signals from Galileo, Europe’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and/or Copernicus, the European Earth Observation program

The European Space Agency (ESA) introduced eight steps to advance diversity and inclusiveness as part of its Agenda 2025 to complete the ESA Transformation, ESA said. The Agency claims that these steps will contribute to strengthening innovation and motivation, decreasing resistance to change, and fostering knowledge sharing. 

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with  Rodrigo da Costa, Executive Director at EUSPA - EU Agency for the Space Program, he previously worked at the agency as the Galileo Services Program Manager. In this episode, Rodrigo sits down with Torsten during the EU Space Week 2022 in Prague to talk about his impressions of the EU Space Week and the role of EUSPA. This includes the growth of participation in the conference as well as strategies to help the EU space sector evolve. The biggest take away is the push to prioritize the "user" and make them the focus of space activities moving forward. Tune in to hear more!

On-orbit servicing provider Astroscale, has contracted RHEATECH, part of engineering and solutions company RHEA Group, to provide the mission control system and operations automation for its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale Multiple Client (ELSA-M) servicer, the companies said. The partnership builds on the duo previous collaboration on the ELSA-d (ELSA-demonstrator) debris removal spacecraft. 

Our Space Café WebTalk “33 minutes with Paul Liias - Why should you go to Tallinn, Estonia in October?” Took place on Tuesday, 18th October. Paul is Head of Space Policy at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication. He created the Estonian Space Policy and Program 2020-2027 and he is currently working on Estonian national space legislation and a decentralized e-government solution for Space Traffic Management.

The space sector has completely changed in the past few years. France is now the driving force behind the European space sector (albeit more for its purposes rather than for shared European goals), and Germany, apparently distracted by national rearmament, is still determined to defend its ambitions, so as not to completely leave the ground to Paris. In the face of all this, what is Italy’s position? Further apart, it appears.

The European Space Agency-built (ESA) Ariane 6 heavy-lift launch system’s inaugural flight is only to be expected by Q4 2023 instead of the original plan of early 2023, ESA said. Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s Director General stressed however, that this was merely a planned date, which might have to be amended. Several key milestones will have to be achieved is a timely manner, for it to become reality, he added.

SSC has disclosed an agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) for data reception support of the Biomass satellite scheduled for launch in late 2023 to explore and gather vital data about the Earth’s forests.

Our Space Café WebTalk “33 minutes with Dennis Stone about the World Space Week 2022: An insight into space and sustainability” took place on Tuesday, 4th October. Dennis is a volunteer president of the World Space Week Association, the global coordinator of the UN-declared World Space Week