Europe

Voyager Space and Airbus have completed the transaction to create Starlab Space LLC, a transatlantic joint venture that will design, build, and operate the Starlab commercial space station. Alongside the joint venture execution, the Starlab team completed the station-level System Definition Review (SDR), a critical milestone assessing the technical and programmatic accountability of the program.

Sustainability reporting SaaS company Earth Blox has announced its availability on Google Cloud Marketplace. The company provides customers with a scalable and customisable platform to rapidly assess climate and nature-related risks and impacts for millions of assets and facilities worldwide. Google Cloud Marketplace lets users quickly deploy functional software packages that run on Google Cloud and allows customers to easily start up a familiar software package with services like Compute Engine or Cloud Storage, with no manual configuration required.

Orbex has announced the appointment of two technology and space sector experts as its new CEO and Executive Chair. Scale-up expert Phillip Chambers will consequently be joining Orbex as its new Chief Executive Officer, and Miguel Belló Mora will be leaving his post as Director General of the Spanish Space Agency to join as Executive Chair.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present: The Space Café Podcast #97:  Building the perfect telescope: Giuseppe Racca and the Quest for the Dark Universe with ESA’s Euclid. In this engaging episode of the Space Cafe Podcast, Markus converses with Giuseppe Racca, the key figure behind the European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid mission. As a seasoned expert with extensive experience at ESTEC, Racca provides deep insights into the mission's goal to unravel the enigmatic forces of dark matter and dark energy. He discusses the challenges and triumphs of leading a major space exploration project and shares his passion for astrophysics and the pursuit of cosmic knowledge.

Maxar Space Systems has announced that the Ovzon 3 satellite has successfully launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and is performing as expected after launch. Maxar Space Systems manufactured the satellite for Ovzon at their Palo Alto, California, facility using its modular architecture platform. The satellite launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Jan 3, 2024.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has selected DCUBED as its first choice for space pin pullers for the critical Space Qualified Rover Lidar (SQRLi) Support project. The SQRLi project is a LIDAR engineering test unit with a 35m or greater range sensor array to provide a 40×40 field of view and operate under poor lighting conditions for rover-based missions and autonomous exploration of extreme environments like permanently shadowed lunar craters. 

As we close another remarkable year at SpaceWatch.Global, I want to take a moment to reflect on our journey through 2023, a year that has been both challenging and exhilarating in the world of space, space policy, space exploration and space technology. This year, we witnessed groundbreaking advancements and inspiring collaborations. From the launch of next-generation satellites that promise to revolutionize communication networks, to the deep-space missions that have brought us closer than ever to understanding the mysteries of our universe, 2023 has been a year of phenomenal achievements.

GPS signals that guide civilian aircraft in the Middle East and Ukraine are being jammed and spoofed, diverting flights and risking the safety of all onboard. Meanwhile, diplomats from 25 countries met again in Geneva to consider possible elements of a legally binding agreement to prevent an arms race in outer space (PAROS). Both situations arise from decades of unsuccessful diplomatic attempts to ensure that outer space – a shared, global environment on which the entire world depends – remains peaceful and available to all.

OHB System AG, a subsidiary of the space and technology group OHB SE, already selected as the project coordinator for ODIN'S EYE II, a space-based early warning system designed to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, has now been funded: the European Commission, along with the European Defence Fund (EDF), has signed a grant agreement providing EUR 90 million in funding for the project. An industrial consortium, led by Bremen's space experts and comprising 43 companies from 14 European member states, will contribute to the development

OHB System AG has successfully launched two reflector satellites of the SARah reconnaissance system from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launchpad SLC-4E at 14:11 CET and deployed its two passengers in space on schedule after a flight time of 25 minutes. Shortly afterwards, the operators received signals from the two satellites, kicking off the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP).