Europe

Arianespace has been awarded a launch contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) on behalf of the European Commission, to launch Sentinel-1C in the first half of 2023 on Vega-C, Arianespace said. The 2.3-tonne satellite, will be deployed in a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 690 km.

Astroscale received a funding award from ESA who have selected the company in the UK to lead a collision-avoidance study that is part of ESA’s Collision Risk Estimation and Automated Mitigation (CREAM) activities in the Space Safety Program.  The company's UK team will partner with GMV and OneWeb to develop methods and solutions for effective collision avoidance management

U.S. Space Command and the United Kingdom Space Command signed a Memorandum of Understanding concerning Enhanced Space Cooperation (ESC MoU). The agreement was signed at the 37th Space Symposium by U.S. Army Gen. James Dickinson, USSPACECOM Commander, and Royal Air Force Air Vice-Marshal Paul Godfrey, Commander of UKSpaceCom.

Space4Impact, EPFL’s Space Center eSpace, E2MC Ventures, and Space Innovation joined forces to launch an online course on the New Space Economy. The program is available on edX as a free EPFLx course. Learners can watch more than 30 video lectures by space experts from various domains within startups, academia, the private sector, and public institutions in Switzerland.

Digital transformation company Atos, and the European multi-national space technology company OHB, have been awarded a contract by the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support to supply the "Space Situational Awareness Center Expansion Stage 1" to the German Federal Armed Forces. 

Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) has signed a £22 million contract with Defence Equipment and Support on behalf of UK Space Command for a 150 kg satellite based on SSTL’s Carbonite+, SSTL said. The project is named TYCHE and it is the first satellite procurement for the MINERVA programme.

On the 31st of March Space Cafè GBA - China re-opened its doors, this time with a new format. Blaine Curcio, Senior Space Consultant and Space Tech expert from Euroconsult based in Hong Kong is back in the show, this time on the guest chair. During the 45 minutes live interview with co-hosts Torsten Kriening and Dr. Emma Gatti,

Polaris has secured a pre-series-A investment from the newly created Polaris Space Ventures (PSV) investment company, Polaris said. The investment enables the firm to increase the number of employees, as well as enlarge company facilities, and to prepare for rapid upscaling. 

SpaceX launched its Transporter-4 mission carrying 40 spacecraft, including CubeSats, microsats, picosats, non-deploying hosted payloads, and an orbital transfer vehicle to deploy spacecraft at a later time. The rideshare mission was the rocket booster’s seventh successful mission.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Ricardo Conde, President of the Portuguese Space Agency - Portugal Space, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. Portugal's Journey into Space. Ricardo Conde, 55 years old, is the father of two beautiful girls.