Europe

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Space4Impact, EPFL’s Space Center eSpace, E2MC Ventures, and Space Innovation joined forces to launch an online course on the New Space Economy, hosted on edX, Space4Impact announced. The program is already available as a free EPFLx course.  There are over 30 video lectures accessible for those who want to learn.

Two people have joined EnduroSat’s Advisory Board: Dr. Jan Wörner, to help in scaling the company’s space service and Kevin O’Connell to guide the deployment of the next generation space infrastructure, EnduroSat said. Dr. Wörner’s has previously had the role of chairman of the DLR’s (German Aerospace Center) executive board and was Jean-Jacques Dordain’s successor as Director General of ESA.

Bharti Enterprises, OneWeb’s largest shareholder said that bringing manufacturing into the UK would be problematic, despite the government’s ambitions to stimulate a domestic space industry. Sunil Bharti Mittal, chair of Bharti Enterprises, said that they would encourage the winner of the contract for OneWeb’s second-generation satellites to manufacture in the UK but there were no guarantees.

One of the largest research organisations in Europe, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) condemned Russia's hostile actions towards Ukraine and announced ceasing all collaboration activities with Russian institutions.  DLR employs staff from 96 different countries and is committed to engaging in international cooperation to benefit the industry.

Dr. Valanathan Munsami will be the International Space University’s (ISU) new honorary Chancellor, with a three-year mandate, the institute said. The ISU Chancellor is a representative of the university who participates in convocations, delivers special lectures, and advises the ISU President.

Arianespace is strictly abiding by the sanctions decided by the international community (EU, USA and UK) following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the company said. The operation of the Soyuz launcher from Europe’s Spaceport, French Guiana and from Baikonur, Kazakhstan through Starsem have been governed by the France-Russia inter-governmental, and the ESA–Roscosmos agreement. 

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening caught up with Emmanuelle David, the Executive Manager of EPFL Space Center (eSpace) and Dr Minoo Rathnasabapathy, a Research Engineer within the Space Enabled Research Group at the MIT Media Lab.

The first-ever Space Café Austria took place on Thursday, 24th of February. Guest Andrea Kleinsasser, Deputy Head of the Department of Space Affairs at the Federal Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, shared her personal experience and insight outside of her work for the government into Austria’s role and engagement at UN COPUOS.

Romania became the 16th nation to sign the Artemis Accords for cooperation in space exploration. Marius-Ioan Piso, President and CEO of the Romanian Space Agency, signed the document on behalf of the country in Bucharest. The NASA-led Artemis Accords are a set of non-binding commitments, based on the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.