Europe

Russian space agency, Roscosmos, has suspended launch operations from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and is recalling its technical personnel as a response to EU sanctions towards Russia. Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Space, stated that the decision had no consequences “on the continuity and quality of the Galileo and Copernicus services.”

On 23 February 2022, Niklas Nienaß, Member of the European Parliament for the Greens/EFA rolled out an initiative for setting a coherent space legislation in Europe. Based on a study of five independent experts, coordinated by Kai-Uwe Schrogl with Irmgard Marboe, Jean-Francois Mayence, Lucien Rapp and Jenni Tapio (see their report Towards European Legislation for Space Activities),

In this Space Café Radio – on tour in Brussels at the 14th European Space Conference in the Egmont Palace, SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Cafe Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Will Marshall, Co-Founder and CEO of Planet, about the European green space initiative, satellites in orbit and sustainability as company purpose.

Although the sustainability of all future space activities depends on the development of In-Orbit Servicing (IoS), there is currently no official or universal definition of IoS, sometimes also referred to as in-space services and on-orbit services. The European Space Policy Institute’s In-Orbit Services report mentions that IoS operations comprise mainly three activities

The first Space Café Scotland by Angela Mathis of 2022 took place on Friday, 18th February interviewing Alan Thompson, Head of Government Affairs at Skyrora, exploring what the company does with regards to space sustainability and how it helps to advance the UK, and the Scottish space sector in particular.

In this Space Café Radio – on tour in Brussels at the 14th European Space Conference in the Egmont Palace, SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Cafe Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Alexander Gerst, ESA Astronaut about the current situation of human space flights and his views on the conference.

This Space Café BeNeLux will feature Dr. Mindy Howard, in conversation with Chiara Moenter, event coordinator at SpaceWatch.Global and her co-host of Space Cafe BeNeLux, Banoe Barzingi. The audience will have an opportunity to ask questions in dialogue with Dr. Mindy Howard.

Thales Alenia Space has signed a €1 million study contract with ESA for a payload concept to extract oxygen from Moon rock.  In order for humans to establish a sustainable Moon habitat, lunar resources will have to be utilized rather than transporting these from Earth. Such resources include water and oxygen among others. 

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening had the opportunity chance to speak with Dr Anna Christmann – a German politician and Coordinator for Aerospace Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, serving under the country’s new Chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Dr Christmann previously studied at the Universities of Heidelberg and Bern,

In this Space Café Radio, Space Cafe Italy Host Dr. Emma Gatti and Space Cafe Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Dr. Andreas Wittmer, Managing Director of the Center for Aviation Competence at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland about the upcoming Space for Business course and the need for more and better education in the space sector.