Europe

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening caught up with the Director of European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC)  and Director for International Affairs & SpaceResources.lu at the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) Dr. Mathias Link.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Johanna Bergström Roos, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. Rockets and Reindeers - a glimpse into Sweden's northernmost space region. Johanna Bergstrom-Roos is employed at LTU Business AB since October 2011 and is working with Kiruna base.

Nanoracks Europe announced preparations to deploy FEES2, the first-ever 0.3U CubeSat from the ISS. The trackable satellite, the thickness of a cherry, was developed by GP Advanced Projects (GPAP). Production and space projects management company GPAP called the mission a “major milestone towards building the first Italian nanosatellite constellation for IoT.”

ESA and French space agency, CNES, are exploring the possibility to create a European Space Transportation Hub, ESA said. The Hub is planned to be located in the Paris region. It would bring the main European actors in space transportation together in the same location.

Today is the launch of the Space Arbitration Association, an association that will focus on providing information and organizing events around the topics of space and international arbitration. The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in space activities, which are expanding not only into new fields such as space tourism but also increasingly involve commercial actors.

The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) announced the first of a series of six launches with two Galileo satellites per launch, from Spaceport Kourou. Galileo satellites 27 and 28 will be launched on-board of a Soyuz rocket on 2nd December.  EUSPA will be in charge of Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) operations which will be overseen by a team of specialists.

The French Exotrail delivers its electric propulsion system to OHB´s microsatellite Triton-X Heavy, the company said. Exotrail signed a contract with the Luxembourg-based satellite manufacturer OHB Luxspace for the integration of Exotrail’s high thrust and flexible electric propulsion product ExoMG into the Triton-X Heavy platform, the firm said.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Space Agency at DLR support Isar Aerospace with €11 million to provide launch services for institutional payloads, the Munich-based startup said. The contract includes the provision of launch services for institutional European payloads of up to 150 kg on the first two flights

James Webb Space Telescope’s launch date has been moved for the fourth time, to no earlier than 22nd December, NASA reported. The additional time will be used for further testing of the observatory, following a recent incident during launch preparations. Webb was previously scheduled to launch 18th December on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou.

OneWeb reported that one of their broadband satellites launched early last year suffered a software failure. The failed aircraft, orbiting at 1200 km, will be de-orbited. Other satellites in the fleet were successfully updated from the ground. OneWeb carried out 11 launches over the past year and currently has market access rights in 38 countries.