Europe

In June 2021, ESA and the EU signed a new Financial Framework Partnership Agreement for a new EU space programme. This agreement represents an EU investment of almost €9 billion in the period of 2021 to 2027, adding to ESA's current budget of $6.49 billion to continue the programmes defined by ESA’s Member States. According to the European Space Agency,

SpaceWatch.Global has been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. This is “Cyberspace and outer space are new frontiers for national security, according to an expert report”, originally published 13 August 2021 at The Conversation by Steven Freeland, Danielle Ireland-Piper, Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Jonathan Crowe, Samuli Haataja, Wendy Bonython.

The South Korean technology and manufacturing conglomerate Hanwha Systems buys an 8.8% share in OneWeb for $300 million, the London-based satellite operator said. Hanwha brings further defence capabilities and the latest antenna technologies to OneWeb, alongside relationships to new government customers and expanded geographical reach, OneWeb said.

Arianespace is planning to launch the optical observation satellite Pléiades Neo 4 and four other passengers on a Vega rocket on 16 August, the company said. Pléiades Neo 4 is the second very high-resolution satellite part of the new Airbus Defence and Space’s Earth Observation constellation.

Solar Orbiter is the ESA/NASA mission launched on February 10, 2020, meant to observe the polar regions of the Sundown to 0.28 AU distance (42 million kilometres). It carries 10 instruments to investigate how our Star generates and controls the heliosphere. 

UK companies and research organisations can apply for up to a £200,000 funding to develop technologies and data processing capabilities to help reduce space debris. Orbital congestion and space debris have become infrastructure and potentially life-threatening problems. About 95% of the objects tracked orbiting our planet is space junk.

The start-up company Astrolight has performed its first long-range ground test of its mobile optical ground station for LEO satellites. The news comes after KSAT and Astelco Systems announced building an industrialized optical ground station in Greece last year.

The space-based data and analytics provider Spire Global will provide radio occultation satellite data to Eumetsat, the company said. Eumetsat, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites – is a satellite agency which gathers, and gives access to, accurate and reliable satellite data on weather, climate, and the environment.

After a much-deserved summer break, during this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher, Torsten Kriening caught up with Chief Executive of Singapore Space & Technology and “this century’s role model for space”, Lynette Tan to talk about Singapore’s role in space and her company’s commercial vision.

Ispace raised nearly €39 million in a Series C funding round, with Incubate Fund as the lead investor, the Japanese startup said. The new round brings ispace’s cumulative total funding to approximately €84.5 million, ispace said, including past Series B, Series A and seed investment, as well as its existing and new bank loan financing announced in June 2021.