Europe

In this  Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Kristina Nikolaus, CEO & Co-Founder at OKAPI:Orbits,  at the 14TH IAA SYMPOSIUM ON SMALL SATELLITES FOR EARTH SYSTEM OBSERVATION, organized by the German Aerospace Center, Institute for Solar-Terrestrial Physics, TU Berlin and Berlin Partners in May 2023 in Berlin.

Satellite Vu, the UK climate tech company, has announced its Series A2 of £12.7m, bringing its total investment to £30.5m in Venture Capital funding. The funding will help the Company accelerate its mission to provide sustainable solutions to global issues. Molten Ventures led the round, with participation from Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC, A/O Proptech, Lockheed Martin, Ridgeline Ventures, Earth Sciences Foundation, and Stellar Ventures - all existing investors.

The European Council has adopted conclusions on the ‘Fair and sustainable use of space’, which includes a call for a European approach to space traffic management at a time when orbits are increasingly congested with space objects.

OneWeb and Arctic Space Technologies have announced a leap forward in the construction of the OneWeb Satellite Network Portal (SNP), a hyperscale satellite ground station installation at the Arctic Space Technologies’ Space Center in Piteå. The companies signed a bilateral agreement in December of 2022 and have now finalized the detailed design work as well as obtained all approvals for the construction of the SNP. As a result,  the agreement will see the installation and operationalization of 27 satellite tracking antennas by Q3 2023.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and ICEYE have signed a letter of intent to empower entrepreneurship and encourage the development of commercially viable and sustainability-minded space solutions. The collaboration falls under the ESA Partnership Initiative for Commercialization (EPIC) and targets companies which the ESA Business Incubation Centers (ESA BICs), ESA Technology Brokers and ESA Φ-labNET support. 

Arabsat has launched its Airbus-built Badr-8 telecommunications satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Based on Airbus’ latest geostationary Eurostar Neo satellite, Badr-8 will provide connectivity for users across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia.

Directly after the closing ceremony of GLOC 2023, Torsten Kriening spoke with Christian Hauglie-Hanssen, Director General of the Norwegian Space Agency and host of the event, about his spontaneous recap.

After the GLOC 2023 in Oslo, the SpaceWatch.Global team, Dr. Emma Gatti, Remco Timmermans and Torsten Kriening used the unique opportunity to talk with CGTV Space Reporter Wu Lei.

As the third day of GLOC 2023 comes to an end, SpaceWatch.Global Dr Emma Gatti spoke with BBC Journalist and moderator of the first day at the conference, Ru Abbas Kermani about the event and space communication in general.

On day 3 of GLOC 2023 in Oslo, Torsten Kriening had teh opportunity to talk to Dr. Agnieszka Lukaszczyk of Planet about the conference, the data, solutions and capabilities that her companies offer to act against climate change now!