Europe

“The first ever lunar communications & navigation service”: Europe pushes ahead with its plan to place communication and navigation satellites around the Moon. Under its Moonlight initiative, the European Space Agency (ESA) supports two consortia of European companies which embark on the design of telecommunications and navigation services for Moon missions.

The European space start-up Pangea Aerospace said it raised €3 million to develop and test its low-cost, 3D printed and reusable aerospike rocket engine. The company founded in 2018 and based in Barcelona announced the completion of its Series Seed round of €3 million, bringing the total funding to more than €6 million, including public financing.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and The Strategist, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles. This is “SpaceX’s reusable rocket technology will have implications for Australia” by Malcolm Davis, originally published on 18 May 2021.

Lighter, less expensive and reusable: the European Space Agency (ESA) signed two contracts with ArianeGroup to develop the reusable low-cost Prometheus engine and the lighter Ariane 6 upper stage called Phoebus. The contracts have a value of €135 million and €14.6 million respectively.

by Maija Lönnqvist, You may know Finland from its stable society, digitalization, innovativeness, even from being the world’s happiest nation, but did you know that Finland is also a rising star in space activities? Recent years have seen the first Finnish satellites, revision of the national space strategy

by Ronald van der Breggen A second-generation LEO has been in operation for years. Why are we only now launching our first generation? Recently I got an email with people referring to various LEO systems and they were classified into being either first or second or third generation. It was interesting because their definitions were different from mine

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Prof. Thomas Schildknecht, Director of Swiss Optical Ground Station and Geodynamics Observatory Zimmerwald and Vice-Director of Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern, Switzerland, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global.

Young people are the future:  On the 12th of May 2021, the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) released a Lunar Governance Report outlining the ideas and proposals of the young generations for the inclusive, effective and adaptive regulation of lunar activities. The Report is accessible online and is accompanied by an Executive Summary and a Lunar Manifesto.

Mynaric and SpaceLink join forces to use Mynaric’s laser communication product portfolio on SpaceLink’s data relay network. The cooperation has a volume of $20 million, SpaceLink said, and will help drive forward its satellite relay service, which provides secure, continuous, high-capacity communications between LEO spacecraft and the ground.

The research and development group Space Applications Services has been mandated by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop and deliver three reactors to produce oxygen from lunar soil, the group said. Space Applications said it will lead eight European companies and R&D institutes