Europe

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and European Space Policy Institute and with permission, SpaceWatch.Global occasionally publishing select articles and briefs. This is ESPI Briefs” No. 24 Brexit and Space, published in: July 2018.

Researchers in Italy have demonstrated the feasibility of quantum communications between high-orbiting global navigation satellites and a ground station, with an exchange at the single photon level over a distance of 20,000km.

GomSpace has signed a 300,000 Euro (U.S.$341,000) development contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the initiation of a new GOMX-5 satellite mission to demonstrate new nanosatellite capabilities for the next generation of constellations requiring high speed communications links and high levels of manoeuvrability.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Political Affairs Office plays an integral and varied role in the organisation. Torsten Kriening was lucky enough to spend some time with Christina Giannopapa, Head of Political Affairs Office, Office Strategy Department, Director General’s Services, ESA, to find out more about her role and the intersection of political affairs and space.

An Arianespace medium-lift Soyuz launch vehicle transported the French CSO-1 reconnaissance satellite safely to orbit on 19 December 2018. This marked the third flight of Arianespace’s Soyuz and the launch was performed for France’s CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales) space agency and the DGA (Direction générale de l’armement) defence procurement agency, on behalf of the French Ministry of Defence.

e-GEOS, the geospatial information company that is a joint venture of Telespazio and the Italian Space Agency, has signed a contract with the Government of St. Lucia in the Caribbean for the provision of COSMO-SkyMed satellite data as part of an Early Warning System to help manage emergencies resulting from severe weather.

HyperScout-1, the first miniaturized hyperspectral imager for space, successfully demonstrated that it is possible to process the images that are gathered by a satellite on board. By knowing the position of the satellite and in which direction it points, the instrument knows what it is looking at and can interpret the data, thus eliminating the need to download the data.

In order to provide for the new wave of mega Ka-band satellite constellations, Celestia Technologies of Harwell, UK, has signed an €8m contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the development of next generation Gateway ground stations.

In an announcement made to the British Parliament on 18 December 2018, UK Secretary of State for Defence Gavin Williamson announced that a wide-ranging review of defence policy and capabilities that aims to prepare British armed forces for 21st Century warfare with peer powers is about to be concluded

Space Systems Loral (SSL), a subsidiary of Maxar Technologies, will build Ovzon’s first GEO satellite, Ovzon-3, that will significantly increase the performance and coverage area of its existing service.