Europe

Back in the 70’s, the Japanese space agency JAXA run an experiment called the Japanese Cat's Whisker Experiment. It took place aboard Skylab between May 1973 and February 1974, the same year Pink Floyd released “The Dark Side of the Moon”. Contrary to what you might think, it did not involve cats.

The European Union Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA), under the auspices of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of European Union, is organizing the 2023 edition of the EU Space Week. The event will hold from 7-9 November 2023, and it will bring together the EU Space community showcasing the latest updates on the EU Space Program. The event is also a unique opportunity to get an up-close look at how European businesses – and society in general – benefit from the EU Space Program.

Kleos Space, a Luxembourg based space-powered defence and intelligence technology company has commenced bankruptcy proceedings. The company announced its mandated broker could not secure the necessary commitments to progress a converting note facility previously announced to the market on the 6th June 2023. As a result, the loans and other accrued amounts were made due immediately. 

A project led by the University of Oxford has trained a machine learning model in outer space, on board a satellite. A group of researchers led by DPhil student Vit Růžička participated in the project. During 2022, the team successfully pitched their idea to the ‘Dashing through the Stars’ mission, which had issued a call for project proposals to be carried out on board the ION SCV004 satellite, launched in January 2022.  

Nokia Bell Labs is deploying the first cellular network on the Moon to demonstrate that cellular technologies can provide the critical communications needs for future lunar or Martian missions. This is because NASA selected Nokia to participate in its Tipping Point initiative, which seeks industry-developed space technologies that can foster the development of commercial space capabilities and benefit future NASA missions.

Stellar, a mobility-driven, deep-tech, and sustainable connectivity company uniting cellular, Wi-Fi, and satellite, has successfully gathered data on the thousands of kilometers of Tour de France 2023 routes. The Company did this as part of its connectivity mapping product "streets." Through this, Stellar has been monitoring and assessing the true quality of the internet while traveling.

Leaf Space, a global provider of ground segment services for satellite operators, announced on the 26th July that it has successfully completed a capital increase for a total of €20 million on top of the availability by the European Investment Bank of a loan for a further €15 million through Venture Debt.  

Astrocast, a satellite IoT operator, has announced the extension of its partnership with Airbus Defence and Space (Airbus) to enhance the capabilities of satellite Internet of Things (SatIoT) technology. As a result, it enables Astrocast to further increase its network capacity to provide the most reliable and cost-effective SatIoT solutions to its customers.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Spire Global a €16 million phased contract for the EURIALO project. The project will develop the preliminary design and demonstrator for a global space-based independent aircraft surveillance system. It is part of ESA’s program of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) in its Directorate of Connectivity and Secure Communications.

The finals of the 2023 European Rover Challenge (ERC 2023) will happen from 15-17 September, as 25 of the world's best student teams from 12 countries will present their rovers in the robotics competition finals. The ERC 2023 program will also include interesting interdisciplinary debates on space exploration and the opportunity to experience state-of-the-art robotic solutions