Europe

This Space Café BeNeLux will feature Dr. Harald Hauschildt, ARTES ScyLight Programme Manager at European Space Agency - ESA, in conversation with Dr. Heike Poignand, Founder of C43B - Consulting for Business Building, and a friend of SpaceWatch.Global. Will Optical and Quantum Communications Be the Future of Space?

D-Orbit has secured four multi-million contracts under the framework of Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). These contracts represent a great opportunity for the Company to take part in national projects that will mark historical milestones in the space sector and cooperate with some of the most renowned and innovative Italian companies in the industry.

The European Space Agency, Airbus Defence and Space, OHB SE, and Thales Alenia Space have announced they are committed to promoting the safety and long-term sustainability of space operations. 

In this  Space Café Radio -  SpaceWatch.Global team's Dr. Emma Gatti and Torsten Kriening spoke with Susie Perez Quinn, NASA's Chief of Staff, Dr. Karen St. Germain,  NASA's Division Director of the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate, and Dr. Kate Calvin, NASA's Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor. The episode was recorded in Oslo during GLOC -  Global Space Conference on Climate Change.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Kevin O’Connell, Founder and CEO, Space Economy Rising, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, Publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. As strategic and economics conditions change, there are healthy questions about the speed and direction of the future space economy. What are the underlying factors driving the space economy, and how can we distinguish between hype and real drivers?

Reflex Aerospace, a Munich and Berlin-based startup specializing in the design and manufacture of advanced satellites, has signed Media Broadcast Satellite (MBS) as its first commercial customer. This strategic partnership will leverage Reflex’s satellite manufacturing expertise to support MBS in delivering cutting-edge space technology. Furthermore, the launch is tentatively in 2024 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, marking a significant milestone in achieving both companies’ ambitious goals.

PLD Space, a Spanish company that designs, develops, and manufactures micro launchers, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Arianespace, a European space transportation operator. 

The ERC 2023 has announced that they will feature 88 university teams from Canada, Japan, Great Britain, Switzerland, India, Poland, Italy, Turkey, and Mexico. Teams across five continents have joined the competition, 54 will participate in person for the world’s largest track mapping the surface of the Red Planet, and 34 will participate online in a remote formula.

Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), a German launch service provider, has signed a binding term sheet with the French space agency CNES to offer its launch services from the Kourou Space Centre (CGS) in French Guiana. RFA will launch from the ELM-Diamant launch complex in 2025.

Finnish Earth observation Company Kuva Space has received a five-year commercial contract worth €5M from the European Space Agency (ESA) to be the world’s sole provider of hyperspectral data services for the European Commission’s Copernicus Contributing Missions (CCM) program. As a result, Kuva Space will demonstrate its technological capabilities to monitor farming and aquaculture crops, forests, methane release, and harmful algae blooms in seas and coastal areas.