North America

Paris, 13 April 2021. – Looking for another hero: Space Hero, “the World‘s first ever global casting show” for a trip to the International Space Station (ISS), signed an agreement with NASA for a feasibility study of a such a mission, Space Hero said. The agreement was signed at a significant date in human history, Space Hero said, as April 12, 2021 marks the 60th anniversary of the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin.

Paris, 13 April 2021. – The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded General Atomics, Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin as prime contractors to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system in 2025. The agency selected the industry team to design, develop and demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion system in space, above low Earth orbit, DARPA said.

by Blaine Curcio and Jean Deville As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “DFH Episode 8 – Chinese Space from a US Perspective (feat. Ian Christensen & Rob Ronci)", originally published 12 April 2021 here.

Two satellites from the OneWeb and Starlink constellations came dangerously close – as close as 60 meters – last week but could avoid a collision, The Verge reported. The Verge quoted representatives from the US Space Force and OneWeb who said that two satellites from the fast-growing constellations of OneWeb and SpaceX’s Starlink dodged a dangerously close approach with one another in orbit last weekend.

Not yet: NASA rescheduled Mars helicopter Ingenuity’s maiden flight to “no earlier than April 14”, the agency said. Based on data from the Ingenuity Mars helicopter that arrived late Friday night from a high-speed spin test of the rotors, NASA has chosen to reschedule the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s first experimental flight, NASA said.

The U.S. Government’s budget for fiscal year 2022 requests $24.7 billion for NASA, a 6.3 per cent increase compared to this year’s spending bill, the White House said. The President’s “discretionary request” includes $6.9 billion for NASA’s human exploration of Moon, Mars and beyond, an unspecified amount for its robotic exploration of the solar system

In this session of Space Cafè “Moriba’s Vox Populi #04” Dr. Moriba Jah talked about security concerns in near-earth space (mostly) and ideas on how we can develop operational protocols and practices to minimize misinterpretations that could lead to undesirable escalatory behaviours with Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Schrogl, Dr. Laura Grego, Artem Mokhnatkin, Dr Jinyuan Su,.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Joint Air Power Competence Centre, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “ Shortfalls in NATO’s Space Education”, originally published in the Joint Air Power Competence Centre Journal 31.

Join SpaceWatch.Global for an interesting and informative Space Café WebTalk featuring Theresa Hitchens, Space and Air Force reporter at Breaking Defense, Washington DC, USA.

Going private: The IoT specialist Orbcomm agreed to be acquired by the U.S. investment firm GI Partners, valuing the company at $1.1 billion, Orbcomm said. The Nasdaq-listed firm, a global provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, said it entered into a "definitive agreement" to be acquired, in an all-cash transaction, by GI Partners, a private investment firm based in San Francisco.