North America

Share My Space, a space situational awareness (SSA) company, and Hiscox, a global insurance provider with a legacy in the space sector, announced on the 5th of July a collaboration through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The partnership aims to enhance cooperation in the space industry and tackle the challenges caused by the increasing number of satellites and collision risks. 

In this  Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Niklas Nienass, Member of the European Parliament for The Greens/ European Free Alliance, about GLOC - the Global Space Conference on Climate Change in Oslo in May 2023 and about the challenges in climate change where space can be part of the solution. They also covered the current status of the European Space Law and the new study about life-cycle assessments for space missions.

The European Space Agency has launched the Euclid Space Telescope, an orbital telescope built to shed light on mysterious cosmic phenomena known as dark energy and dark matter. The space telescope launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, United States of America. The mission has cost about $1.4 billion and has a design lifespan of about six years. Furthermore, the Agency expects it to transform astrophysics and potentially the understanding of the very nature of gravity itself.

Virgin Galactic has successfully completed its inaugural commercial spaceflight from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The Galactic 01 spaceflight carried 13 research payloads and three crew members from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy. The spaceflight took off at 8:30 am MT (14:30 GMT), rising to an altitude at release at 44,500 feet. The flight's apogee was 52.9 miles, the top speed was Mach 2.88, and the landing time was 9:42 am MT (15:42 GMT).

As today, June 30, is International Asteroid Day, Test and Radiation (TRAD) is taking the opportunity to look back at its contribution to the DART mission. DART, or Double Asteroid Redirection Test, was a C-class mission of NASA. It was the very first mission dedicated to the study and demonstration of an asteroid deflection method. Furthermore, the mission's objective was to evaluate the use of a spacecraft's kinetic impact to modify the asteroid's trajectory so that it avoids the Earth.

AIRMO, an American start-up providing close to real-time data on CH4 and CO2 emissions, announced its pre-seed round of €5.2 million. The round consists of money from investors as well as a €3.7 million contract by the European Space Agency through its InCubed co-funding program run by the ESA Φ-lab. This pre-seed round will enable AIRMO to launch its first of twelve satellites into orbit. 

Our Space Café “33 minutes with Kevin O’Connell – from zombie statistics to the trillion-dollar space economy” took place on Tuesday, 27th June. Kevin O’Connell has had a diverse career in many sectors in commerce and intelligence. He has spent over three decades working on space commercialisation, including in his role as the Director of the Office of Space commerce with the US Department of Commerce. 

Earth Blox, a Scottish geospatial platform for businesses and financial institutions, announced on the 27th of June that it has joined the Google Cloud Partner Advantage program as a technology partner and authorised Google Earth Engine trainer. The collaboration provides Google Cloud customers with climate and nature analytics to accelerate their sustainability transition and meet regulatory requirements. 

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson led a ribbon cutting ceremony on the 21st of June to showcase a new Earth Information Center at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The centre is partly a physical space as well as a virtual experience that will show how NASA can improve lives in the face of disasters, environmental challenges and our changing world. 

Virgin Galactic has announced the four-person crew and target date for its Galactic-01 commercial spaceflight. The three-person crew from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy will board VSS Unity for a 90-minute flight to conduct a series of suborbital science experiments.