North America

Paris, 12 January 2021. – Ten is okay: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted SpaceX to launch ten Starlink satellites into polar orbit. SpaceX had requested to operate nearly 350 satellites in lower orbit and modify its licenses accordingly; the FCC deferred that part of the application. “(W) …

Paris, 12 January 2021. – More power: Boeing provides six more solar arrays to the International Space Station (ISS) to increase the orbiting laboratory’s power supply, the company said. The modification to Boeing’s ISS sustainment contract with NASA calls for Boeing to deliver six additional solar arrays to NASA for …

Join SpaceWatch.Global for an interesting and informative Space Café WebTalk featuring Dr. Peter Martinez, Executive Director of the Secure World Foundation, USA. This event will take place on 26 January 2021 at 4:00 pm CET. Growth and Sustainability in Space – ensuring the long-term usability of Earth’s orbits and beyond: …

Paris, 11 January 2021. – One and One is two: Airbus will build two OneSat satellites for Intelsat, the company announced last Friday. Airbus signed a contract with Intelsat to build two OneSat satellites operating in multiple frequency bands for Intelsat’s next-generation software-defined network, Airbus said. The contract was signed …

by Dr. Darren McKnight, Centauri Space traffic management (STM) is an enabler for reliable, safe space operations – the real objective that the global space community needs to rally around during this unprecedented growth of space system deployments and growth in orbital debris. [See Endnote 1] In developing STM solutions, …

In this week’s Space Cafè WebTalk,  Doug Loverro, President at Loverro Consulting, Virgina, USA talked about his feature: “Rethinking the Inevitable: Why We Need to Stop Hoping, and Prepare for Space Warfare”, published on SpaceWatch.Global. For decades the international community has tried, and failed, to achieve agreement on treaties aimed at preventing war …

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Prof. Steven Freeland, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. This is “‘War in space’ would be a catastrophe. A return to rules-based cooperation is the only way to keep space peaceful”, originally published 30 November 2020 at …

Paris, 6 January 2021. – Rocket Lab, the small satellite launcher, will dedicate its first Electron mission of the new year to OHB, the company said. The OHB mission named ‘Another One Leaves the Crust’ is scheduled for lift-off during a 10-day launch window opening on January 16th, Rocket Lab …

Paris, 5 January 2021. – After three-and-a-half years of service as Executive Secretary of the White House National Space Council, Scott Pace left and returned to George Washington University, spacepolicyonline.com reported. Pace was Director of the Space Policy Institute at GWU’s Elliott School of International Affairs before being tapped by …

by Doug Loverro In the not-so-distant future, some country’s leader will be forced to answer the following question – will they passively allow the citizens and military forces of their nation to be targeted, with impunity, by the space forces of an adversary nation?  Will they countenance thousands of sailors …