North America

The giant James Webb Space Telescope is on Arianespace’s launch manifest for the fourth quarter of this year, officials from the European launcher and the U.S. space agency said. The telescope could be shipped from the U.S. to French Guiana late August, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s science mission director, said at a virtual press briefing and mission update.

New Zealand is the 11th nation to sign NASA’s Artemis Accords, the country announced. New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta and the economic development minister Stuart Nash announced the government has agreed to join the Artemis Accords, launched by NASA, and now signed by eleven nations, the government said on its website. 

The U.S. space agency NASA has requested a $25 billion budget for 2022, the agency said. The budget request for the agency amounts to $24.8 billion, NASA said, $100 million more than requested in April. The largest single item in the budget is for Deep Space Exploration Systems, with $6.88 billion, NASA said.

In honor of this sacred experience and all of you who know me and have enrolled in this global vision, I, Dr. Moriba Jah have partnered with SpaceWatch.Global to run an exciting Space Café series: Moriba’s Vox Populi (Latin for “the people’s voice”)

Space is becoming increasingly congested. The European Space Agency (ESA) has estimated that there are currently 128 million pieces of debris smaller than 1cm, about 900,000 pieces of debris 1–10cm in length, and around 34,000 pieces larger than 10cm in Earth orbit. This is in addition to the approximately 3,300 currently operational satellites.

The European Space Agency (ESA) partners with the British Arqit – a leader in the quantum encryption field – to develop its quantum key distribution satellite QKDSat, the agency said. ArQit recently announced that it was merging with Centricus, a global investment firm, in a transaction expected to provide Arqit with up to €330 million in gross proceeds.

South Korea has become the 10th country to sign the Artemis Accords, NASA announced. The South Korean Minister of Science and ICT Lim Hyesook signed the Artemis Accords for the country in Seoul, the U.S. space agency said. South Korea joins Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, and the United States.

Lockheed Martin and General Motors join forces to design the next generation of lunar rovers, the companies said. “The new rovers will be capable of transporting astronauts across farther distances on the lunar surface.” They also "would be designed to survive and even operate in the two-week long night that sees temperatures of down to -280 degrees Fahrenheit".

Canada augments its investment in lunar exploration, the Canadian government and the country’s space agency said. Canada will invest $3 million in technology initiatives for lunar exploration through the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, announced.

The space computing startup Ramon.Space has raised $17.5 million in Series A funding, the company based in Palo Alto, California, said. The funding will be used to continue development of the company's computing solutions, support its rapidly expanding US and Israel operations, and expand the team globally, the company said.