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NASA announced that it will support the development of a second lunar lander to transport astronauts to and from the Moon’s surface to provide competition with SpaceX during the sustainable phase of the Artemis program. The agency will soon kick off the Sustaining Lunar Development award for a second lander separate from the existing Human Landing System (HLS).

Washington-based mobile connectivity company Kymeta, has signed a distribution partner agreement with OneWeb to offer satellite broadband services around the globe, Kymeta said. The agreement enables Kymeta to resell OneWeb services to government and commercial customers globally.

Expedition 66 Flight Engineers Raja Chari of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA spent 6 hours and 54 minutes outside the ISS during the 248th spacewalk to carry out preparations for an upcoming solar array installation. Maurer and Chari installed hoses on one of the six radiators that keep systems at the proper temperature.

Blue Origin announced that the sixth crew member to join New Shepard’s 20th mission will be New Shepard Senior Director and Chief Architect, Gary Lai. He joins Marty Allen, husband and wife duo Sharon and Marc Hagle, Jim Kitchen, and Dr. George Nield. Lai will be replacing Pete Davidson, who is no longer able to fly to the edge of space this time.

Defense products and technologies provider Leonardo DRS, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Global Enterprise Solutions (GES) business to connectivity provider SES, for US $450 million. The transaction has already been approved by the board of directors of both companies. 

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Josef Aschbacher, Director General at the European Space Agency (ESA) and as a special guest, Dr. Alexander Gerst, ESA Astronaut about "Ambitions for the future of Europe in Space - Agenda 2025"  live

Low Earth orbit satellite communications company OneWeb, announced it entered into an agreement with SpaceX to resume OneWeb’s satellite launch programme. The terms of the agreement are confidential. The first launch is scheduled for this year, adding to OneWeb’s 428-satellite in-orbit constellation, which makes up 66% of the fleet.

The critical mirror alignment steps of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are now complete and the team expects to meet or even exceed the optical performance science goals set for the space telescope, NASA said. Every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations, according to NASA.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop has rolled out for the first time for a final uncrewed test before the Artemis 1 Moon mission. It took 10 hours and 28 minutes for SLS and Orion to reach the launch pad four miles away from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 50th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast #050: Hansjörg Dittus, about Europe's Role in Space (an honest discussion). Hansjörg Dittus served for many years on the board of the German Aerospace Center. Against the backdrop of dramatic developments in the crisis with Russia,