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The Maldives hosted its first ever space conference last month. The Space for Island Nations Conference 2023, or ‘SINC’ for short. Of course the name ‘SINC’ was chosen with a wink. Small island nations are in trouble. As the flattest country on Earth (an average of 1.2 metres above sea level and only 0.4% of land area), the threat posed to the Maldives by climate change has been known for decades.

On the 1st of June following the opening session of  the European Navigation Conference (ENC) the main procurement batch of Galileo Second Generation initiated last summer has been finalised. The system is ready for its In Orbit Validation development phase.

The Pentagon has announced on the 1st of June that it has agreed to purchase Starlink satellite internet terminals from SpaceX for use in Ukraine. The Pentagon has declined to offer additional contract details, including the price, scope and timeline of the delivery. 

Pixxel has announced $36 Million in a Series B funding round with participation from new investors such as Google, along with existing investors Radical Ventures, Lightspeed, Blume Ventures, growX, Sparta, and Athera. The new funds will advance Pixxel’s mission to build the world’s first and highest-resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation, delivering actionable climate insights on a planetary scale. It will also help further the development of Aurora: Pixxel’s AI-powered analytics platform to make hyperspectral analysis accessible for everyone.

Viasat Inc., a global communications company, has announced the completion of its acquisition of Inmarsat. The combined company enhances its scale and scope to continue to drive growth in the increasingly dynamic and competitive satellite communications industry. In addition, the company’s assets, once fully integrated, will tentatively increase the pace and scope of innovation in the global satellite connectivity sector. Furthermore, it will offer new and better capabilities to customers that will address the ever-increasing speed, flexibility, reliability, coverage, and security they demand.

In this  Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global Editor in Chief Dr. Emma Gatti spoke with Savino Ruà,  International Relations Officer at DG DEFIS (European Commission) and  Cecilia Donati, Policy Officer Digital and Space for Development at DG INTPA (European Commission) about the recent NewSpace Africa Conference 2023, which took place in Abidjan, in the Ivory Coast, between the 26th and 27th of April 2023.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and ESA announced on the 31st of May that they have opened the third round of applications for the Fellowship Programme on the Large Diameter Centrifuge Facility Hypergravity Experiment Series (HyperGES).

MDA Ltd., a provider of advanced technology and services to the global space industry, has announced it is working with Thoth Technology Inc. (Thoth) to create a made-in-Canada deep space radar surveillance and space domain awareness (SDA) capability. A strategic cooperation agreement will integrate MDA's commercial data services with Thoth's ground-based radar technology to provide unprecedented levels of sovereign monitoring in deep space over Canada, providing both detection and characterization of space objects.

On December 6, 2021, GomSpace and UK partner, RAL Space, signed a contract with ESA for the Scout-1 Mission for climate observation, known as CubeMap. During the past year, the parties have been working on completing the scope and requirement specifications. However, after several negotiations between ESA, GomSpace, and UK partner RAL Space,

Asteroid day will take place on the 30th of June in Luxembourg, and it will be live streamed on several digital platforms. The event is recognised by the United Nations, and is part of a programme by the Luxembourg-based Asteroid Foundation.