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In this Space Café Radio – on tour in Brussels at the 14th European Space Conference in the Egmont Palace, SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Cafe Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Will Marshall, Co-Founder and CEO of Planet, about the European green space initiative, satellites in orbit and sustainability as company purpose.

Although the sustainability of all future space activities depends on the development of In-Orbit Servicing (IoS), there is currently no official or universal definition of IoS, sometimes also referred to as in-space services and on-orbit services. The European Space Policy Institute’s In-Orbit Services report mentions that IoS operations comprise mainly three activities

The Australian Federal Government announced its Space Infrastructure Fund of AU $65 million, which was welcomed by Southern Launch, as the country’s only licensed company with launch facilities. The announcement confirms that Australia wants to establish a vibrant space launch capability.

Intelsat announced that it has emerged from its financial restructuring process as a private company with a strengthened capital structure to support its growth in the satellite communications market. The company managed to reduce its debt from approximately US $16 billion to US $7 billion.

The first Space Café Scotland by Angela Mathis of 2022 took place on Friday, 18th February interviewing Alan Thompson, Head of Government Affairs at Skyrora, exploring what the company does with regards to space sustainability and how it helps to advance the UK, and the Scottish space sector in particular.

In this Space Café Radio – on tour in Brussels at the 14th European Space Conference in the Egmont Palace, SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Cafe Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Alexander Gerst, ESA Astronaut about the current situation of human space flights and his views on the conference.

This Space Café BeNeLux will feature Dr. Mindy Howard, in conversation with Chiara Moenter, event coordinator at SpaceWatch.Global and her co-host of Space Cafe BeNeLux, Banoe Barzingi. The audience will have an opportunity to ask questions in dialogue with Dr. Mindy Howard.

Thales Alenia Space has signed a €1 million study contract with ESA for a payload concept to extract oxygen from Moon rock.  In order for humans to establish a sustainable Moon habitat, lunar resources will have to be utilized rather than transporting these from Earth. Such resources include water and oxygen among others. 

Rocket Lab USA has completed Pad B, its second orbital launch pad at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and the company’s third dedicated pad for the Electron rocket. The new launch site’s first mission will be a dedicated commercial launch for Japanese Earth-imaging company Synspective in four days, Rocket Lab said.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening had the opportunity chance to speak with Dr Anna Christmann – a German politician and Coordinator for Aerospace Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, serving under the country’s new Chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Dr Christmann previously studied at the Universities of Heidelberg and Bern,