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Orbex announced that Orbex LP1, the first rocket launchpad constructed in the UK for more than 50 years, is now in place at the Orbex test site in Kinloss, Scotland. LP1 was manufactured by a Scottish company specialising in marine and lifting equipment, the Motive Offshore Group. The new launchpad was built and tested to meet strict international standards.

The European Commission announced a number of initiatives in areas critical for defence and security within the European Union. These comprise the conventional defence industry and equipment on land, sea, air, cyber, hybrid and space threats. The Commission’s aim is to strengthen the Union's ability to counter fast-changing multi-layered threats.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 48th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast #048: Martin Wezowski, Chief Futurist at SAP - Thoughts for New Space. For all its glamor, enthusiasm and optimism, the new space industry has some serious homework to do. To have a future, what is happening in space now must not sound too much like the past.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and the European Space Policy Institute, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and briefs. This is ESPI Briefs No. 52: ‘European Space Summit 2022 – What is at stake? ’, originally published in August 2021.

There are currently more than 11,000 satellites in LEO and GEO, and only about 3,000 of those are active, this means that there are over 8,000 deactivated satellites. But space is booming, and in 2020 the world registered the highest number of satellites launched per year, with a record of 1,283 which represents 42% of all active satellites now in orbit.

Founder and CEO of Shift4, Jared Isaacman, announced the Polaris Program, a first-of-its-kind effort to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities, while continuing to raise funds and awareness for important causes on Earth. The program consists of three manned spaceflight missions demonstrating new technologies, conducting research, and concluding with SpaceX’s first human Starship flight.

The first set of images taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows that the spacecraft’s primary mirror is performing as expected as it initiated its seven-step alignment process of 18 individual mirror segments. The mirror segments need to work together as a single optical surface to produce high-precision images.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Dr. Anna Christmann, Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. European Space Summit 2022 - A Review from the German Perspective

In this Space Café Radio – on tour in Brussels at the European Commission, SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Cafe Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Niklas Nienass, German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens and Member of the European Parliament about the need for space sustainability, international and national space strategies, and the need for space legislation.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 7 – 13 February 2022. Welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Space Updates! I’m Jean Deville, joined as always by my co-host Blaine Curcio.