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Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), provider of space-ground network and Earth observation (EO) services, has opened a new Ka-band antenna at its Antarctic station Troll, the company said. The antenna is part of the KSATlite network and will augment KSAT's Ka-band polar network to eight antennas by the end of the year, the company said.

Double quantum, different quantums: Eutelsat’s Quantum, the first in a new generation of software-defined satellites, will be launched on 27 July from Kourou while SES said it pushes a Luxembourgish consortium to develop a super secure quantum key distribution system.

ArianeGroup in Germany will develop a new, optional kick-stage for Ariane 6 called Astris, the company announced. The new, additional stage will “further increase the versatility of Ariane 6 and enhance performance for new types of mission”. ArianeGroup was picked as prime contractor by the European Space Agency (ESA). The contract is worth €90 million.

Masten Space Systems, the Californian Moon and Mars mission specialist, will develop a positioning and navigation network for the Moon, the company said. Masten was awarded a Phase II contract, through the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, “to develop and demonstrate a lunar positioning and navigation network prototype”, the company founded in 2004 said.

This piece describes the challenges posed by the increasing proliferation of orbital space debris, as well as debris falling back to Earth. It describes how a ‘business as usual’ case going forward threatens to result in outer space becoming less accessible and navigable, thus compromising future space activities. It describes the existing legal and governance frameworks that has been developed

As the leading analytics and consulting company focusing on the African space and satellite industry, Space in Africa has released the African Space Industry Annual Report, 2021 Edition. The report was built on the two previous editions to analyse space activities across the continent, industry dynamics, and trends,

Thales Alenia Space and Hellas Sat demonstrated the operation of a 5G satellite-backhauled network in Greece, Thales said. The experiment consisted in backhauling the connection between a 5G core network and the Hellas Sat 3 / Inmarsat S EAN satellite, Thales said.

The U.S. space agency NASA and Northrop Grumman of Dulles, Virginia, concluded their contract to develop the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) for the Moon gateway, NASA said. As part of NASA’s Artemis program, HALO will be a critical way station and outpost in the orbit around the Moon. The firm, fixed-price contract is valued at $935 million, NASA said.

LEOcloud and Ramon.Space partner to build a satellite-hosted cloud, the companies announced. They entered into a partnership to develop satellite-hosted cloud edge computing capabilities for commercial, government and military customers, the companies said.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and ERC Space and Robotic Events, we have been granted permission to publish content regarding the European Rover Challenge 2021. We are pleased to present “European Rover Challenge 2021 with two formulas and a Martian volcano”.