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Airbus Defence and Space has won the next phase of the study contract (Advanced B2) from the European Space Agency (ESA) for the advanced Sample Fetch Rover which will be used to collect samples from the surface of Mars.

by Sara M. Langston, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityOn May 30, 2020, millions of Americans watched the inaugural SpaceX Crew Dragon launch NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. This mission marked two significant events: First, the return of launch to orbit capability for human spaceflight from the United States.

Australia is increasingly keen on greater independence in spaceflight. The University of Queensland and Gilmour Space are moving forward on a domestically-made “next-generation” hybrid rocket that could start launching satellites into low Earth orbit in 2022.

Edinburgh-based Skyrora successfully launched its Skylark Nano rocket from remote land, the Fethaland Peninsula at North Roe on the Scottish island on Saturday, the 13th of June.

The Luxembourg Space Agency regrettably announced that due to COVID-19, they have decided to postpone the Luxembourg Space Resources Week originally scheduled on October 5-9, 2020 to April 19-23, 2021.

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. 38: ‘In-Orbit Servicing: Challenges and Implications of an Emerging Capability’, originally published in February 2020.

The Commission announced 16 pan-European defence industrial projects and three disruptive technology projects that will benefit from €205 million financing through the two precursor programmes of a fully-fledged European Defence Fund: the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) and the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP).

A private rocket from a Japanese firm, Interstellar Technologies, failed to launch on Sunday.  At 5:15 a.m. on Sunday in the town of Taiki-cho, Hokkaido, the Interstellar rocket, "Momo-F5", experienced an anomaly approximately 68-70 seconds after launch.

Australia’s first Mission Control Centre is one step closer to lift off with local company Saber Astronautics chosen to establish the state-of-the-art space hub in Adelaide.

The Digital Earth Africa (DE Africa) platform now has operational analysis-ready Earth observation (EO) data over Africa, using free and open images captured by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel-2 satellites.