Region

by Steven Freeland and Francois Lambert. Later this month, on 26 June, a flurry of companies will make their final bids to acquire OneWeb, Greg Wyler’s prised space start-up. The winning bidder could be a private company, perhaps backed by a major space power. Whoever is successful will have the opportunity to make a tremendous impact on the future ‘NewSpace’ model that is operating in a significant area of commercial competition – Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

In this week’s Space Cafe Web Talk, Dr. Regina Peldszus and Marc Becker, of DLR Space Administration discussed the concept of dual use – how space technologies enable both civilian and military applications – and highlighted key issues at the increasingly complex intersection of both domains.

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. 41: ‘Questions raised by the Covid-19 crisis for the European space sector’, originally published in May 2020.

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).