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ICEYE US Inc has received its first Task Order under a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with NASA, enabling NASA to acquire ICEYE’s synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data for evaluation by scientific and academic communities. This will help to determine suitability for advancing NASA’s Earth Science research objectives. The BPA gets its funding from the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate. Since 2020, NASA’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program has been identifying, evaluating, and acquiring data from commercial sources that align with NASA’s Earth Science Division objectives.

This Space Café Austria will feature Margit Mischkulnig, Head of Department for Space Affairs at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action, in conversation with Sabine Pongruber, Founder and CEO of WEME Global and a friend of SpaceWatch.Global. "Austria's Footprint in Space" In our upcoming Space Café Austria, we're going to delve into the real-life impact of Austria's leadership in Energy Transition with Space Data. We're also going to uncover the truth about the challenges of being united as a country towards space activities.

Warpspace has announced that the National Research and Development Agency New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) has accepted its proposal, "Development of a modem and router to realize a multi-protocol platform for optical communications in space,"  for the Japanese "SBIR Program" (one-stop-shop type) for fiscal year 2023.

Russia will launch its first lunar landing spacecraft in 47 years on Friday, in a race with India to the south pole of the moon, reports Reuters. The launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome, east of Moscow, will take place four weeks after India sent up its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander, due to touch down at the pole on the 23rd of August. The south pole is a key destination because scientists believe it may hold significant quantities of ice that could be used to extract fuel and oxygen, as well as drinking water. 

Benchmark Space Systems announced on the 8th of August that it has raised $33 million in Series B funding and moved its headquarters to facilities with four times the manufacturing capacity. The funding round will enable the company to move forward with new innovations and accelerate its strategic transition from research and development to production to meet the growing demand for its non-toxic propulsion systems. The 40,000 square foot Vermont-based facility features full end-to-end delivery capability from engineering through test and integration, including hot fire chambers,...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has, through its Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs (CRSRA) office has announced the modification of operating licenses of multiple commercial satellite systems. These license conditions had previously restricted the operations of commercial satellites, preventing them from offering their full remote sensing capabilities to the public. On July 20, 2020, NOAA implemented new, specific regulations on private remote sensing systems.

On April 12th 2023 Space Café Poland launched its first-ever episode. The Space Café Poland was hosted by Lukasz Wilczynski, President of Space Communications Alliance, and President of European Space Foundation, who invited Maciej Krzyzanowski, President and Chief Executive Officer of CloudFerro

In this episode of Space Café Radio, we have an insightful conversation with Dr. Ernst Pfeiffer, the CEO of HPS Group and Chairman of the German Space SME. Our host, Torsten Kriening, publisher at SpaceWatch.Global delves into the current state of the German and European space markets. Moreover, we explore the potential repercussions of the proposed German space budget cuts amounting to 180 million euros, anticipated for confirmation by the government by the end of 2023.

Launch service provider Rocket Factory Augsburg AG (RFA) has raised a €30 million investment from KKR, a global investment firm. The fresh funding is a vote of confidence for RFA as global demand for access to space continues to grow.

Umbra, a space radar technology company, has announced that it has successfully produced a 16-cm resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image. According to the Company, it is the highest-resolution commercial satellite image ever released. The company also announced that it’s now able to provide customers with the highest-quality data its satellites are capable of capturing — in all formats and resolutions, including complex data better than 25 cm, for the first time.