Russia&CIS

Yuri Borisov, head of the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, said the country will withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) program after 2024 to focus on building its own orbiting station. The announcement was made less than two weeks after Roscosmos and NASA signed a seat exchange agreement on spacecraft traveling to and from the station.

ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti became the first European female spacewalker when she went outside the International Space Station (ISS) with Russian cosmonaut, Oleg Artemyev, to complete a seven-hour mission working on the space station. Works carried out by the pair included installing platforms and workstation adapter hardware to the Nauka laboratory module.

After Dimirty Rogozin had been removed as head of Roscosmos, NASA announced it signed an agreement with Roscosmos to exchange seats on spacecraft traveling to the International Space Station (ISS) from September. NASA says that “integrated crews,” with Russian cosmonauts on Crew Dragon spacecraft and American astronauts on Soyuz spacecraft, are essential to safe ISS operations.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, dismissed Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, from his duties. Rogozin’s public statements that have brought international criticism for years. The new Director General of Roscosmos State Corporation will be Yuri Borisov.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present: The Space Cafe Podcast #55 Moriba Jah, Privateer - Clean up minds to clean up space. Episode 055 features a special guest: Moriba Jah. Moriba Jah is a tireless fighter for a space without the junk. Every day though his visions threaten to become more distant.

In this Space Café Radio -  SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Matthias Wachter, Head of the Department for International Cooperation, Security Policy, Raw Materials and Space at BDI - The Federation of German Industries about his call for "Europe must grow up in Space".

Our new episode of Space Café "Black Ops by Dr. Emma Gatti" inaugurates in a time of conflict on Earth. A conflict that, inevitably, has already had an impact on the Space sector, like on so many other sectors. Many space related civil operations have been disrupted, Roscosmos suspended all the EU launches, Soyuz spacecraft is under sanctions

Russian cosmonauts Denis Matveyev, Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Korsakov, the first cosmonauts to arrive on the ISS since Russia invaded Ukraine, docked wearing bright yellow suits with blue trimmings. As the standard-issue Russian uniform is blue, speculations started as to why they chose the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Last weekend I received a link to the presentation that Steve Collar (CEO of SES) gave during GovSatCom22 in Luxemburg late last month. Steve is someone I genuinely respect, and we go back a long time. I fondly remember working with him on a DVB-RCS project back in 2003 that we thought was going to be critically important for the future of our industry,

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 50th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast #050: Hansjörg Dittus, about Europe's Role in Space (an honest discussion). Hansjörg Dittus served for many years on the board of the German Aerospace Center. Against the backdrop of dramatic developments in the crisis with Russia,