Russia&CIS

The Yuzhnoye Design Office continues its collaboration with Orbital ATK on the production and launch of the Antares launch vehicle. The area of responsibility of the Ukrainian enterprise is the hardware for the rocket’s first stage.

On 30 March 2018, a meeting of the Ukrainian State Space Agency Collegium was held in the city of Dnipro. During the meeting, the results of the work of enterprises and institutions of the Ukrainian space industry for 2017 were summed up and priority directions of work for the forthcoming period were determined.

A Russian media report is claiming that the first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates is to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft as soon as April 2019, even going as far as apparently bumping a wealthy U.S. businessman who is paying U.S.$45-50 million to visit the ISS as a space tourist.

7–8 May 2018, Geneva, Switzerland played host to this years’ Space Security Conference. Entitled ‘Space Security: The Next Chapter’, the events explored the existing framework for space governance in the context of a growing and evolving space industry and with an increasing number of private actors moving into the space domain. Is the current framework sufficient to deal with the new generation of space activities or do changes have to be made? Our very own Torsten Kriening attended the event and caught up with Daniel Porras, Space Security Fellow, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research and organiser of the event.

Firefly Aerospace, the New Space launch company revamped by US investor of Ukrainian descent Max Polyakov, has received important support from the U.S. Air Force to use the launch facilities at Vandenberg AFB in California for its Alpha and Beta launch vehicles, marking a milestone in the company's quest to provide cheap launch options in the small- and medium-sized payload market.

Effective Space is poised to launch two spacecraft in 2020 that promise to transform our capabilities in space through in-orbit servicing. These SPACE DRONE™ spacecraft can extend the life of satellites that are reaching the end of their operational term, giving them a new lease of life, and enabling operators to continue bringing in revenues from their space assets long after they would originally have been decommissioned. This is true disruptive technology that will ultimately lead to many other avenues in the in-orbit servicing sector, and can help to tackle the critical challenges that the satellite industry faces such as how we deal with space debris. Helen Jameson, Editor-in-Chief, Spacewatch.Global, spoke to Daniel Campbell, UK Managing Director of Effective Space to get the lowdown on a company that is set to deliver unprecedented services to the space community.

The small satellite revolution is in full swing. It is on the menu at every conference. It is on our newsfeeds. It is the talk of the industry. The last couple of years have heralded a true breakthrough for the small satellite as news has poured in of new constellations in development and emerging operators looking to use small satellites to drive innovation and cater for emerging applications. With manufacturing prices tumbling and increasingly sophisticated technology and propulsion systems becoming reality for the smallsat, this is a phenomenon that is surely set for longevity. However, there is one rather large problem looming and that is the shortage of rides into space. Yes, you have a satellite but how do you find a vehicle to get it where it needs to go?

On 10 April 10 2018, the Moscow Aviation Institute (a national research university) hosted a tripartite meeting of Glavkosmos, MAI, and representatives of the Liege Space Center (Centre Spatial de Liege).

On 21 March 2018, InSpace Forum 2018, a large event dedicated to commercial space industry and the application of UAV's, kicked off in Moscow. Participants discussed important legal aspects of the aerospace industry and shared experience in business management.

Earth-i has released the first video taken by VividX2, the technology prototype for its Vivid-i constellation. Launched on 12 January 2018, VividX2 is the world’s first commercial satellite able to provide full-colour video of life on earth. Weighing 100kg and measuring approximately 1 cubic metre, VividX2 is orbiting at 505km above the Earth and travelling at approximately 7km per second. At the heart of the satellite is an Ultra High Definition (UHD) camera that captures high-resolution images for any location on Earth – and also films up to two minutes of video at a time as it passes over each target location.