Entrepreneurship

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 12 April - 18 April 2021”.

Paris, 20 April 2021. – 9 times 5: Amazon contracted nine Atlas V rockets to launch its Project Kuiper broadband constellation, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced. With Project Kuiper, Amazon wants to increase global broadband coverage through a constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).  

Paris, 20 April 2021. – 39.1 historic seconds: NASA’s Mars Helicopter Ingenuity succeeded to become the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity team at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover last night.

Paris, 19 April 2021. – It’s a big deal: NASA has selected SpaceX's Starship to land two American astronauts on the Moon. The firm-fixed price, milestone-based contract total award value is $2.89 billion, NASA said. The U.S. space agency picked SpaceX over Blue Origin to develop its first commercial human lander that will carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface as part of its Artemis program, NASA said.

This Space Café Canada will feature Dr. David Kendall, Founding Member at Outer Space Institute, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in conversation with Dr. Jessica West, Senior Researcher at Project Ploughshares and a friend of SpaceWatch.Global. Does space need more Canada? Canada has a strong past in space, but what is the future?

Join SpaceWatch.Global for an interesting and informative Space Café WebTalk featuring Temidayo Oniosun, Managing Director, Space in Africa, Lagos, Nigeria. A month ago a report on "Global Space Budgets - A Country-level Analysis" was released. This report examines the space budgets of 106 governments and analyses how they have changed between 2018 and 2020.

by Annie Handmer and Steven Freeland SpaceWatch.Global has been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. This is “It’s not how big your laser is, it’s how you use it: space law is an important part of the fight against space debris”, originally published 14 April 2021 at The Conversation by Annie Handmer and Steven Freeland.

Paris, 16 April 2021. – The Earth monitoring and analytics startup HawkEye 360 secured $55 million in additional funding, bringing the total amount raised so far to over $155 million, the company said. The new (Series C) round was led by NightDragon and included further investment from existing investors Advance, Razor's Edge Ventures, Shield Capital, Dorilton Ventures, Adage Capital, and Esri International, the firm said.

Paris, 16 April 2021. – Beautiful start, beautiful landing: Blue Origin successfully completed its 15th New Shepard mission, on its way now to fly astronauts and customers to the edge of space, the company owned by Jeff Bezos said. After its successful lift-off, the crew capsule with a dummy passenger reached an apogee of more than 100 kilometers, before returning, with parachutes, to its launch site in Texas.

Paris, 16 April 2021. – The Earth monitoring startup ICEYE opens a production facility in Irvine, California, to better serve U.S. customers ad set the pace for further growth, the company said. The U.S. site will host the production of multiple spacecraft “simultaneously” and contain a research and development lab, offices, and a customer engagement space, ICEYE said. It will also host a Mission Operations Center for monitoring and operating U.S. licensed spacecraft.