Space

If you have ever driven through a pitch-black, rainy night on an unlit country road, you probably have been thankful for the invention of reflective paint. Illuminated by the car's headlights, lane markers and road signs appear magically out of the darkness.

Florida-based company, Space Perspective unveiled the design of its pressurized, balloon-borne capsule, Spaceship Neptune, which will become operational in about two years from now. if all goes according to plan. The carbon-neutral spaceship will comprise the SpaceBalloon, Reserve Descent System and Neptune Capsule.

Volume I of McGill Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS): Volume I – Rules containing the 52 rules agreed by consensus among subject-matter experts and institutions over a six-year process, has been published. The project was initiated by the Faculty of Law’s Centre for Research in Air and Space Law involving over 80 international participants

In this Space Café Radio – SpaceWatch.Global Senior Editor and Space Café Italy Host Dr. Emma Gatti spoke with Farzana Baduel the CEO of Curzon PR, a London-based PR firm focused on public relations and marketing communications consultancy, at the 4th Secure World Foundation Summit in London on June 22-23. Farzana also served as Vice-Chair of Business Relations for the UK Conservative Party.

Space solutions company, Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales and Leonardo, has signed an agreement with Italian space propulsion startup, Miprons, to develop an innovative water propulsion system for satellites, Thales Alenia said. The project will leverage Miprons’ proprietary technology, a miniaturized, high-thrust thruster using a green, cost-effective propellant: water.

The UK branch of global communications company Viasat, was selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to conduct a multi-layered Satellite Communication (SATCOM) study focused on evaluating the use cases, market segments and technical aspects of these future systems, the company said. 

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.

Optical inter-satellite communication service provider, Warpspace, chose to utilize Amazon Web Services (AWS) for secure, flexible and cost-effective operation of its upcoming middle Earth orbit (MEO) Optical Inter-Satellite Data Relay Constellation, Warpaspace said.

Lunar resource development company, ispace’s subsidiary, ispace technologies U.S. will join a team, led by Draper, that has been awarded US $73 million to deliver payloads, including two communication relay satellites, to lunar orbit as well as a suite of scientific experiments to the lunar surface, ispace said.

Satellite operators Eutelsat Communications and OneWeb have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a leading global connectivity company through a merger between them in an all-share transaction, Eutelsat said. Eutelsat will combine its 36-satellite geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) fleet with OneWeb’s constellation of 648 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.