Space

Ariane 5 has launched the giant James Webb Telescope into its transfer orbit. The Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Christmas day, and the telescope separated successfully at an altitude of close to 1500 kilometers 27 minutes into the flight.

In this Space Café Radio – our Review 2021 series, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Dr Moriba Jah, Professor at The University of Texas at Austin and host of the Space Cafe "Moribas Vox Populi". They talked about 2021 on earth, in space, what moved us, what challenged us! But also what we can expect next year.

During a recent core stage power test of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft engineers identified an issue with one of the RS-25 engine flight controllers, NASA reported. The issue will cause delays in the launch of the Artemis I mission. The flight controller communicates with SLS, provides precision control as well as internal health diagnostics.

GomSpace announced they have signed a contract to establish a next generation satellite platform for Unseenlabs. The contract value is almost €777,000. The project is expected to be complete by August next year. The new platform will comprise an upgrade both in size and performance compared to previous GomSpace-built satellites.

The world’s largest, dual-band, commercial communications satellite launched yesterday from the JAXA Tanegashima Space Centre onboard Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 45, Inmarsat said. I-6 F1, the first of two Inmarsat-6 satellites, aims to enhance connectivity services for mobility, government and IoT customers.

Maxar Technologies extended its contracts with three long-standing international defense and intelligence customers. The agreements total more than $100 million and extend these customers’ ability to download satellite imagery from Maxar’s current constellation and under its Direct Access Program, the provider of geospatial intelligence said.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and The Strategist, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles. This is “Australia needs new early warning capability to counter threat from China’s new missiles” by Malcolm Davis, originally published on 21 December 2021.

Swiss start-up Dotphoton and ESA have signed their second contract and will continue the development of a metrologically correct image compression technology for space applications, Dotphoton announced. The aim of the new contract is to further develop, test and apply Dotphoton's quantum-inspired compression technology.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) signed an agreement with the United Kingdom to address the information gap for space-related climate actions, the United Nations Information Service reported.  Space-based data and applications have long been utilized in climate change monitoring, research, and policy enactment.

The advent of NGSO systems has brought many technology changes to the satellite industry. The two that stand out the most for me are intersatellite links (ISLs) and lasers. Sure, we've also seen technology developments in propulsion, miniaturization, station-keeping and of course antenna design, but these technologies aren’t so much a function of NGSO developments