Space

Flight VS27, deploying 34 OneWeb satellites, was Arianespace’s first mission of the year and the 340th for the Arianespace family comprising Ariane, Soyuz and Vega. The number of satellites in orbit in the OneWeb constellation is now 428. Soyuz, the medium-lift, four-stage launch vehicle carrying the spacecraft, was produced by Roscosmos’ Progress Space Rocket Center.

In this Space Café Radio – on tour in Brussels at the 14th European Space Conference in the Egmont Palace, SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Cafe Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Prof. Guenther Hasinger, Director of Science and Head of ESAC about the fascinating world of astronomy, James Webb, and what it means to be the director of science.

The latest episode of Space Café Russia by Elina Morozova, which is now on air with simultaneous translation into English, featured Vladimir Agapov, General Designer of joint-stock company Astronomical Scientific Center, Alexander Solntsev, Deputy Head of the Department of International Law at RUDN University, and Valentin Uvarov, CEO of Climate Monitoring Systems LLC.

The inaugural edition of the NewSpace Africa Conference 2022 will take place in Nairobi, Kenya, from 25th to 27th April. The event is organized by Space in Africa in collaboration with the African Union Commission and the Kenyan Space Agency. The theme of the event is “Making Africa the New Hotspot for Space Business”.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and the European Space Policy Institute, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and briefs. This is ESPI Briefs No. 80: ‘Space in Support of Security Missions’, originally published in February 2022.

Arctic Space Technologies announced that their high-latitude ground station facility in northern Sweden operated is now providing advantages to Viasat Real-Time Earth (RTE) customers. Viasat benefits from the collaboration by adding Piteå, Öjebyn to the list of their many antenna locations.

Astra Space’s first orbital launch with operational payloads failed to deliver four satellites to orbit due to an issue after main engine cut off. The company said they would provide an update after reviewing data working closely with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Previously, the mission was scrubbed twice within a five-day period due to a radar system, and then a telemetry issue.

In this Space Café Radio – on tour in Brussels at the 14th European Space Conference in the Egmont Palace, SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Cafe Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Nadine Smolka, Mission Manager at Exolaunch about her way into the space industry and the experience of being part of a real SpaceX launch.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening got the opportunity to speak with Dr Nanja Strecker, an experienced innovation expert and Managing Director of the European Space Agency's Business Incubation Centres Switzerland (ESA BIC CH), a start-​up support program operated by the globally renowned research university, ETH Zürich.

On November 14th of last year, Russia deliberately destroyed one of its satellites as a test of a new anti-satellite weapon (ASAT). According to a US State Department press briefing, “this test has so far generated over fifteen hundred pieces of trackable orbital debris and will likely generate hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller orbital debris.”