Space

Iridium invests in the Scottish navigation service provider DDK Positioning, the Nasdaq-listed company said. Iridium has made a strategic investment in the Aberdeen, Scotland based provider of enhanced Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) accuracy solutions, the company said. DDK uses the Iridium network to provide global precision positioning services.

Ready for the drop: the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos are preparing one of the two main parachutes for the ExoMars 2022 mission for its high-altitude tests in June, ESA said. The tests focused on demonstrating the readiness of new equipment developed by Airborne Systems, as well as verifying changes to the parachute and bag provided by Arescosmo.

NASA builds a new Earth System Observatory to cope with climate change, forest fires and hurricanes and to support a “real-time agriculture”, the U.S. agency said. “With the Earth System Observatory, each satellite will be uniquely designed to complement the others, working in tandem to create a 3D, holistic view of Earth, from bedrock to the atmosphere,” NASA said.

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 17 May – 23 May 2021”. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! A special shout-out to our friends at GoTaikonauts!

NASA is planning to send its robot rover Viper to the Moon in late 2023, the agency said, to search for ice and other resources on and below the lunar surface. The Viper data would help the agency map resources at the lunar South Pole that could one day be harvested for long-term human exploration at the Moon, NASA said. 

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic completed the first human spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico, the company said. The flight of VSS Unity which was released from the mothership VMS Eve with CJ Sturckow, as pilot-in-command, and Dave Mackay on board, sees New Mexico become the third US state to launch humans into space, the company said.

ESA creates the new position of Director of Commercialisation, Industry & Procurement. The new director is to elaborate and implement ESA’s industrial policy, represent the Director General in all relations with industry, elaborate and implement the agency’s procurement rules, negotiate and manage procurements, ESA said.

Astroscale drives its space debris removal technology with a partner funding by OneWeb under the European Sunrise program, Astroscale announced. The global satellite communications network OneWeb signed a €2.9 million funding award with Astroscale “to mature their technology and capability towards a commercial service offering by 2024”, Astroscale said.

There is a significant lack of publicly available Market Research about the NewSpace Industry in Germany. At Capitol Momentum, it is our goal to close this information gap and begin to map the German NewSpace landscape. We are aiming to increase market transparency and raise awareness for NewSpace technologies in order

As the EU aspires to lead climate mitigation in the face of global warming, it is critical that action be informed by reliable and accurate data. Thanks to unprecedented technological innovations, data now allows decision-makers to identify risks, tailor policy response and resource allocation, monitor progress and identify trends.