Space

The giant James Webb Space Telescope is on Arianespace’s launch manifest for the fourth quarter of this year, officials from the European launcher and the U.S. space agency said. The telescope could be shipped from the U.S. to French Guiana late August, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s science mission director, said at a virtual press briefing and mission update.

The Munich-based New Space startup OroraTech has closed a €5.8 million Series A funding to finance its wildfire and climate crisis observation nanosatellite platform, the company said. OroraTech is “the first NewSpace start-up to provide global wildfire detection and monitoring services”, the company said.

New Zealand is the 11th nation to sign NASA’s Artemis Accords, the country announced. New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta and the economic development minister Stuart Nash announced the government has agreed to join the Artemis Accords, launched by NASA, and now signed by eleven nations, the government said on its website. 

The European Commission has selected a consortium of companies and research institutes to study the design of the future European quantum communication network, EuroQCI. EuroQCI is to enable ultra-secure communication between critical infrastructures and government institutions across the European Union. The consortium is led by Airbus and includes Leonardo, Orange, and PwC.

The Spanish high-tech group GMV will supply the control center and flight dynamics system for Yahsat’s Thuraya 4‑NGS satellite, the company announced. Thuraya 4‑NGS is a next generation L-band system built by Airbus on its Eurostar Neo platform and slated for operations in 2024.

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 24 May – 30 May 2021”. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup!

The U.S. space agency NASA has requested a $25 billion budget for 2022, the agency said. The budget request for the agency amounts to $24.8 billion, NASA said, $100 million more than requested in April. The largest single item in the budget is for Deep Space Exploration Systems, with $6.88 billion, NASA said.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed the contracts with Airbus and Thales to build the next generation of Galileo satellites for €1.47 billion, ESA said. “Following an intense process of open competition”, the contracts have been awarded to Thales Alenia Space Italy and Airbus Defence & Space Germany to build 12 Galileo Second Generation satellites, the agency said.

Arianespace placed another 36 OneWeb satellites in orbit, the launch company said. Following the 7th launch for OneWeb, Arianespace has now deployed 218 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) for the constellation, ,Arianespace said. Performed on Friday, May 29 at precisely 02:38 a.m. local time at (05:38 p.m. on May 28, UTC)

This Space Café Balkan featured Raycho Raychev, founder and CEO of Endurosat, in conversation with Marko Pajović, friend of SpaceWatch.Global. Is the Balkan an emerging space region? ecently, an increase of space activities in the Balkan region is noticeable and even though there is no real coherence between Balkan countries,