Space

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Will Marshall, CEO and Co-Founder of Planet, San Francisco, USA, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global. The European Commission demonstrated unprecedented leadership in December 2019 when it unveiled its flagship action plan to tackle climate change, the European Green Deal.

Firefly Aerospace completed a $75 million series A financing round, valuing the company at more than $1 billion, the company said. The interest “far exceeded” the $75 million equity being offered, Firefly said. Its seed investor, Noosphere Ventures, therefore sold “approximately $100 million of its holdings.

More spectrum: The German Government and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) support Isar Aerospace with €11 million contract through its C-STS programme run by the European Space Agency (ESA), Isar Aerospace said. The programme is designed to strengthen commercial space transportation services in Europe.

One for Eutelsat, one for Atos: the satellite operator said it was chosen by Global Eagle to increase its mobility capabilities over North America. Under this multi-year agreement, Eutelsat provides Global Eagle for its entire North-American coverage with extensive additional capacity to augment the company’s connectivity services for mobility customers, Eutelsat said.

The former Aerojet Rocketdyne executive Frank Slazer is the new President and CEO of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, the organization said. The American non-profit organization engages in “reinforcing the value and benefits of human space exploration and space science” in the U.S.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is building a deep space dish in Australia and an asteroid telescope in South America. ESA cooperates with the Australian Space Agency to construct a second 35-metre, deep space dish antenna at its existing ground station in New Norcia, Western Australia

The end of April saw the beginning of a new Space Café series, the Space Café Greater Bay Area, hosted by me, Blaine Curcio. Having spent around 10 years in Greater China, and with most of that time spent in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, I have seen firsthand the rapid evolution of China’s space sector, and also the innovation and resources in the Greater Bay Area.

The inaugural Space Café Scotland featured five key members of Scotland’s collaborative space ecosystem, in conversation with Angela Mathis. With the country manufacturing more small satellites than anywhere outside of California, spaceports and orbital launch vehicles under development, a strong space research community,

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 26 April - 2 May 2021” .

Following complaints by competitors, the U.S. space agency NASA suspended SpaceX’s work on the Human Landing System (HLS). Pursuant to protests of Blue Origin and Dynetics to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), NASA “instructed SpaceX that progress on the HLS contract has been suspended”, NASA said.