Space

The European Council has adopted conclusions on the ‘Fair and sustainable use of space’, which includes a call for a European approach to space traffic management at a time when orbits are increasingly congested with space objects.

Copernicus Space Corporation has announced that Andrew Rush has joined the Company as its President and Chief Executive Officer. The Company leverages deep knowledge of astrophysics, space systems engineering, and synthetic biology to pioneer a unique space technology platform for distributed, intelligent in situ Swarm Exploration™. 

OneWeb and Arctic Space Technologies have announced a leap forward in the construction of the OneWeb Satellite Network Portal (SNP), a hyperscale satellite ground station installation at the Arctic Space Technologies’ Space Center in Piteå. The companies signed a bilateral agreement in December of 2022 and have now finalized the detailed design work as well as obtained all approvals for the construction of the SNP. As a result,  the agreement will see the installation and operationalization of 27 satellite tracking antennas by Q3 2023.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and ICEYE have signed a letter of intent to empower entrepreneurship and encourage the development of commercially viable and sustainability-minded space solutions. The collaboration falls under the ESA Partnership Initiative for Commercialization (EPIC) and targets companies which the ESA Business Incubation Centers (ESA BICs), ESA Technology Brokers and ESA Φ-labNET support. 

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has successfully completed the second of two dedicated Electron launches to deploy a constellation of tropical cyclone monitoring satellites for NASA. The "Coming To A Storm Near You" launch lifted-off on May 26 at 15:46 NZST (03:46 UTC) from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula, deploying the final two CubeSats of NASA’s TROPICS constellation to orbit.

Arabsat has launched its Airbus-built Badr-8 telecommunications satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Based on Airbus’ latest geostationary Eurostar Neo satellite, Badr-8 will provide connectivity for users across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia.

ispace, inc. has announced today that it has reviewed and completed the analysis of the flight data from its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 landing sequence on April 26, 2023.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present: The Space Café Podcast #81: Knicole Colon - Renowned NASA Astrophysicist and Expert in Exoplanet Exploration. The hunt for a second home. Join us in this thought-provoking episode as I sit down with Dr. Knicole Colon, a distinguished astrophysicist from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, to uncover the mysteries of exoplanets and discuss the future of space exploration.

On Thursday, the 25th of May, GLOC2023, Global Space Conference on Climate Change, the first Space conference entirely dedicated to Climate Change closed it’s first edition in Oslo, Norway's capital city. One of the major takeaway points was the need to make data more accessible. “People who work in crucial and critical data should be able to use the data freely,” says Dr Emma Gatti, Editor-in-Chief at SpaceWatch.Global. 

ThrustMe has announced the achievement of over 100 orders for its cold gas I2T5 and gridded ion NPT30-I2 thrusters. This marks a significant turning point for ThrustMe. The Company initiated batch production for clients in 2022 to accommodate an increasing order from satellite constellations clients. Furthermore, the Company set an ambitious target to manufacture over 365 propulsion systems per year, with production capacity gradually increasing throughout 2023 to serve the market needs.