Earth observation

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening sat down – virtually – with Professor Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, Chair of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Centre – otherwise known simply as the abbreviated “DLR”. A German materials scientist and mechanical engineer by trade,...

The Spanish satellite operator Hispasat partners with the Repsol Foundation to develop technologies for the reforestation sector to offset CO2 emissions. Hispasat and Repsol signed a strategic partnership agreement to use the satellite operator’s technology in Repsol’s Green Engine project, Spain’s largest reforestation program for offsetting emissions.

SpaceX successfully launched 105 spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 launch vehicle yesterday during its third dedicated smallsat rideshare mission, Transporter-3. The rideshare program was announced in 2019, offering small satellite operators to launch for a combined price of US $1M. Transporter-3 carried CubeSats, microsats, PocketQubes,

Euroconsult, the space consulting and market intelligence firm, estimates the Earth Observation (EO) manufacturing market to grow to US $76.1B in revenue by 2030. The data were released in the company’s ''Earth Observation Satellite Systems Market'' report. Between 2011-2020, 65% of EO satellite launches were commercial but only captured a negligible 4% of the market value.

Space consulting and market intelligence company, Euroconsult, estimates that the global space economy totaled US $370B last year. The figures leading up to the estimation can be found in their Space Economy report for 2021. These include the commercial and governmental space market (US $337B), internal costs and R&D of government organizations (US $33B).

President Joe Biden has nominated Navy Vice Admiral Frank Whitworth to lead the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the institution responsible for analyzing and distributing satellite imagery for intelligence purposes. Career intelligence official Whitworth, currently serves as a director among top military officers advising the president and senior defense officials.

China’s main space contractor, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) announced it was planning over 40 orbital launches this year. These include six missions aiming to complete the Tiangong space station. A Long March 7 rocket will dock with Tiangong’s Tianhe

Virgin Orbit partners with Horizon Technologies, takes an equity stake in it and becomes its preferred launch provider, the company said. Horizon wants to expand its Amber constellation and its space-based marine intelligence services with the help of Virgin Orbit´s LauncherOne.

Swiss start-up Dotphoton and ESA have signed their second contract and will continue the development of a metrologically correct image compression technology for space applications, Dotphoton announced. The aim of the new contract is to further develop, test and apply Dotphoton's quantum-inspired compression technology.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) signed an agreement with the United Kingdom to address the information gap for space-related climate actions, the United Nations Information Service reported.  Space-based data and applications have long been utilized in climate change monitoring, research, and policy enactment.