Earth observation

Much more than a renaming: The European Union strengthens one of its main pillars to execute on its €14.88 billion space programme that the European Parliament approved on Tuesday. It transforms the European Agency for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GSA) in Prague into the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA).

The maritime geolocation startup Unseenlabs raised €20 million to build its maritime geolocation fleet, the French company said. The series B funding round is "cementing its status as a European leader in the interception of radiofrequency signals from space”, the company said.

Return to flight: Arianespace launched its 18th Vega mission (VV18) with Airbus’ Pleiades Neo 3 on board, the company announced yesterday. The mission marks Vega’s return to flight, Arianespace said, and was also the second successful launch by Arianespace’s teams in less than 72 hours.

Luxembourg, 28 April 2021. – OHB wants to launch with Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) in 2024 and 2025, the company said. OHB Cosmos and the Luxembourg-based OHB affiliate LuxSpace signed a contract for a dedicated launch with RFA for upcoming missions scheduled for mid-2024 and 2025, OHB said.

Luxembourg, 27 April 2021. – The European Space Agency (ESA) has asked a consortium around Inmarsat to develop a natural disaster early warning system. The London-based satellite operator, the research organization SINTEF and the Norwegian company Geonor have been awarded a three-year contract with ESA, Inmarsat said.

Luxembourg, 26 April 2021. – Rocket Lab builds a mission center in New Zealand for the climate monitoring satellite MethaneSAT, the company said. MethaneSAT is a satellite mission created to foster and accelerate reductions in the emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas responsible for at least a quarter of today’s planetary warming.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Joint Air Power Competence Centre, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Exploring Synergistic Potential of the Portuguese Space Strategy”, originally published in the Joint Air Power Competence Centre Journal 31.

Paris, 23 April 2021. – The UK startup Satellite Vu raised €4.16 million to launch “the world’s first satellite constellation capable of imaging the thermal footprint of any building on the planet every 1-2 hours”, the company said. The seed round was led by Seraphim Capital.

Paris, 22 April 2021. – Virgin Orbit will launch a series of six hyperspectral LEO satellites for the defense and security company QinetiQ and the geospatial analytics company HyperSat, Virgin Orbit said. Virgin Orbit will provide launch services for each satellite via its LauncherOne system. The first satellite will launch no earlier than 2023.

Space and satellite technologies are evolving faster than we can grasp their myriad of applications and range of uses.  The industry is certainly encouraging start-up services from all corners of the world to leverage these assets in increasingly beneficial and efficient ways.  Japan hails one of the fastest-growing space technology startups,