Government

The Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit – Satellite-6 (SBIRS GEO-6) formally transferred from Space Systems Command (SSC) to Space Operations Command (SpOC), on Friday, March 24, 2023.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has awarded six study contracts for commercial hyperspectral imagery (HSI). Companies receiving awards under NRO’s Strategic Commercial Enhancement’s (SCE) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Framework, include BlackSky Technology, HyperSat, Orbital Sidekick, Pixxel, Planet, and Xplore.

In this  Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Andreas Lindenthal, Head of Business Operations & Products at Airbus Space Systems, about his personal views of the Munich Security Conference in February 2023. We also spoke about "Zeitenwende" in Space and where Germany and Europe stand. 

As space activities and innovative technologies emerge around the world and the space economy becomes increasingly global, it is worth investigating how space services and applications can support strategic foresight and its embedding into policymaking. Understandably, amidst all this trouble on planet Earth, it is perhaps easy to forget how important space has become to us and our future.

Intellian Technologies Inc. has announced its ARC-M4 Block 1 terminal at Satellite 2023 in Washington, D.C. Providing simultaneous X- and Military Ka-bands plus all commercial Ka, the Block 1 marks the next extension of Intellian’s Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) certified products.

"French-German Space - Of course, I still love you" The failure of Vega C and the delay of Ariane 6 put Europe and the Franco-German couple in front of their responsibilities. Do we accept being dependent on our best friend, the USA, for access to space? Do we renounce the ambition to remain in Europe, a great space power?

Shey SabripourCesiumAstro has announced that it won a contract through the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Space Development Agency (SDA) to advance the company’s multi-beam L-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) antenna. Building upon prior efforts, CesiumAstro will continue developing the Link 16–compatible AESA ahead of the agency’s migration to the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) global satellite network, the LEO-based satellite constellation built to enable key DoD space capabilities.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and Deutsche Telekom have partnered to enable seamless connectivity from terrestrial networks, from the sky or from above. At Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, they signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together on the hybrid networks of the future.

Bayanat, a AI-powered geospatial solutions provider, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AI Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat), the UAE’s flagship satellite solutions provider listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, to develop an in-country space programme. 

In this first pilot episode of Space Economy Insights, Kevin O'Connell and Emma Gatti interviewed Claire Jolly, Head of Ocean Economy & Space Economy, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).