Government

The New Zealand Space Agency and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action BMWK signed an agreement to promote the safe, secure and responsible use of outer space, the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment stated.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Director General, Josef Aschbacher, appointed the New Space Advisory Board (NAB) to implement the actions of the Agenda 2025 with a particular focus on commercialisation and ESA’s role and actions in the New Space ecosystem, ESA said. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a rule to shorten the time frame in which satellite operators should deorbit their low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, the FCC announced. The new rule states that operators now have five years instead of 25, to safely deorbit their defunct spacecraft.

Space startup ClearSpace has been awarded a US $2.46 million contract by the UK Space Agency to conduct the next design phase of the “Clearing of the LEO Environment with Active Removal” (CLEAR) mission. The phase will finish with the preliminary design review at the end of 2023.

The Queensland Government and SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) have launched the Queensland Earth Observation (EO) Hub, a partnership for two new Earth observation research projects. The Government and SmartSat CRC are both investing about US $1 million in the project.

The European Space Agency (ESA) selected Moon company Astrobotic, and NewSpace start-up Lunar Logistics Services (LLS), to fly the LandCam-X innovative landing sensor camera to the Moon in 2024 on Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One (GM1). The contract will be the first ever commercial delivery to the Moon procured by ESA.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and satellite operator SES, signed a contract with support from the European Commission for the development of Eagle-1, Europe’s first space-based quantum key distribution satellite system, the companies announced at a press conference at the International Astronautical Congress 2022 in Paris last week. 

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration successfully impacted its asteroid target 10 months after launch, NASA said. The mission attempted to move asteroid Dimorphos off its orbit.

The Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI), has the pleasure to present Space Cafè Radio - PSSI Space Security Mini-Series, a radio series focused on allied preparedness to face the rapidly changing space domain. PSSI is a non-profit non-governmental public policy organisation founded in 2002 and based in Prague. In space, PSSI emphasizes emerging threats and available policy solutions.

Episode 063 features a special guest: Christopher Newman. In this episode, we search space for legal loopholes, and we had fun doing it. Drunk driving in space, the perfect place for the perfect crime, mining moon's diamond core (which there is not) or can I dispute Elon's favorite orbit with my little Space Cafe podcast satellite?