Government

The 150-year-old ITU (International Telecommunication Union), the intergovernmental body responsible for coordinating the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promoting international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, improving communication infrastructure and establishing the worldwide standards, announced that its new senior leadership team took office on 1st January. The five senior officials were all elected to four-year terms.

Two CubeSats are on a quest to provide insight into space weather disturbances and the subsequent impact on communication signals, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The CubeSats, the Plasma Enhancements in the Ionosphere-Thermosphere Satellite (petitSat), and Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT) arrived at the International Space Station on November 27, 2022.

On 13 January 2023, the Swedish head of state, King Carl XVI Gustaf, and European and Swedish political dignitaries will visit Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden to cut the ribbon of a new spaceport. The new spaceport, which saw years of preparation and construction, will significantly reshape the European space landscape. The event will take place in Kiruna in conjunction with Sweden taking over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The Meteosat Third Generation – Imager 1 (MTG-I1) satellite has successfully reached its intended orbit, nearly 36,000km above the Equator, after its 13 December launch from Kourou, French Guiana. As a result, EUMETSAT has taken control of its newest addition to its fleet of meteorological satellites.

Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak and French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu approved an agreement between Airbus and the Polish Armaments Agency. Under this agreement, France will deliver two reconnaissance satellites and a ground station to Poland, the ministers said at a press conference.

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Kevin Scullion, International Trade Specialist at Scottish Development International (SDI), about the Scottish space sector, the opportunities and the challenges and the strategy for supporting space to become a unique business segment for Scotland.

NASA’s Perseverance rover deposited its first titanium sample tube containing a rock sample on Mars’ surface. The sample is the first of 10 forming a depot of tubes that will be considered to be brought back to Earth by the Mars Sample Return campaign, the agency said.

NASA’s Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio installed a Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to augment power generation on the station’s port truss structure, NASA said. The extravehicular activity (EVA) lasted 7 hours and 8 minutes.

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to provide launch services for the Sentinel-6B mission. Sentinel-6B will continue the long-term global sea level data record begun in 1992 by Topex/Poseidon, followed by Jason 1, 2, 3, and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich. The mission is a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).

Airbus has successfully achieved the System Critical Design Review (CDR) on the EGNOS V3 satellite-based augmentation system. According to the Company, the EGNOS V3 (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service)'s design will add key security features for the most safety-critical applications, such as aircraft navigation and landing. Furthermore, it will provide entirely new services for maritime and land users. EGNOS V3 is the second generation of the overlay system and will improve the performance of GPS and Galileo.