Satellite

In this Space Café Radio – SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Café Young Global Talents Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Robert Meisner, Earth Observation Outreach and Φ-Experience coordinator at ESA, at the Living Planet Symposium in Bonn. This symposium is the world’s largest Earth Observation conference.

Satellite technology company, Satellite Vu (SatVu), has commissioned a new clone of its original satellite in collaboration with small satellite supplier, Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), to double its data collection capacity, SatVu said. The second thermal imaging satellite will collect thermal data utilizing SatVu’s Mid Wave Infra-Red (MWIR) technology.

NASA is postponing the fifth commercial crew mission, Crew-5, to the International Space Station (ISS) by several weeks due to damage caused to the Falcon 9 booster during transport, the agency said. The launch was originally planned for early September but NASA said it will now not take place before 29th September.

ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti became the first European female spacewalker when she went outside the International Space Station (ISS) with Russian cosmonaut, Oleg Artemyev, to complete a seven-hour mission working on the space station. Works carried out by the pair included installing platforms and workstation adapter hardware to the Nauka laboratory module.

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Dr. Brian Weeden, Director of Program Planning for Secure World Foundation, at the LEO Kinetic Space Safety Workshop in Lausanne about threats and risks in Low Earth Orbit and how to move forward to a sustainable future in space. This episode talks about Space Situational Awareness, our awareness level, mega-constellations and risk management of the current situation.

The French Space Agency, CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), selected private European launch service provider, Isar Aerospace, to operate its rockets at the Diamant site of CSG (Centre Spatial Guyanais) in French Guiana, Isar said. The company has signed a binding term sheet for conducting commercial and institutional launch operations at CSG starting from 2024.

Australia selected Airbus as the strategic partner for Defence’s Resilient Multi-mission Space STaR Shot, a strategic research program established to develop future space capabilities for the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Australia’s Defence said. Satellite developer and integrator, Airbus Defence and Space, was chosen by a panel of experts from Defence and the Australian Space Agency.

The Australian Government has granted approvals to launch two suborbital “Kestrel I” rockets from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex by rocket manufacturer ATSpace, and spaceport provider, Southern Launch, the companies announced. Missions VS02 and VS03 will send the experimental Kestrel I rockets to sub-orbital trajectories to test the rocket design.

Prestwick Spaceport’s representatives are to meet with stakeholders at the Farnborough International Airshow (FIA 2022) this week to accelerate plans to become Europe’s premier space launch location, the company said. The spaceport has already secured more funding than any other UK spaceport, for example US $96 million from the Ayrshire Growth Deal.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced its plans to develop a radar satellite constellation as part of the National Space Fund  worth over US $800 million to boost its space sector. The project makes the UAE the first Arab country to develop a constellation of SAR satellites.