Satcoms

The Luxembourgish startup OQ Technology won a contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop an advanced 5G network configuration over LEO, MEO and GEO satellites, the company said. The project was proposed by ESA under the umbrella of its ARTES program and was looking for an “Agile Network Configuration for 5G Internet-of-Things services over satellite”.

The European Space Agency (ESA) partners with the British Arqit – a leader in the quantum encryption field – to develop its quantum key distribution satellite QKDSat, the agency said. ArQit recently announced that it was merging with Centricus, a global investment firm, in a transaction expected to provide Arqit with up to €330 million in gross proceeds.

China’s lunar program has made impressive strides in recent years. Perhaps the most captivating moment thus far was the landing and exploration of the Lunar far side by the Chang’e-4 spacecraft and the Yutu-2 rover, with the mission arriving at the moon in early 2019.

Isotropic Systems received a commitment of over €18.5 million from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency to push the development of its broadband terminal technologies, the company said. The development contract ensures oversight of ESA's experts and the technical integrity of Isotropic's path to product launch in early 2022, Isotropic said.

The number of space companies around the world exceeds 10,000, with more than half in the U.S., the magazine Forbes reported, based on a new analysis from SpaceTech Analytics. Competition has led the value of space companies to cross the $4 trillion mark, the report said.

The European commissioner for internal market, Thierry Breton, does not see Eutelsat involved in the European broadband satellite constellation due to its investment in OneWeb, the FT reports. “I do not see how, structurally, an entity can have stakes in two competing projects,” the FT quotes Breton.

Iridium invests in the Scottish navigation service provider DDK Positioning, the Nasdaq-listed company said. Iridium has made a strategic investment in the Aberdeen, Scotland based provider of enhanced Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) accuracy solutions, the company said. DDK uses the Iridium network to provide global precision positioning services.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 17 May – 23 May 2021”. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! A special shout-out to our friends at GoTaikonauts!

There is a significant lack of publicly available Market Research about the NewSpace Industry in Germany. At Capitol Momentum, it is our goal to close this information gap and begin to map the German NewSpace landscape. We are aiming to increase market transparency and raise awareness for NewSpace technologies in order

In this Space Café UK edition, the neuco team of Laurie Scott, Andrew Ball and Ewan Lawrenson spoke with UK space leader, Ian Jones, about the past, present and future of UK Space. Ian Jones is CEO of Goonhilly Earth Station and Chairman at Satellite Applications Catapult.