Space Exploration

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Prof. Thomas Schildknecht, Director of Swiss Optical Ground Station and Geodynamics Observatory Zimmerwald and Vice-Director of Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern, Switzerland, in conversation with Torsten Kriening, publisher of SpaceWatch.Global.

The research and development group Space Applications Services has been mandated by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop and deliver three reactors to produce oxygen from lunar soil, the group said. Space Applications said it will lead eight European companies and R&D institutes

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening met with space professional, author, scientist, analyst and millennial, Laura Seward Forczyk. Laura is the founder and CEO of Astralytical, a space science, industry and policy consultancy that provides space career coaching services, big-picture market trends,

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 27th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast: Bruce Damer - a new origin of life and how to mine an asteroid. Episode 027 features a special guest Bruce Damer. Bruce Damer is a versatile scientist who may be on the verge of rewriting the story of the origin of life.

Steve Jurczyk, who served as acting NASA administrator from the January to May 2021, will retire after more than three decades of service, NASA said. Robert D. Cabana, who has served as director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida since 2008, will serve as new associate administrator, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced.

The first Ariane 6 fairing arrived at Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana start a series of tests and prepare Europe’s next generation heavy-lift launch vehicle for flight, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. The two half-shells are manufactured by the Swiss Ruag.

Women in space: a senior officer of the Australian Royal Air Force, Catherine Roberts, will become the country’s Space Division new chief next year, Australian ABC News reported. Air Vice-Marshal Catherine Roberts, who is currently the Head of Air Force Capability, will take over the newly created position of Head of Space Division from January, ABC said.

NASA and the space startup Axiom Space will detail the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) today, the U.S. space agency said. The spaceflight, named Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1), is scheduled to launch no earlier than January 2022 for an eight-day mission aboard the orbiting complex.

One of the great privileges of my role in external relations at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (also known as ESO) is to represent the Organisation at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).

SpaceWatch.Global has been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. This is “A giant piece of space junk is hurtling towards Earth. Here’s how worried you should be”, originally published 4 May 2021 at The Conversation by Steven Freeland.