Space Exploration

Clara Venture Labs has signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to supply a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) system that will power a spacecraft aiming to land on one of the moons to the giant planets Jupiter or Saturn. The project will be a collaborative effort between Clara Venture Labs, Added Value Solution (AVS), and the Center of Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH).

On January 3, 2023 at 09:55 ET, Launcher successfully launched its first spacecraft (Orbiter SN1) to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 (Transporter-6). Upon successful separation on Launcher’s 24” separation system, the spacecraft powered up and communicated to the ground (command uplink and telemetry downlink) during its first scheduled ground station pass. The Company also communicated with the vehicle for the duration of expected battery life.

In this first pilot episode of Space Economy Insights, Kevin O'Connell and Emma Gatti interviewed Claire Jolly, Head of Ocean Economy & Space Economy, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Axiom Space has announced the full crew complement for Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2), the second all-private mission to the International Space Station (ISS). 

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisherTorsten Kriening spoke with Matthias Gronowski, Chief Engineer of Orion ESM at Airbus Defence and Space in Bremen , about the leanings from the Artemis-1 mission, the challenges, and the way forward to the next mission. We spoke with Matthias during the Moon Media Day at the Airbus Bremen facility on 9th Feb 2023 on the visitor gallery above the ESM cleanroom.

Small satellite mission integrator and bus manufacturer Kongsberg NanoAvionics has doubled its satellite production capability by officially opening its manufacturing, assembly, integration, and testing (MAIT) facility in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Three European Service Modules (ESMs) are currently undergoing integration in parallel in Airbus’ Bremen cleanrooms. Consequently, the integration of ESM-3 is almost complete, and ESM-4 is well underway. As a result, the newly arrived ESM-5 structure is undergoing initial integration. Each ESM requires the integration of more than 22,000 elements.

The European Space Agency (ESA)'s CHaracterizing ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops) mission has observed a dwarf planet in our Solar System, contributing to the discovery of a dense ring of material around it. The mission discovered that the Dwarf Planet Quaoar had a ring of almost seven and a half times the radius of the Dwarf Planet. This consequently opens up a mystery for astronomers; why has this material not coalesced into a small moon?

Ploughshares Senior Researcher Dr. Jessica West spoke with Brian Gallant, the founding and current CEO of Space Canada, an association established in March 2022 to represent Canada’s outer space innovators and allied industries. Nine companies originally came together to found Space Canada (https://space-canada.ca), with the aim of “strengthen[ing] the Canadian space ecosystem.”

KSAT is currently installing four new antennas in Antarctica, expanding its capacity in the U.S. by adding multiple antennas in Hawaii, Alaska and the Southeast, and also expanding its footprint through partner networks. These antennas will add to KSATs current network with systems that will meet its new entrants and legacy operators' unique needs. Expanding Ka-band systems will also provide increased flexibility for missions requiring high-bandwidth communications.