Space Exploration

A Proton M launch vehicle successfully launched the Spektr-RG astrophysical observatory from Site 81 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 13, 2019 at 3:30:57 p.m. Moscow time. The launch and flight were completed with no issues making this the second launch of this vehicle type in 2019. Two hours later, …

Firefly Aerospace has announced that it has signed an Intellectual Property and Engineering Support Agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for technology based on its Beresheet Lunar Lander. Firefly Aerospace is one of the nine companies selected by NASA to participate in the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to …

Berlin space start-up, PTScientists filed for bankruptcy on Friday, July 5, 2019, with the competent district court, Charlottenburg, Berlin. This was due to unplanned delays in the acquisition of further incentives and subsidies for the planned Moon mission. The resulting liquidity shortage made the application legally necessary. Lawyer Sascha Feies …

The use of electric propulsion for raising satellites into geostationary orbit can result in significant solar cell degradation according to a new study. The extended journey results in greater exposure to the damaging effects of space weather. Understanding the size of this risk is essential for commercial operators to take …

Astrobotic has been awarded a $5.6 Million contract by NASA’s Lunar Surface and Instrumentation and Technology Payload (LSITP) programme to cooperate with Carnegie Mellon University on development and delivery of a groundbreaking rover which enables a new paradigm of exploration autonomy. MoonRanger, the lunar rover, will establish transformational high-speed, long-range, …

In the presence of Frédérique Vidal, Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the 26th French-Swiss academic, scientific and technological cooperation forum took place on the campus of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 1 July 2019. Space cooperation between France and Switzerland was on the agenda …

NASA has selected eight new research teams to collaborate on research into the intersection of space science and human space exploration as part of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). “The discoveries these teams make will be vital to our future exploration throughout the solar system with robots …

On the occasion of President Emmanuel Macron’s official visit to Japan on 26 June 2019, and in the presence of Frédérique Vidal, Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and Masahiko Shibayama, Japan’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall …

SpaceWatch.Global has been granted permission to publish this article first published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 40 Issue 1 Spring 2019 . Link: ploughshares.ca/pl_publications/preserving-peace-through-moon-culture/. Project Ploughshares Program Officer Jessica West in conversation with Michelle Hanlon, cofounder of For All Moonkind Jessica West: You have taken an interesting route to your present role as President …

By Robin J. Frank The adoption of the Long Term Sustainability (LTS) Guidelines “is the most significant output of COPUOS [Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space] in the last decade, and the most significant output promoting space sustainability,” said Peter Martinez quoted in Breaking Defense, who chaired (until …