Space Exploration

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 44th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast #044: Steven Freeland: Rethinking New Space. Episode 044 features a special guest Steven Freeland. In this episode, we take a bird's eye view on many things in the New Space scene. Steven Freeland teaches space law and hosts his own show, Space Cafe "Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland".

Space consulting and market intelligence firm Euroconsult has released its “Government Space Programs” report for 2021. The highlight of this year’s findings is an accelerated volume of governmental investment in the space sector. This is due to ambitious space exploration programmes and the militarization of space.

Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Cisco announced they have teamed up to integrate Callisto, a unique human-machine interface technology into NASA's Orion spacecraft on the Artemis I uncrewed mission around the Moon. They will demonstrate how astronauts could benefit from far-field voice technology, AI and video calls during deep space missions.

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 Space News Roundup, 2021 Top Trends and Events”.

Elon Musk said during an interview on the Lex Fridman podcast that SpaceX could be transporting people to Mars in five years. According to the SpaceX CEO, the worst case scenario is that the Starship rocket is ready for taking humans to the planet in 10 years.  Starship, “the most complex and advanced rocket” as per Musk, has already undergone static fire tests.

The U.S. committed to extend the operations of the International Space Station (ISS) through 2030, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced. The Biden-Harris Administration wants to continue to work with its international partners “to enable continuation of the groundbreaking research being conducted in this unique orbiting laboratory through the rest of this decade”.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it needed two more months to complete the environmental review of SpaceX Starship orbital launches from the Boca Chica facility in Texas. The FAA was unable to meet the original deadline of 31st December due to the high volume of comments submitted.

The US $10B space observatory has flown beyond the orbit of the Moon after completing the second of the three required mid-course correction burns, NASA reported. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched on Christmas Day to begin its 29-day deployment process. About half an hour later, it automatically deployed its solar panel to start generating its own power.

Two Shenzhou-13 astronauts conducted a six-hour spacewalk on Sunday to install equipment outside Tiangong space station’s Tianhe module, the China Manned Space Agency reported. This was the fourth spacewalk conducted since the launch of the Tianhe core module in April this year.

Ariane 5 has launched the giant James Webb Telescope into its transfer orbit. The Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Christmas day, and the telescope separated successfully at an altitude of close to 1500 kilometers 27 minutes into the flight.