Space Exploration

Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of the French national space agency - the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), opened the International Affairs Seminar at the agency’s head office in Paris on 13 May 2019.

The University of Glasgow’s stellar ambitions were given a boost on 8 May 2019 with the opening of the School of Engineering’s space research lab.

GomSpace and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a contract to adapt and improve smallsat systems and subsystems for science missions in deep space.

With space nations such as China and the United States forging ahead with ambitious plans, where does Europe stand in the global space community? Can Europe successfully compete and is there a willingness to collaborate with other nations? Torsten Kriening sat down with Jean-Jacques Tortora, Director of the European Space Policy Institute, to pose some key questions.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and the European Space Policy Institute, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and briefs. This is ESPI Briefs No. 28: ‘China is One Step Closer to the Moon… and Europe?’, originally published in January 2019.

PTScientists and ArianeGroup agreed on 8 May 2019 in Berlin on a far-reaching cooperation. The contract governs the cooperation between the two companies for future Moon missions such as the planned ISRU mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and beyond.

A team of specialised engineers from the Russian space agency Roscosmos designed two custom Soyuz MS-15 seats for Emirati astronauts Hazzaa Al Mansoori and Sultan Al Neyadi, following the official announcement of the launch date of the first Arab and Emirati astronaut to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on 25 September 2019, and the announcement made by Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) of selecting Al Mansoori as the prime astronaut and Al Neyadi as the back-up astronaut.

NanoRacks is pleased to announce Veronica La Regina as the Director of Global Engagement (Europe) and will be directing NanoRacks Space Outpost S.r.l, an Italian company, co-located at ALTEC in Torino. She will be moving to Torino along with NanoRacks Head of European Operations, Peter Bak. NanoRacks Space Outpost S.r.l. officially opened its doors for business on 1 April 2019.

Pakistan signed a space cooperation agreement with China at a ceremony in Beijing held on 27 April 2019 providing a framework for the training of Pakistani astronauts, space science and exploration, as well as the establishment of a Sino-Pakistani space committee that will discuss other cooperative initiatives in space.

Germany's Ministry of Economy is drafting new space laws and regulations - that could be submitted to the Bundestag for ratification as soon as the end of this year – in order to incentivize the German private sector to invest in the rapidly growing global space sector, according to a 28 April 2019 report by Reuters.