Space Missions

The World Economic Forum (WEF) and the European Space Agency (ESA) launched a new Space Sustainable Rating (SSR). The Swiss EPFL Space Center (eSpace) has been chosen to lead and operationalize the SSR, WEF said, it will begin issuing sustainability certifications to mission operators in early 2022.

Paris, 21 June 2021. – The laser communication startup Mynaric has opened a new facility for the serial production of laser communication equipment for the aerospace sector, the company said. The new production facility is located in the immediate vicinity of Mynaric’s headquarters at the special research airport Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Germany.

Three Chinese astronauts entered the Tiangong space station, Chinese state and international media reported. After a seven-hour flight in the Shenzhou capsule, the crew entered the space stations Tianhe core module as the first people to board China’s new outpost in space, the reports said.

Rocket Lab has been awarded by the University of California Berkeley to design two Photon spacecraft named Blue and Gold for a scientific ESCAPADE mission to Mars, the launch company said. ESCAPADE is a mission that will orbit two spacecraft around Mars to understand the structure, composition, variability, and dynamics of Mars' unique hybrid magnetosphere, Rocket Lab said.

The future of the exploration of Moon and Mars took center stage at the IAF Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2021) in St. Petersburg, the federation said. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, announced their plans to send a rover to the Moon by 2024/2025.

Interstellar Lab, the French-American company building controlled-environment habitat and crop cultivation modules, has established a partnership with the 3D printing company Soliquid. Founded in 2018 by Jim Rhoné, Impulse Group and Amaury Thomas, Soliquid is backed by Leonard, VINCI’s future of construction acceleration program,

The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos is in talks with the European Space Agency (ESA) to join the project for a Russian-Chinese lunar station, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin told reporters according to the news agency Interfax. "We are actively in talks with many players.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening sat down with Professor of Science and Technology Policy at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, Japan, Kazuto Suzuki. Having received his PhD at the University of Sussex,

A lot of global goodwill and a declaration of deterrence: The Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2021) opened in St. Petersburg with high-level commitments from different nations to continue to internationally cooperate in space. NASA Administrator, Bill Nelson announced his wish to extend the collaboration on the International Space Station (ISS) until 2030;

Brazil is next: the country signed the Artemis Accords, “affirming its commitment to ensuring sustainable space exploration that adheres to a common set of principles benefiting all of humanity”, the U.S. space agency NASA said. Marcos Pontes, Brazil’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, signed the document during a ceremony with President Jair Bolsonaro and other officials, NASA said.