Policy and Law

The new Working Group on Outer Space Resources held its first meetings during the recent session of the Legal Subcommittee (LSC) of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).

In this  Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global Editor-in-Chief Dr Emma Gatti spoke with Dr Walther Pelzer, Member of the Executive Board of DLR and Director General of the German Space Agency at DLR during the 38th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs from 17th-20th April 2023, about the successful launch of JUICE, the new challenges for space in Europe, New Space and the current political environment Europe is operating

Our Space Café “33 minutes with Dr Clemens Kaiser – unlocking the potential of LEO, the data networks in the sky” took place on Tuesday, 25th April. 

The Czech Republic has signed the Artemis, becoming the 24th country to sign the Accords, during a ceremony at NASA Headquarters in Washington Wednesday. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson participated in the signing ceremony for the agency, and Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of the Czech Republic.

Thales Alenia Space has won a contract from the Italian space agency (ASI) to conduct the development of the Space Factory 4.0 program in the frame of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). Thales Alenia Space is leading a consortium, including Argotec, CIRA, and Sitael, to develop an interconnected system with facilities located across Italy, set to start operations by 2026.

A group of European Space and Telecommunications players have come together to form a partnership to respond to the European Commission’s call for tender related to the future European satellite constellation IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite). IRIS² aims to bring a new secure and resilient connectivity infrastructure to European governments, businesses and citizens.  

The Maldives Space Research Organisation (MSRO) has inaugurated the first day of the Space for Island Nations Conference (SINC), taking place from 2 to 5 May 2023 at Crossroads Maldives. SINC is a 4-day event that welcomes around 150 delegates from around the world to discuss climate resilience, the blue ocean economy, and space policy development for island nations.

GMV has organized the final demonstrations scheduled for the iMUGS (Integrated Modular Unmanned Ground System) defense project. It took place at the San Juan del Viso military grounds in Madrid (Spain) on the 26th of April. The project’s primary objective is to increase the European Union’s defensive capabilities and strategic autonomy, and its mission is to develop the standard European unmanned ground system (UGS) by integrating robotics systems into the manned technology that European defense forces already have available.

CisLunar Industries has received a patent for its Space Foundry from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on April 25, 2023, under the number 11,634,241. As a result, the patent grants CisLunar Industries the exclusive rights to use and license the technology covered by the patent for a period of 19 years

NASA has selected 16 proposals from 12 companies under the 2022 Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO) to advance capabilities and technologies related to NASA's Moon to Mars Objectives. As a result, the cadre of U.S. industry-led teams will test a new lunar rover tire design, develop a robotically assembled power system, build an electrically actuated device to join in-space propellant transfer lines, and more.