Policy and Law

The European Commission has selected a consortium of companies and research institutes to study the design of the future European quantum communication network, EuroQCI. EuroQCI is to enable ultra-secure communication between critical infrastructures and government institutions across the European Union. The consortium is led by Airbus and includes Leonardo, Orange, and PwC.

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 Aerospace News Roundup 24 May – 30 May 2021”. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup!

The U.S. space agency NASA has requested a $25 billion budget for 2022, the agency said. The budget request for the agency amounts to $24.8 billion, NASA said, $100 million more than requested in April. The largest single item in the budget is for Deep Space Exploration Systems, with $6.88 billion, NASA said.

In the latest Space Café “Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland”, Steven Freeland and Torsten Kriening welcomed Jenni Tapio and Alexander Soucek, at the wonderful Café Aalto in Helsinki. Over protein balls, croissant, amazing Austrian pastry and coffee, the panelists, along with a lively audience engaged in a revealing and insightful discussion

In honor of this sacred experience and all of you who know me and have enrolled in this global vision, I, Dr. Moriba Jah have partnered with SpaceWatch.Global to run an exciting Space Café series: Moriba’s Vox Populi (Latin for “the people’s voice”)

Space is becoming increasingly congested. The European Space Agency (ESA) has estimated that there are currently 128 million pieces of debris smaller than 1cm, about 900,000 pieces of debris 1–10cm in length, and around 34,000 pieces larger than 10cm in Earth orbit. This is in addition to the approximately 3,300 currently operational satellites.

China’s lunar program has made impressive strides in recent years. Perhaps the most captivating moment thus far was the landing and exploration of the Lunar far side by the Chang’e-4 spacecraft and the Yutu-2 rover, with the mission arriving at the moon in early 2019.

South Korea has become the 10th country to sign the Artemis Accords, NASA announced. The South Korean Minister of Science and ICT Lim Hyesook signed the Artemis Accords for the country in Seoul, the U.S. space agency said. South Korea joins Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, and the United States.

The actual (r)evolution in the Outer-Space usage brings also a socio-economic change not sufficiently discussed in the community. In the discourse of risk in Outer-Space, the community keeps focusing mainly on risks resulting from space debris, and to some extent also discussing the potential impact from large constellations.

SpaceWatch.Global is pleased to present the 28th episode in our podcast series The Space Cafe Podcast: Mahsa Moghimi Esfandabadi, Space Architect. What our habitats on foreign shores will look like. Episode 028 features a special guest Mahsa Moghimi Esfandabadi.