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Space infrastructure company, Masten, announced they were already preparing for their second Moon mission, although Mission 1 has not left Earth yet. The company claims that they are capable of launching Mission 2 as early as six months after Mission 1.  Masten’s first mission to the Moon, landing near the Haworth Crater, is scheduled for the end of 2023.

A research team led by Profs. Lin Yangting and Lin Honglei from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) observed water signals in Moon surface reflectance spectral data. The discovery is the first evidence of in-situ detection of water on our natural satellite.

During this week’s SpaceCafé, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening caught up with space archaeologist and associate professor at Flinders University. Prof. Dr. Alice Gorman. Alice Gorman is Associate Professor at Flinders University, and an internationally recognised leader in the field of space archaeology. Her research focuses on the archaeology

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.

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.

In this week’s Space Café Brazil by Ian Grosner, Prof. Dr. Maria Elizabeth Zucolotto, of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), talked about the importance of studying meteorites. Her work is focused, above all, on raising the population's awareness so that they know how to identify falling meteorites or warn scholars and scientists about them.

The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs announced that five new countries joined the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) with the approval of the UNGA. Angola, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Panama and Slovenia took the number of member countries to 100.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has asked Airbus to build its Ariel exoplanet satellite that is due for launch in 2029, ESA said. Ariel stands for Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey and is the third in a trio of dedicated exoplanet missions conceived by ESA; it will follow Cheops, which launched in 2019, and Plato, scheduled for launch in 2026.