Space Sustainability

NASA announced two opportunities to partner with the agency and help companies finalise the development of their technologies that could potentially be used for space exploration. NASA’s ongoing program, Tipping Point, supports space technologies that can advance commercial space capabilities and benefit future agency missions.

Vaya Space announced it successfully test launched its hybrid rocket, Dauntless, from Mojave, California, operating under an existing FAA waiver.  The suborbital flight validated the STAR-3D engine powered rocket design running on 3D printed fuel grains from recycled thermoplastics.

European leaders confirmed their ambitious plans to work closely together to accelerate Europe as a world leader in space during the 2022 Space Summit held in Toulouse, ESA reported. ESA, the EU and their member States will join forces to utilise the potential of space and to tackle urgent societal, economic and security challenges.

In this session of Space Cafè “Moriba’s Vox Populi 09” Dr. Moriba Jah talked about space environmentalism, thoughts on the movie “Don’t Look Up” – its potential for outreach while also showing some scientific inaccuracies and what it will take for humanity to take action with

Orbex announced that Orbex LP1, the first rocket launchpad constructed in the UK for more than 50 years, is now in place at the Orbex test site in Kinloss, Scotland. LP1 was manufactured by a Scottish company specialising in marine and lifting equipment, the Motive Offshore Group. The new launchpad was built and tested to meet strict international standards.

There are currently more than 11,000 satellites in LEO and GEO, and only about 3,000 of those are active, this means that there are over 8,000 deactivated satellites. But space is booming, and in 2020 the world registered the highest number of satellites launched per year, with a record of 1,283 which represents 42% of all active satellites now in orbit.

In this Space Café Radio – on tour in Brussels at the European Commission, SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Cafe Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Niklas Nienass, German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens and Member of the European Parliament about the need for space sustainability, international and national space strategies, and the need for space legislation.

The latest episode of Space Café Russia by Elina Morozova, which is now on air with simultaneous translation into English, featured Vladimir Agapov, General Designer of joint-stock company Astronomical Scientific Center, Alexander Solntsev, Deputy Head of the Department of International Law at RUDN University, and Valentin Uvarov, CEO of Climate Monitoring Systems LLC.

On November 14th of last year, Russia deliberately destroyed one of its satellites as a test of a new anti-satellite weapon (ASAT). According to a US State Department press briefing, “this test has so far generated over fifteen hundred pieces of trackable orbital debris and will likely generate hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller orbital debris.”

Up to 40 of the 49 Starlink satellites launched last Thursday will re-enter, or have already done so, due to a geomagnetic storm, SpaceX reported. A coronal mass ejection hit Earth’s magnetic field two days before launch but the weak impact did not trigger remarkable geomagnetic activity.