Tag Archives: ESA

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Peggy Hollinger, international business editor for the Financial Times a few days after the FT Live Event "Invest in Space" about the conference, investment in space, a live call from the ISS, the situation at the ISS during the war times and about our sustainable future in space.

Airbus has been awarded a €160 million contract for ESA’s FORUM satellite to help improve the accuracy of climate forecasts by measuring the heat emitted from Earth into space, Airbus said. The Far-infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring (FORUM) mission will comprise the first satellite to observe Earth in the far-infrared range.

An innovative and practical tool to support space actors in more sustainable mission design and operations, the Space Sustainability Rating (SSR) hosted by the eSpace-EPFL Space Center, launched last Thursday. The SSR encourages, recognises, and rewards, space actors who enforce sustainable space missions with a unique rating system.

Arianespace’s Ariane 5 launch vehicle has successfully placed two telecommunications satellites into geostationary orbit: MEASAT-3d for the Malaysian operator MEASAT, and GSAT-24 built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on behalf of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), ArianeGroup said. The launch was the first mission of the year, and the 113th overall.

Global mobile satellite communications provider, Inmarsat, signed a contract with ESA to take Iris air traffic modernisation programme global and drive the future of uncrewed aviation airspace integration in Europe, Inmarsat said. Airspace is getting congested: in Europe alone, a 50% increase in flights is expected in the next 20 years.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher signed two agreements at the latest ESA Council meeting in Noordwijk, Netherlands, to advance cooperation on Earth science and the Artemis lunar missions, NASA said. ESA’s Lunar Pathfinder mission will contribute to the progression of the lunar communications infrastructure, necessary for a long-term human presence.

With space as a far-reaching domain entangled with Earth issues across many industries, geopolitics affect how global alliances deal with security in orbit and beyond, and how collaborative governance motivates investment: from connectivity to Earth observation to crowded orbits and debris, to energy, space traffic management, space exploration and resources utilization.

The Financial Times Live conference on Investing in Space was held in London on the 8th and 9th of June 2022, a live and digital conference promoted by the Financial Times focused on the financial and private investors opinion on the space industry. Sponsored by ViaSat and BAE Systems among others, and with the support of ESA and the UK Space agency,

Germany-based AI and smart algorithm-driven connectivity provider, NeuralAgent, has signed a cooperative research agreement with Airbus to investigate the use of AI-based algorithms for future communication systems, NeuralAgent said. The company’s software will be suitable for deployment in a variety of applications, including IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and telecommunications.

Brussels may shut the UK out of the Horizon science programme, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation, and block the UK’s involvement in the EU’s Copernicus environment monitoring Earth observation programme as part of post-Brexit trading agreements for Northern Ireland. Britain’s participation in the Euratom nuclear research partnership is also likely to change.